55 year old cyclist killed this weekend

[JimmyB]

Tragic. RIP

[Thug]

RIP

[Cassie]

And then you read the Sunday Crimes article of the BEE champ who has been caught numerous times (twice thsi holiday!) fro drunken driving / speeding in his Ferrari

 

 

WHERE WILL IT ALL END???

[Shebeen]

1300 people killed on the roads in December.

40 people killed every day.

If this were a disease (it isn't??) then people would be pressuring government to start a national treatment programme.

Why isn't that happening?

What I find quite surprising is that it isn't really a festive season issue.

 

You say W H A T?

 

Yip, we kill people on our roads all day every day. Doesn't really matter if it's Christmas, Easter, Hannukah, eid, or currie cup final time.

The focus always seems to be on christmas and easter marketing campaigns, but over those periods the deathtoll is only marginally higher than the rest of the year.

 

I'm using data from here: http://www.arrivealive.co.za/pages.aspx?i=2826

The most comprehensive stuff is lank outdated, I wonder if the position of statsguru at rtmc maybe got killed one year so now it's vacant.. 2001-2004 - http://www.arrivealive.co.za/documents/2001-2004-NumberofFatalCrashesandFatalities.pdf

 

things are not getting better either,

1515 deaths in dec 2011 alone.

http://www.arrivealive.co.za/documents/FATAL%20CRASHES%20PER%20MONTH_Nov_2011-March_2012.pdf

[Slowone]

RIP

[gogo@]

I dont have the SA stats but seems like this is a huge problem all over the world. Here is some stats from The Times about Britain's cycling deaths last year.

 

http://www.thetimes....icle3313260.ece

That's a great article - would like to see the same for SA.

I found this of interest:

 

Of the 122 deaths, 106 are known to have taken place due to a collision with a motor vehicle, while a number of the remaining deaths are still being investigated. In 61 of the fatalities, a car was involved. Lorries and HGVs were involved in 25 deaths, vans in ten deaths, coaches or buses in five deaths, taxis in three deaths, and two fatalities occured after a collision with a motorbike.

 

(One of these 122 deaths was a murder.)

 

How many cyclists killed in SA last year? It's not been mentioned in any of the articles I've read.

[gogo@]

What I find quite surprising is that it isn't really a festive season issue.

 

things are not getting better either,

1515 deaths in dec 2011 alone.

http://www.arriveali...-March_2012.pdf

It's not a festive season issue, for sure -- what causes road fatalities isn't going to go away and come back for the summer holidays.

 

BUT HAVE YOU LOOKED AT THESE STATS???? We have: User Group: Drivers, Passengers, Pedestrians. There is no record (no category to record) of cycling fatalities!

Please tell me I'm blind.

How sick is that?

[Joe Low]

 

BUT HAVE YOU LOOKED AT THESE STATS???? We have: User Group: Drivers, Passengers, Pedestrians. There is no record (no category to record) of cycling fatalities!

Please tell me I'm blind.

 

Stats SA probably have something. The rule of thumb is that around 50% of deaths are pedestrians and cyclists are around 3 a day out of the average total of +/-40 road deaths.

Edited January 7, 2013 by Joe Low

[gogo@]

Stats SA probably have something. The rule of thumb is that around 50% of deaths are pedestrians and cyclists are around 3 a day out of the average total of +/-40 road deaths.

Going to look into this when I have time.

If you're right, we then have something just over 1000 cyclists killed on our roads each year? compared to the 122 the Brits (with respect) are squealing about? Does not sound like the same magnitude of problem for them then does it.

[Pieterg]

Sad Sad Sad News,R.I.P.

[davidl]

My condolences to the family.

 

We need SAPS and the traffic police to ensure that justice is served in all cases where the drivers of the motor vehicles were not adhering to the laws. There are too many instances were drivers at fault are not prosecuted properly or they get away with petty fines.

 

What has happened to traffic police patrolling on the motor cycles? We need more visible policing.

[awesme]

ye the bikes are still here in Jhb, the really rally big momma's that don't fit into car's get bike duty, we see them on the M1 regularly, not doing much, normally a couple of them standing and chatting, I'm yet to see one of them behind a stationary car that was pulled over.

 

G

 

My condolences to the family.

 

We need SAPS and the traffic police to ensure that justice is served in all cases where the drivers of the motor vehicles were not adhering to the laws. There are too many instances were drivers at fault are not prosecuted properly or they get away with petty fines.

 

What has happened to traffic police patrolling on the motor cycles? We need more visible policing.

[HappyMartin]

Very very sad. Sympathy for the family.

 

Find myself writing this so often I should just put it in my signature

[singletrek]

No law means anything if it is not enforced. That's our problem.

 

R.I.P. fellow cyclists.

[Slave]

I dont have the SA stats but seems like this is a huge problem all over the world. Here is some stats from The Times about Britain's cycling deaths last year.

 

http://www.thetimes....icle3313260.ece

 

The stats I looked at showed that 112 cyclists died in Britain in 2012. No stats are available for South Africa for the same period. In 2010, 252 cyclists were killed in South Africa. Considering that the population of London alone is probably about the same number as that of South Africa, this tells me a few things: 1) that cycling awareness in Britain is more effective than here. Or 2) possibly that there are less cyclists in Britain. I'm not sure which way to lean on this one given British weather but logic tells me higher population, probably means more cyclists on the road.

 

The problem in SA is (as I see it) a simply a lack of accountability, a (mostly) useless traffic police and SAPS contingent and a criminal justice system that is pathetic at best.

 

I see people daily, driving in excess of a 100 KPH on the freeway and they are busy with their phones. Mostly texting but many talking on their phones while metro hide behind pillars with cameras speed checking. So because nothing gets done, the perps are unaccountable for their actions and because the law is not enforced, more people do it. Roadblocks and speed checking will never address this problem.

 

Then if caught, the disincentive isn't nearly strong enough. Due to corruption, the perp may even pay a couple of hundred to the officer and drive away without any consequences.

 

How to fix this is a matter of opinion.

[ss_quassie]

What do you expect in this country where the leader is a corrupt bigamist that has no respect for the law?

 

If he can do what he likes, why can't everybody else?

 

To fix this country, it needs to start at the top.