A cyclists was badly injured this morning about 200 metres from our place in Primbee.
Paula says she heard the sirens early on, and I noticed traffic building up outside our house. We live on the main road between Wollongong and Shellharbour. It is six lanes of heavy traffic with a posted speed limit of 80km/h which means a lot of cars are doing 90.
Just past our place the road bends towards the east, right into the morning sun.
Lane discipline is very poor with drivers ignoring the keep left rule. This encourages drivers to overtake on the inside lane which carries the lightest traffic.
I know this because in early morning I am in the kerbside lane with a cold motor gradually increasing my speed up to 80km/h and I get monstered by traffic whizzing past because I delayed them by a couple of seconds. Often my windscreen still has the morning dew on the car and as the road turns east I can barely see the road ahead.
Cyclists use this road often, but mostly at weekends where they ride in packs even tough there is a cycleway on the footpath on other side of the road.
When Paula and I went into town at about 11am, traffic was still built up and they let me into the line direct from our driveway.
Up ahead, traffic was diverted into one lane. People were investigating something. I don't think they were Police, but I did see some RTA vehicles. Around the bend and there was a small sedan parked against the guard rail. The front windscreen was all caved in. We thought they must have hit a pedestrian, but later we were informed that a cyclist was hit.
I am guessing as to what happened.
The driver rounded the bend and with the sun in his eyes probably didn't see the cyclist until the last moment, but by then the speed differential was too great.
I'll check out the news in the morning.
Having a speed limit of 80km/h in a built up area is madness. I know of no other road where the limit is so high where houses line the street. I lost my Jack Russell dog, Buster, last year on this road, so I am very protective of Susie, my current dog. She's a miniature Foxy.
As someone who has hit a cyclist I feel for the driver yes it was an accident but it will still play on the mind of the driver, I was lucky that the guy I hit wasn't seriously hurt as I was only doing 20km/h but I did still think a bout it a lot in the weeks that followed thinking about the what if's...........I hope the guy who was hit down the road from your place is ok
ReplyDeleteI heard on the radio today Jo that he is not good, something about swelling on the brain.
ReplyDeleteThe driver was a local man aged 51 who had a 17 year old female passenger with him at the time.
I rode on a road like that once.
ReplyDeleteFor about half a minute.
I got off it as soon as I could. I was there by mistake (bad navigation) and I knew it was bad news.
There are some places you just don't go on a bike unless you really have no choice. It's no good saying, "But I was in the right" when you're lying in hospital with 50 broken bones.
That corner is a disaster waiting to happen. On the news they said the cyclist was a 27 year old triathlete.
ReplyDeleteJust like you BOAB
Triathlete like me?
ReplyDeleteHa ha.
The only club I intend joining is the old and ugly one - the same one you are in.