Re: Sydney Bicycle accident

"Noddy" <me@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:482aefe2$0$58048$c30e37c6@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "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.

**Perhaps. I know a woman who killed a drunk pedestrian (she escaped 
charges, since the silly old fart had a 0.2 reading, according to the 
coroner). Last time I spoke to her, she was still in therapy, ten years 
after the event. Killing another human, for most people, is a traumatic 
thing.

>
>> **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 :)

**They ride half ****d. Of course, a goodly number are pretty damned 
unpleasant to look at, but, hey, tits are tits.

>
>> **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.

**Now that would be annoying. 40 or 50 cyclists is not too bad. Several 
hundred would be extremely frustrating for other road users.

>
> 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.

**Clearly, that is an obscenity. Pedestrian crossings are for pedestrians.

There's no excuse for not stopping.

>
> 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.

**I am unaware of anyone being killed by a cyclist up here, though I guess

it may have happened. The only *****ing about cyclists, from pedestrians 
that occurs up here, relate to those bicycle couriers. And rightfully so.

>
>> **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.

**Yep, I'm well aware of your position.

Trevor Wilson