Down a pinky, up a purpose: Brandon man works to make streets safer

After losing his pinky in a cycling collision, Grant Hamilton took it upon himself to advocate for changes to the infrastructure involved in the incident.

Grant Hamilton spent his life not lifting a finger to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians, until he couldn’t.

One year ago – nearly to the day – Hamilton and his wife rode their bikes home from a joint birthday party down one of Brandon, Man.’s dedicated bike lanes.

Just two blocks from home, a driver turned left without seeing the couple and plowed right into Hamilton.

“I went up and over and my pinky stayed behind,” he said.

Rushed to hospital and later flown to Winnipeg, Hamilton came away with an injured shoulder and knee, a broken nose, a gash in his face and a missing finger.

Now, one year and countless hours of rehabilitation later, the Brandon resident and lifelong cyclist no longer gripes about how the system that injured him was built, but instead thinks about how he can do his part in changing it.

“I spent a lot of time complaining about this very issue and now it’s affected me in a non-theoretical way,” he said.

When he lost his pinky, he gained perspective.