RBCC hit this morning

Road cycling & upcoming rides
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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 14 Mar 2012, 07:41

Unfortunately there's been an accident involving RBCC this morning. Not good

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/cycling-trio- ... 1uz2n.html

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marc2131
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Postby marc2131 » 14 Mar 2012, 08:56

Terrible. Hope the guys are okay. Apparently one has concussion.

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 14 Mar 2012, 14:38

Similar list of injuries to my accident in NZ. I know how he feels
Hi All,
Thanks for all your well wishes. So let's start with the good news. Of the 3 who went to hospital, 2 are out. Gary only sustained cuts and bruises. Ben sustained a dislocated shoulder. Now the good news for Steve. He broke his neck but there is no paralysis. He fractured his skull but there is no brain damage. That's the good news now the bad news and no wonder he was in pain at the scene. He has caved in one side of his face, broken eye socket, cheek which requires corrective surgery. He has fractured ribs and a punctured lung. He has a fractured collarbone and forearm. Naturally his condition is described as serious and he is in ICU probably awaiting surgery. The very good news is that doctors believe that he will make a full recovery although it is going to be a bit of a long way back. His wife Anat has thanked everyone for their support and well wishes.

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Postby rhys » 14 Mar 2012, 15:33

Ouch. Glad to hear no one died and they are for the most part ok. I stay well clear of Botany for reasons like this, it seems that vehicle size is perfectly proportionate to the lack of f***s given by the driver.

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weiyun
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Postby weiyun » 14 Mar 2012, 17:12

At present there's no hard evidence as to who was at fault. It was clearly a complex situation and it's premature to insinuate blame.

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Stuart
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Postby Stuart » 14 Mar 2012, 18:00

I'd love to inflame the situation by claiming that the truck driver is clearly at fault, having turned right across the path of the RBCC bunch who then crashed into the side of the truck, but I better not.

I'll quote the Police 'Botany Bay duty officer, Inspector Chris Schilt, said the truck was driving north and, as it made a right-hand turn, the cyclists hit it on the side." IMO The police are clearly biased - how is it that a truck can turn across the path of the cyclists and they describe that the cyclists 'hit the truck', not that the truck caused the cyclists to crash into it.

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weiyun
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Postby weiyun » 14 Mar 2012, 19:08

I'd love to inflame the situation by claiming that the truck driver is clearly at fault, having turned right across the path of the RBCC bunch who then crashed into the side of the truck, but I better not.

I'll quote the Police 'Botany Bay duty officer, Inspector Chris Schilt, said the truck was driving north and, as it made a right-hand turn, the cyclists hit it on the side." IMO The police are clearly biased - how is it that a truck can turn across the path of the cyclists and they describe that the cyclists 'hit the truck', not that the truck caused the cyclists to crash into it.
That's a preliminary report and subjected to numerous other eyewitness accounts, road rules and factual circumstances. Mob mentality will just degrade "us" to the same level of the worst of road users out there. Nothing is achieved.
Last edited by weiyun on 14 Mar 2012, 19:09, edited 1 time in total.

Eleri
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Postby Eleri » 14 Mar 2012, 19:09

Because it is not the police role to attribute causation. They may well prejudice any charges that might be laid. They train police to speak like that.

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Postby timyone » 14 Mar 2012, 21:59

far out :S sounds bad, I hope he gets better :S

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Postby patn » 15 Mar 2012, 06:49

Yeah best wishes to the rbcc mob, especially the guy referred to in mike's post.sounds like some really serious injuries and I hope he is on the mend soon.

I don't think calling the lynch mob at this early stage is a good idea when important details re the crash seem to not be clear. Sometimes events conspire, but I don't know I wasnt there.

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Postby rhys » 15 Mar 2012, 17:58

Just to clarify - I wasn't assuming that the truck was at fault, just relaying past experiences I have had in the area.

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geoffs
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Postby geoffs » 16 Mar 2012, 01:40

From the eyewitness account that was related to me yesterday at work, the cyclist were riding straight ahead along the road when the truck turned into them.

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 17 Mar 2012, 10:37

Wow, its worse
Hi all,
Firstly Steve has been moved from ICU unit to a ward which is excellent news. Now if you thought his injuries were bad, they were only the initial reported ones. Since looking deeper, his hip is fractured in 4 places, his sternum is fractured. His shoulder blade is fractured in 4 places. His clavical which was initially reported as fractured would probably be best described as obliterated. These on top of all the other serious injuries that were previously reported. Steve is quite literally lucky to be alive. Steve has been moved to L10 South St Vincents (Cardio - Thorasic) due to his punctured lung. His wife Anat reports that he lights up with visits so we would urge you if you are in the area to drop in and see him. Visiting hours are 10am to 1pm then 3pm to 8pm.

AndrewBurns
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Postby AndrewBurns » 17 Mar 2012, 11:34

Wow those don't sound like injuries that one ever really recovers from...

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Postby rhys » 13 Apr 2012, 17:51

From their FB page this evening:

FOR THE RECORD:
On Wednesday 14 March 2012, a bunch of about 12 members of the Randwick Botany Cycling Club were training on a scheduled club training ride part of which travels in and around the Port Botany area.

About 7am on this date, the training bunch turned left from Botany Road in Bumbora Point Road Port Botany. On turning left from Botany road into Bumbora Point Road, the bunch were confronted with heavy south bound traffic. South bound traffic had stopped with vehicles queing one behind the other, as a result of construction works at the Sydney Ports site in Bumbora Point Road near the intersection with Military Road. It was established (post accident) that said traffic management was in the form of a Stop/Go "Lollipop" Traffic controller at the Sydney Ports site. Upon encountering the abnormally heavy traffic consisting of bumper to bumper stationary vehicles lined up along the carriageway, the bunch reduced speed and traveled on the inside of the stationary vehicles (parking lane) as is the usual case even when the road is clear. At a point where the centre median strip ends which is recorded on the map as a "T" intersection named Golden Grove Road which is really no more than a driveway to the left, a Government bus had stopped immediately prior to this intersection so as to allow a gap to the vehicle in front of it so as not to block the T intersection. A truck which had been travelling north made a right hand turn from Bumbora Point Road and attempted to turn right into Golden Grove Road. He turned in front of the stationary Government bus and as his vehicle passed the front of the bus, it turned into the path of the cyclists whose view of the truck and indeed north bound vehicles had been completely obscured by the stationary bus. The cyclists had no time to brake and 3 of them collided with the side of the truck. Riders immediately behind the front riders had enough time to take evasive action and managed to avoid hitting the truck but in braking hard and swerving, at least 3 of these riders lost control of their bicycles and fell impacting with the roadway. The three riders who impacted with the truck were all rendered unconscious at the scene and all were later conveyed by ambulance to the St Vincents hospital Darlinghurst.

I can happily report that all are now out of hospital but it will be a long time for at least one of them till he is riding a bike again due to horrendous and initial life threatening injuries that he received.

I am informed that it is the intention of Police to charge the truck driver with an offence in the nature of “Negligent Driving occasioning grievous bodily harm”

In a recent posting in Facebook I was disappointed to see a couple of postings by fellow cyclists criticising the use of this otherwise lightly trafficked road and calling it the unsafest road in the Eastern Suburbs. This road forms part of the Randwick Botany Cycling Clubs regular training rides and as President of the club if I felt it unduly dangerous then naturally I would immediately eliminate it from our training route. On the day in question traffic was extremely heavy due to a one off unusual occurrence which brought factors into play which caused the accident. On every other day, in the early hours of the morning traffic conditions are light. If one wishes to talk about unsafe roads and infer that certain individuals and/or clubs are negligent in using them, then one should look at Southern Cross Drive. I know at least 7 RBCC members who have been hospitalized on Southern Cross Drive one of whom I can tell you through intimate personal experience spent two days in Intensive care with multiple injuries due to a collision with a car. There has been several media reports of the Coluzzi bunch coming to grief on this stretch of roadway. Every Cycle and Triathlon club that I know uses this road. Are they being irresponsible?

I think that we should reserve making comment before all the facts are known. Hopefully this account will clear up the many inaccuracies getting bandied about such as “cyclists overtaking buses” etc etc.

AndrewBurns
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Postby AndrewBurns » 13 Apr 2012, 18:24

It's a bit of a bad situation for all parties reading that. The truck driver probably didn't even know that there was a cycleway there and therefore didn't see anything dangerous about turning right when in reality he was turning right without proper visibility of a second lane of traffic and caused the accident. Something that I could see a vast majority of people doing were they in the truck driver's seat (this is all assuming the cycleway was the general poor-quality painted lines in a parking lane and therefore hardly noticed by the majority of drivers, if it was a very large and obvious cycleway things might have been different).

wallman
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Postby wallman » 14 Apr 2012, 05:53

The FB post states that they were in a parking lane, not a cycling lane.

timyone
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Postby timyone » 14 Apr 2012, 08:51

yeah no bike lane.. and though it is legal to filter in some sort of way (I can't remember which) to the front at lights, its sort of interesting to hear this story, possibly bits of what I heard about blaming the truck at the time were unwarranted.. it is good to know that it doesn't sound any more dangerous than we thought, and still a safe enough place to train.

It was just unfortunate :( and possibly avoidable.

rhys
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Postby rhys » 14 Apr 2012, 12:09

Unless there are 2 million cars queued up, I never lane split anymore, mostly for this reason. It must be frustrating as a motorist to have a cyclist overtake you, only to have to overtake them at great effort only 30 seconds later. Ah well.

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Postby Eleri » 14 Apr 2012, 17:13

I had a bad motorcycle accident in similar circumstances to this report (but in London). It's made me wary ever since where I don't have visibility. In my case a bus driver had waved the car through and hadn't seen me. I wasn't doing anything illegal but I came off second best.

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utopia
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Postby utopia » 14 Apr 2012, 19:35


"At a point where the centre median strip ends which is recorded on the map as a "T" intersection named Golden Grove Road which is really no more than a driveway to the left, a Government bus had stopped immediately prior to this intersection so as to allow a gap to the vehicle in front of it so as not to block the T intersection. A truck which had been travelling north made a right hand turn from Bumbora Point Road and attempted to turn right into Golden Grove Road. He turned in front of the stationary Government bus and as his vehicle passed the front of the bus, it turned into the path of the cyclists whose view of the truck and indeed north bound vehicles had been completely obscured by the stationary bus."
Just can't help to think that this sounds very similar to this accident that caused Michael Bate his life.
As related by his partner:
"From what I was told by the unfortunate witnesses to this tragedy is that Mike was riding on the left hand side of Carnarvon St. A truck drove past him but stopped at the intersection of Churchill St as the traffic halted further ahead. The truck driver signalled to a Micro-Mix truck with trailer that was coming in the opposite direction to let him turn right into Churchill, unaware that a cyclist was going full speed on his left. Mike put on the brakes as hard as he could and was tossed over the bike and under the trailer. "
http://www.sydneycyclist.com/forum/topi ... t%3A128041


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