Cyclists' Safety in the light of Burry and other's recent deaths - Merged Thread.

[Big H*]

I am constantly thinking about the guy. It really is like loosing a family member even though i have never personally met him. I think Dangle or somebody mentioned that we open our homes and haerts to these guys and you never realise how apparent it is until a tragedy like this happens

 

 

I also never got to know Burry, but it seems as if I knew him very well.......... I only knew the other half.......

 

When we started cycling in 2002 we started spinning with Martin, Cherise’s Uncle. Andre, Ingrid Cherise and Melissa also came to spin a lot. We were a very happy group of people riding Tandems…… there were some half bike riders as well!!!!!! We bought our first Tandem from Martin. The Taylors are a great Tandem family. Cherise's Mother and Aunt won the Ladies Tandem category in one of the 94.7 races. Martin and Andre is the hardest fighting male Tandem pair I have ever seen. We lost contact when we started the Africa part of our career.

 

I saw Cherise grow up and develop into the cyclist she is today.

 

My eyes go gritty every now and then and are full of tears when typing this…….. damn so embarrassing in an open plan office. I hate this damn nightmare!!!!!!!

Edited January 7, 2013 by eccentric1

[scotty]

Something similar happened to me during a race in Benoni, approaching an intersection a driver decided he will ignore the marshal's and drove through with me T boning him, according to my Garmin i went from 46kmh to Zero in less than a second.

 

Fortunate for me it was a car and not a minibus as i somersaulted over the car but still ended up with a huge hematoma which had to be operated on twice

[Cassie]

I am constantly thinking about the guy. It really is like loosing a family member even though i have never personally met him. I think Dangle or somebody mentioned that we open our homes and haerts to these guys and you never realise how apparent it is until a tragedy like this happens

 

 

Man, you are so right!!!

 

I just cannot seem to come to grips with this one....and i'm NOT an emotional type of guy.

I just cannot stop thinking of him...everything he still had to offer...what their kids would have achieved one day...

[Dirt*girl™]

Love this song!

 

 

While we all play the blame game, I thought a repost of a compilation of the clips with a great song might remind us of a few things. It always, always starts with you and your attitude, no matter the circumstances.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID0kgP9IVhs

[Barend de Arend]

I've had two close calls with a driver turning in front of me (oncoming) and one with a driver in the same direction. The oncoming ones were hair-raising. For one I did a front-wheelie on my brakes, and for the other I couldn't stop, but could swerve enough.

 

I saw a car have a close call with a motorbike this morning: the car turned at an intersection, and the bike could have t-boned the car, but luckily avoided the accident.

 

When last did you see a car driver in Joburg allow pedestrians to cross at a green robot when the car wanted to turn into that road? (green for the pedestrians, green for the car) I think legally the pedestrians may cross first. In practice, pedestrians play dodge-the-car, and frequently quickly run across when possible.

 

I think this is the same with bicycles and motorbikes -- at least in Africa. The same attitude just carries across. The car is bigger, has a green light, and just goes. The car expects the pedestrians to stop, so doesn't even look for them. And this extends to anything-smaller-than-car.

[Azonic]

Years ago when I was much younger and inexperienced, I was riding with some road cycling mates. Back then I didn't have my own road bike so I was limited to slicks. We were training time trials (on a MTB, yeah I know). Going past the Altona cafe in Greenbushes in PE I was head down giving it gas. Everyone knows its impossible to keep your head up the whole time especially if you are trying to get a bit aero. So you look down for two seconds, then up for 5, repeat. When I looked up, a lady had come from the front and pulled into the cafe parking lot, or she was in the process of doing it. I stuck my front wheel into her car just behind the rear wheel. The impact ripped her rear bumper off. My front wheel was written off and suspension fork also snapped into a few pieces. Her excuse... didn't see me. Which soon changed to "he swerved infront of me" (funny how that works if I took her REAR bumber off). Bike came to a complete standstill and I went over the boot. So yeah, things happen very quickly. Look down for 1-2 seconds and everything around you changes.

[flyguysa]

all reports seem to say that the taxi was travelling in the same direction- was the opposite confirmed at the ride yesterday? The Witness newspaper had a photo of the spot in the paper today

 

Eye Witness account yesterday, the taxi was turning right and travelling in the OPPOSITE direction, I thought I made it pretty clear in my previous post....

[Cippo]

Taxi driver appeared in court and was released with a warning to appear in March again. WTF!!!

[Big H*]

Eish...... (shakes head in disbelief)

 

This.

 

Sorri...... my diksleksik self ....... should read ...... flak-jacket

[Bianchi]

Taxi driver appeared in court and was released with a warning to appear in March again. WTF!!!

 

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Driver-in-court-for-Burry-Stander-death-20130107

 

The case was merely postponed until then.

We don't always consider this, but our courts are ridiculously backlogged.

[Simon Kolin]

WTF? Are you for real?

 

Misspoken, but I think I understand what he means.....it's not to say that anyone has greater worth or their death means more than anyone else, but we kinda have done that by the virtue of our "connection" with Burry.

 

For example if someone had posted that their domestic/brother/partner was killed this holiday, would there be such a call to action/outcry? Probably not. If I was killed riding my bike this weekend, would you all talk about a Critical Mass (pun intended) in my honour and try lobby government? I sincerely doubt it.

 

As it is Burry's passing has more "value" because he was someone who made us feel proud/patriotic/angry/etc.

 

"Valuable" is the wrong word. Perhaps "impactful" is what Azonic means? And I don't think he means it as a detraction from anyone else who has lost a loved one in a tragic way.

 

Maybe I misunderstand completely?

[Mr Winter]

Taxi driver appeared in court and was released with a warning to appear in March again. WTF!!!

 

I have no legal background but if I read between the lines and if you take into account the outcome of the jub jub case, it would appear that the evidence is pointing out that the accident was an accident in legal terms.

 

I do hope that this case does get the attention it deserves and if the taxi driver is guilty of negligent driving that he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

[Dirt*girl™]

I find laying nekkid in a tub with ice cold water, helps too.

 

 

Go sit in the shade....... NOW!!!!!!!

Edited January 7, 2013 by Dirt*girl™

[Bianchi]

Misspoken, but I think I understand what he means.....it's not to say that anyone has greater worth or their death means more than anyone else, but we kinda have done that by the virtue of our "connection" with Burry.

 

For example if someone had posted that their domestic/brother/partner was killed this holiday, would there be such a call to action/outcry? Probably not. If I was killed riding my bike this weekend, would you all talk about a Critical Mass (pun intended) in my honour and try lobby government? I sincerely doubt it.

 

As it is Burry's passing has more "value" because he was someone who made us feel proud/patriotic/angry/etc.

 

"Valuable" is the wrong word. Perhaps "impactful" is what Azonic means? And I don't think he means it as a detraction from anyone else who has lost a loved one in a tragic way.

 

Maybe I misunderstand completely?

 

His intent may have been fine, but he put a lot more than just his foot in his mouth.

[Kranswurm]

Eye Witness account yesterday, the taxi was turning right and travelling in the OPPOSITE direction, I thought I made it pretty clear in my previous post....

You did and it was as clear as daylight...but as normal no one bothers to read and there is an abundance of fertile imagination

[awesme]

thing with culpable homicide, is implies your (accused) actions were the cause of someone else's death,

 

which fits here perfectly.

 

2 poins count against him, he crossed a solid line, and well, the I'm sorry did not see him counts for nothing.

 

So my view is taxi driver is guilty,

 

So ye our courts are full, they had to release him, till trial date, I hope they had the2 brain cells to revoke/suspend his public transport license in the interim, although I'm not a betting man and well I still wont take this bet.

 

G