LEO SCHLINK
May 08, 2008 02:30pm

Hit-run terror … Kate Nichols after the 2005 crash and fellow Olympian Ben Kersten

CHAMPION cyclist Ben Kersten says a random hit-and-run road rage attack could have killed several riders today.

Road cycling star Kate Nichols is having wrist X-rays after she and most of a pack of about 50 riders - including Olympic track hopeful Kersten - crashed in peak-hour traffic near Sydney airport.

Nichols was one of five national cyclists seriously injured when a young driver crashed into the Australian women’s road team in Germany in 2005, killing Nichols’ Adelaide-born team-mate Amy Gillett.

In today’s incident Nichols, 23, and her father Kevin, a 1984 Olympic gold medallist, were in a large group of riders heading south past Sydney airport on a training ride around 6.45am.

Nichols said the cyclists were going at a good clip, two abreast as they are required to, when a car pushed them towards the edge of the road.

Witnesses said the driver appeared agitated with being held up.

“The car came past us squishing us into our lane,” Nichols said.

“And then the guy went in front of us and slammed on his brakes. He was just a total moron.

“A heap (of us) came off, but everyone just had superficial wounds and we were all treated there.” 

Furious Kersten slams driver

Kersten described the incident involving the driver of a green Commodore sedan and up to 60 riders as a “f***ing disgrace”.

“This was one of the dirtiest examples of road rage I’ve ever seen,” he said.

“This guy deserves to go to jail and I hope he does go to jail.

“But he’s lucky he’s not going to jail for killing 10 innocent people.”

Kersten, bidding to ride in track sprint events in Beijing in August, said there was no excuse for - or forewarning of - the motorist’s actions.

“It was clear light, clear traffic, everyone was doing the right thing,” he said.

“Then this guy drives up behind us and starts going bananas.

“He then went up to the front of the group and, although I couldn’t see because I was in the middle of the bunch, people up the front said he started swerving in and out.

“All of a sudden, he either brakes severely in the left lane or pulled on his handbrake, and people started flying everywhere.

“It was totally unprovoked.”

Kersten said it was a miracle no one was killed.

“There was an older man from the Waratah Club who looked pretty bad,” Kersten said.

“He just got missed by a semi-trailer. The truck driver must have pretty good skills because he jack-knifed it to make sure he didn’t hit us.

“So many of us came down that we were spilling out of the left lane.

“When you fall you have no control of where you’re going to land.

“If the truck had been there five seconds earlier, he would have gone straight over the top of people.”

Only minor injuries

Kersten said had escaped with relatively minor injuries only three months before the Beijing Olympics.

“I came down in the middle of the group and ended up on my back with my feet pointing towards the back of the group,” he said.

“I spent the whole time kicking wheels off me.

“People had nowhere to go. I was 10m from the front and everyone was on the ground.

“I’ve got ring marks all over me and a lump on my head.

“I’m just lucky to have got out of it alive.”

It is understood an off-duty policeman was in a car following the group and the cyclists took the number plate of the car before it sped off.

Cycling Australia spokeswoman Gennie Sheer said police and ambulances were on the scene soon after.

“A lot of people had superficial cuts and grazes, and there’ll be a bit of checking for broken bones and the like, but at this stage it looks like we are very, very lucky that no one was seriously injured,”
Sheer said.

Ambulance officials said several people were treated at the scene but no one was taken to hospital.

UPDATE: Police are questioning a 34-year-old man from Claymore, but no arrests have been made.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Participate in the response debate.

(Victoria Police)

Police are concerned by a report of the deliberate use of road tacks in Mentone on Saturday.

A large number of tacks, similar to a drawing pin, were placed along Beach Road during an organised bike ride.

Police say it is lucky no-one was injured considering the tacks have the potential to cause a cyclist to lose control and swerve into the path of an oncoming vehicle or another rider, potentially causing serious injury or a fatality.

The act of placing tacks on the road is an offence and Senior Sergeant Hans Harms of the Kingston Traffic Management Unit warns anyone caught doing so will be dealt with accordingly.

“This stupid act does not assist anyone. I, along with other organisations such as the Amy Gillett Foundation, are trying to work together with bicycle riders to ensure all road users are safe including vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.

“The person who decided to do such an act has more than likely assisted in creating a bigger problem, and must realise the danger he is putting the bike riders in.

“I can’t stress enough that it is hard to make progress and go forward to try and satisfy all road users, without people putting more stumbling blocks in our way”, Sen Sgt Harms said.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit www.crimestoppers.com.au on the Internet.

Constable Kate Lawson

(sounds to me like someone got caught in traffic on her way to the work Christmas party. There was a CM the night before she penned this piece.)

Stop this critical mess

by Anita Quigley
November 25, 2006

Article from:

A SCIENTIST recently discovered that motorists pass, on average, 7.5cm closer to cyclists in helmets than they do to someone riding along bare-headed.

Presumably, drawing some faith in his or her “riderly” competence from the mere presence of the helmet.

It has never occurred to me it might matter to drivers what a cyclist wears because, clothed or naked, with a helmet or not, all cyclists in the city are irritating and I find bring on an overwhelming desire to swerve towards.

But perhaps never so much as yesterday when they held every evening peak-hour motorist in Sydney to ransom.

Critical Mass, an organisation of “bicycle enthusiasts”, headed off from Hyde Park North about 6pm over the Harbour Bridge and along the Pacific Highway before finishing for noodles in North Sydney in “celebration of non-motorised transport”.

According to their website, cyclists taking over the roads in this way, is a “welcoming space where people feel safe”. For the vast majority of the rest of us, it is as painful as a burst hernia.

Critical Mass is actually selfish inner-city twats who have no regard for their fellow Sydneysiders: people who have worked hard all week and who just want to drive home.

What Critical Mass fails to realise is that we don’t want to spend our Friday night in gridlock while lycra-clad twits - with a police escort - whiz past to go have noodles and make the point that Sydney should be free of cars.

These are probably also the same errant cyclists who ignore the road rules, jump red lights (thinking it’s their privilege) and ride on the footpath.

Sure, there are needless car journeys made, probably thousands of them every day.

But here is the news - damn few of them are made in peak-hour on a Friday night. For the sake of the majority, this “protest” of selfish idiot cyclists must not be sanctioned.