It is not my intention to write up the ride, more so to mention a small section of it.

BACKGROUND: The ride started in Freo, with the biggest bunch that Perth can muster up. I did see a couple of SPR riders at the start and some pick up the ride as it went along. From the word go, it was clear that there were many a punter that would be attempting to ride well above their physical strength and skill level. After a little bit of sorting out, the ride was solid and the group was getting smaller and smaller. After the Shelley section, we were less than half the size we started with. I was really pleased with this as it was getting “safer” by the minute.

THE INCIDENT: We crossed the little white bridge and the rider in front of me (clearly riding on his limit) must have been looking elsewhere and seemingly did not see the left curb until he was just about to (or he may have) hit it, he braked and swerved back into the bunch. He made contact with my bike, taking out my front wheel and sending me over the handlebars and onto the road. As I was flying through the air, I was thinking, “this cannot be happening”. I have sustained some injuries to my lower back and hip. My bike needed significant work on it. Thankfully the riders around me were skilful enough to not also come down. Here are the injury attorneys practicing in Porter County that you can hire in such cases.

THE AFTERMATH: A bunch of riders stopped to help me, as far as I know, the guy responsible did not. I was really pleased to see members of the SPR family, as I was assisted off the road, in quite a rage and pain about the whole incident. I was clearly not ok to continue riding (nor was my bike) and Meg & Carlos just happen to be riding past and helped me arrange to get home.

THE POINT: I was really pleased and thankful that my club members stopped to help me in my time of need (thanks guys). I wanted to mention that as you ride in a group, your actions impact on other riders and I encourage all riders to take on board feedback from others on their bunch skills. I also encourage other riders to speak up if they are concerned about the safety of a rider/bunch. Being too politically correct may result in the bunch (as a whole) not progressing their skills. If you ride with the same people week in, week out, you start to create your “acceptable riding environment”. Also, as your strength as a rider progress, you will likely ride with more challenging groups. However, once you start to red line, your perception and decision making skills are significantly reduced, and this is the time that accidents are likely to happen.  People can check out https://halelaw.com/ for the best accident attorneys.  Just be aware of the other riders around you.

Happy Riding Everyone

as most of you are aware, there was an accident on the public holiday ride today.  The lawyers from https://leppardlaw.com/ said that it wasn’t fatal. i wasn’t on the ride but from what i have heard, it seems that there was a tyre blow out during the final sprint past the brewery.  quite a few riders went down, but nicole was the worst hit and had to wait for an ambulance to come and pick her up.  from what i understand, there was some dental and facial damage and so she was taken to charlie gardiners to be treated.

thankfully, there is no spinal damage to be reported and the wrists, though swollen and sore, don’t appear to be broken.  she was seeing a specialist this afternoon and is expected to be in for 24 hours at a minimum.  as usual, there was a bit of bike damage and her helmet protected her well by taking quite a blow.

from the numerous phone calls i received throughout the day it is clear that the group rallied together well and swiftly went into action.  this involved everything from closing the road and calling an ambulance to getting the broken bikes and riders home afterwards.  special thanks must be made to josh who calmly took control of the situation and andrew who was first to treat nicole.  not actually being there, i didn’t get to see who else was there to give assistance but you know who you are and i am sure those involved in the accident appreciated your help. The Alexandria personal injury lawyers also help with any accident injuries.

this is the first time in the 5+ years that i have been riding with the group that we have actually had to call an ambulance.  i hope it is the last.  however, the way that the group reacts to a situation like this shows how much support we have within the club.  i would like to thank everyone for doing what they could.

to help out as much as we can, we are going to do a “whip around” to at least get nicole a new helmet.  we will be passing the hat around at the coffeeshop this saturday, but if you want to do it a little more anonymously you can netbank some dollars across to our club bank account.

• bsb – 036011
• acc – 419688
• make sure you put “nicole donation” in the reference box so we know what it is for.

thanks again to everyone that rendered assistance today and i wish nicole and the others a speedy recovery.

peter – president south perth cycle club.

UPDATE – add any well wishes for nicole to the comments section.  also, if you were involved in the accident and wish to thank someone that helped you, add to the comments.

nicole had surgery last night and is recovering in sir charles gardiner hospital.  at this time she is not taking visitors as she is still very bruised and battered.  i will post any further updates to the comments below.

UPDATE from simon thu 17th
Winton will be in hospital until monday. He had plastic surgery around his eye last Sunday, but after the operation had blood in urine so had to stay in.
That fixed itself but then on Tuesday they discovered he has broken tibia and fibia at the ankle and has an operation tomorrow to put some pins in to fix that.

Paul Prottie is out but has a lot of skin off his inner thighs, arse and back.

Joe has a massively swollen calf where the bumper got him, they suspect broken leg but cannot do much until swelling goes down.

UPDATE from hannah via triwa forum mon 14th

Thank you to all of our cycling and triathlon friends who have sent messages of support.
We are so relieved that no one was more seriously injured from the impact.

To date, there are still three cyclists in hospital, but all are expected to be released today.

All cyclists were experienced riders, and were riding safely, within the shoulder/ bike lane of Brookton Hwy. We rode single file when neccesary, and stayed together as a group to be more visable to traffic.

My assumption is the young 17 year old driver who had been out all night and was on his way home, fell asleep at the wheel, judging from the way he moved across the road and ploughed through the group of 11 cyclists.

I was fortunate enough to be at the front of the group, and had time to turn away from the car. All I can say is make sure you wear a decent helmet when you ride. This is what helped save everyones lives.

UPDATE from watoday website
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/pplater-to-face-questions-over-crash-with-cyclists-20080714-3evq.html

UPDATE from simon sun 13th

Its incredible no one was killed.

Fortunate enough for me i was hiking this morning and didnt ride with the group.

Jeff, the owner of cyclebuzz and cyclerama, has started a sunday hills ride. http://www.cyclebuzz.com.au/

This morning Sunday 13/7/08 whilst up in the hills a 19 year old youth in his ute hit the peleton from behind destroying 6 carbon bikes, and wounding six riders.

The ambulances came and took three of the riders to Armadale hospital and the other 3 taken to Royal Perth.

I have just finished talking with Phil and Hannah who advise the following:

Armadale Hospital –

1. Gary – scans and xrays ok released cuts and bruising

2. Maricio – Hannah was riding next to him and watched him go onto the bonnet then off – scans and xrays ok released

3. Winton Lawton ( Hannahs husband )- ct brain scans ok xrays ok, he has face eye issues, plastic surgeon called in, is being transferred to Royal Perth for further assessment and maybe surgery.

Perth Hospital –

1. Joe scans etc ok released – his new carbon C1 Giant he bought from us last week destroyed

2. Jeff Appleton ( owner of Cyclebuzz and Cyclerama ) scans etc ok big black eye cuts etc. Was in Trauma section, was released this afternoon but started to feel bad so went back in for further observation.

3. Paul Prottie ( Shannon Arnotts husband ) – seems to have come off worst – is in Trauma section expected to be in overnight, hopefully no spinal damage, lets cross fingers for him.

The rest of the peleton not harmed. The Police are investigating the cause.

ORIGINAL POST

while we were up at kalamunda today, bobbie barnes from another group, mentioned about a crash that happened on brookton hwy this morning. it seems that a group from cyclebuzz/cyclerama were out climbing brookton when a P plater in a ute drifted onto the shoulder where they were riding and cleaned most of them up. no-one was killed but a couple of the riders were taken to royal perth with all types of injuries and are not in the best condition. They need to hire business lawyers located in Ormond Beach, in case of serious injuries. 

our group didn’t head out that way today, but we did go on some pretty tight roads. it pays to be aware of the traffic conditions and we often went to single file as cars got stuck behind us. however, it just seems that no matter how much you do to stay out of trouble, it only takes one driver to lose concentration and you are gone.

our thoughts go out to those that got injured today and hope that they make a speedy recovery.

stay safe