OTTAWA — Adam Doughty is grateful for at least one thing: he dropped his 16-month-old son off at the babysitter’s before driving his wife to work early Saturday morning.

If he hadn’t, the toddler would have been in the car when Doughty hit a runaway bicycle on the Queensway, a collision that caused his two-week-old car to “leave the ground for a split second.”

Bicycle pieces ended up under his 2009 Mitsubishi Galant, and “the front bumper is a write-off,” said Doughty.

Still, he considers himself lucky. “It could have been worse.”

According to Ontario Provincial Police, the bicycle came off a vehicle heading westbound on Highway 417 just before 7 a.m. near Woodroffe Avenue.

Over the next few minutes, it damaged at least three other vehicles, flattening tires and puncturing a gas tank. No one was injured.

Police believe the runaway bike may have caused further minor, but unreported, damage to several more vehicles.

Doughty was returning home after dropping his wife off at work, travelling in the inside lane and could see two cars ahead of him.

At one point, the car directly in front of him changed lanes — “very casually, no warnings, no swerving, no blinkers” — and there on the highway was a bicycle.

Doughty said he assumed the bicycle came off the car ahead of the one that had just changed lanes.

With a wall on his left, and traffic on his right, there was nowhere to go.

“I hit it — there was no avoiding it,” he said. “A few pieces went over me and a few pieces went beneath me. It actually lifted my car.”

Const. Larry Sandell said it was impossible to tell what kind of bicycle it was because “it was in a thousand pieces by the time the ministry got there and scooped it up.”

Police say they do not expect to hear from the owner of the bike.

“It’s pretty cold to be going cycling this morning, so I’m speculating they’re heading somewhere south,” said Sandell. “Probably didn’t even realize it fell off the back of the vehicle. They’ll get a surprise when they stop.”