Re: Sydney Bicycle accident

"Trevor Wilson" <trevor@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:68vppgF2tv5igU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> **We're not the same. I'm pretty certain that if I killed someone, it 
> would bother me for quite some time.

I never said I'd enjoy it, but if it wasn't my fault and it happened to be

some ****ing idiot doing something stupid I wouldn't be terribly upset.

If it was a kid running out of a driveway chasing a ball it'd be a
different 
story completely.

> **Obviously, you've missed the Dykes on Bikes (my favourites).

I'm sure they're great, but there's no need to *look* like them just to
take 
a bicycle for a ride :)

> **I often toddle down to my favourite coffee shop/patisserie some 
> mornings. Around 7:00AM. It happens to be on The Grande Parade, at 
> Brighton (Sydney). It is on the same piece of road that the riders 
> probably ride on. There are a *lot* of riders who ride past (though some

> of the not so dedicated ones, stop for a coffee and cake) at that time
of 
> day. Almost all ride two abreast in the kerbside lane. Whilst I cannot 
> say, I'd bet your balls that I've seen that same group ride past. They 
> ride properly and considerately. Hell, they even stop for the pedestrian

> crossing.

Next time you see them do that congratulate them for being decent people
:)

In Melbourne we have a notorious road for cyclists and it's caused it's
fair 
share of problems. If you don't know it Beach Road, as the name suggests,
is 
a long scenic road that follows the coast from St.Kilda all the way to 
Frankston, and it's extemely popular with cyclists and in particular one 
group of "rebel" cyclists who conduct a regular week-end event called the 
hell ride. This hell ride can consist of anything up to a couple hundred 
cyclists on any given day (particularly if the weather is great), and it's

not at all uncommon to be driving along Beach Road to have these riders 
stretched out over a few kilometers hogging as much of the road as they
like 
in the process.

Around 12 months or so ago such a hell ride was in effect when a
pedestrian, 
an elderly man who was just out for a Saturday morning walk with his 
grandkids, was knocked down and killed while he was using a pedestrian 
crossing by one of these "hell riders" who went through the crossing
without 
stopping.

Apparently there were a bunch of cyclists who had stopped but the cyclist 
who struck the old guy decided not to stop and sail right through the
group 
to improve his place in the race. Unfortunately for him, and the old man, 
when riding through the group of stationary cyclists he couldn't see the
old 
man crossing the road and ploughed straight into him.

Now, the reason why I mention this story is not because of the poor old 
bloke getting killed or the ****wit cyclist being a ****wit cyclist who 
caused his death, but because of some of the comments that came from the 
*other* cyclists who were sitting there waiting for the old guy to cross. 
Almost every one of them to a man defended the guilty cyclist to a degree
in 
the media by trying to ****ft the blame onto the crossing, or the sun in
his 
eyes as he approached. I even read the comment of one who said that the
old 
man should have been aware that it might have been likely that someone 
wouldn't stop as it was common practice.

The point being is that even when one of their own did something
*horribly* 
wrong, the rest of the pack stuck by him and defended him regardless to
the 
point where they looked like ****ing tossers and they generated *enormous*

hatred towards themselves, and it's not completely beyond the realm of 
possibility that the same thing *might* be happening up around your part
of 
the world.

> **Agreed. I guess we'll have to wait for the police re****ts.

We will indeed.

For the record, and as I said previously, if the car driver's actions were

deliberate then I think he should be taken to with a baseball bat by every

cyclist who was present on the day.

--
Regards,
Noddy.