Injured women blame cyclist for crash

[KingTJ]

 

Durban - A mother and daughter were left bruised and battered after a crash on the M19 that, according to the pair and witnesses, was caused by a reckless cyclist who, along with his team, “just rode off” afterwards.

 

The safety of cyclists on our roads has been a hot topic, but it appears the roles were reversed in this instance.

 

Sajheeda Ahmid, 53, and her daughter, 29-year-old Suyhayfa Arbee, had been driving on the M19 off-ramp, near Mountbatten Drive, Reservoir Hills, when the incident happened at lunch time on Monday.

 

“We were in the extreme left lane,” Ahmid said.

 

“A cyclist passed me, then I looked to see if it was clear on my side, and the next thing I knew he was cycling into my lane.”

 

The audibly shaken woman said if she had hit the brakes, the car behind her would have smashed into her. Instead she swerved to avoid the cyclist.

 

The car skidded across the freeway and “somersaulted”, and eventually landed in a nearby ditch, coming to rest on its side.

 

The cyclist and his two teammates did stop, Ahmid said, but only briefly.

 

“Then they cycled off.”

 

Ahmid and Arbee were still in hospital on Thursday morning.

 

“My daughter sprained her arm and has been suffering with stomach and head pains and I have whiplash in my arm and neck,” Ahmid said.

 

Yusuf Moolla, who witnessed the crash, said the pair were lucky they were not killed.

 

Police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane, confirmed the incident.

 

“A motorist allegedly lost control of her vehicle and crashed on the M19 highway. The driver and the passenger were taken to hospital,” he said.

 

Sydenham police were investigating the incident.

 

Earlier this year, the deaths of popular cyclists, Richard da Silva, 46, of Glen Anil, and Jaryd Dwyer, 36, of Glenwood, outraged the cycling community.

 

Da Silva and Dwyer were out on an early morning ride when they were killed in a crash on the M4.

 

And three years ago, world-renowned cyclist Burry Stander was struck by a vehicle on the South Coast while cycling.

 

After this year’s incident, the head of events, safety and security of Cycling SA, Craig Proctor-Parker, told the Daily News that the eThekwini Municipality needed to meet sports governing bodies to find ways to improve the safety of all athletes.

 

He said runners and cyclists were also soft targets for criminals and this needed to be addressed before the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

 

Daily News

[Oxter]

The audibly shaken woman said if she had hit the brakes, the car behind her would have smashed into her. Instead she swerved to avoid the cyclist.

 

 

This does not make sense, so she could not hit the brakes because the car behind her was to close? This does not make it the cyclist fault but the driver behind her who took that option away from her.  The story is obviously more complicated than that, but i think this is just bad reporting and the lady is not looking at the situation correctly and seems to be biased against the cyclists.  It is a douch move not to stop and help them though

[Fr33rider]

I used to head in to work really early to avoid traffic, many times I was stuck behind groups of lycrans that take it upon themselves to block entire lanes.

I'd rather deal with traffic and taxi's than arrogant self righteous road hogs on bicycles.

 

Edit to add: Friday was yesterday.

[KingTJ]

I used to head in to work really early to avoid traffic, many times I was stuck behind groups of lycrans that take it upon themselves to block entire lanes.

I'd rather deal with traffic and taxi's than arrogant self righteous road hogs on bicycles.

Edit to add: Friday was yesterday.

I know...i also think there is more to the story..

 

NB. Technically it is a Friday story as it happened yesterday...

[Eldron]

Sounds suspiciously like "there was a dog guvnah - I promise - it were right there and to save it's itty bitty little life I swerved into the tree".

 

Either way - we'll never know...

[EmptyB]

Sounds fishy...full story missing in my view

[raptor-22]

Sounds like the cyclist moved ahead of her to remain visible and she took her eyes off the road while failing to slow down. She was then startled by the cyclist in front of her for some reason and then over reacted resulted in her accident. Sounds very much like poor driving.

 

Definitely a douch move to just cycle off without assisting and providing a statement to the cops.

[CogitoErgoSum]

Ag shame. They don't make women as strong as they used to. Previous years women walked away from a rolled vehicle without complaining [emoji185]

 

The least the lycrans could do was to check if the ladies were okay. Or maybe it wasn't that bad

 

 

 

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[BarHugger]

"Extreme left lane" was she them in the emergency lane ?

[Lance Roberts]

Sounds like the suspicious neckbrace that gets put on after a bump on the hand just to win a court case! I think they're just playing the simpothy card to try get some easy cash.

 

My BS alarm is going off!

[eccc whippet]

"The car skidded across the freeway and “somersaulted”, and eventually landed"

 

How fast was she travelling?...if you notice at the off ramps there are 60 km/hr speed limit...so who was speeding and driving reckless?

 

It seems the M4 incident highlighted some issues which were of concern and lots of "meetings" and a group was setup to address the issues...and that was about as far as it got.

 

Nothing has changed...the so called cycle lanes are designed for mountain bikes and they just dont seem to go anywhere...the grass and bush grows so far out that you cant stay in the cycle lane.

[Rocket-Boy]

Its probably the usual type of incident that happens around offramps. Cyclists are going straight and trying to prevent some idiot taking the offramp from driving into them.

 

Driver taking offramp always wants to cut infront and not just slow down and take it behind cyclist.

 

Its why I avoid bigger roads like this with offramps, too much mission to keep yourself in one piece.

[Stretch]

Exactly what I was going to say isetech. Cars don't somersault when going slow

 

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[Pikey]

Sounds like the cyclist moved ahead of her to remain visible and she took her eyes off the road while failing to slow down. She was then startled by the cyclist in front of her for some reason and then over reacted resulted in her accident. Sounds very much like poor driving.

Definitely a douch move to just cycle off without assisting and providing a statement to the cops.

my thoughts exactly .

[eddy]

Exactly what I was going to say isetech. Cars don't somersault when going slow

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Shoeee, based on the facts I am confident of a gold in any number of events at Rio later this year.

 

All we need is find the cylist who is capable of overtaking and "suddenly appearing " in front of someone going fast enough to somersault a car.

 

Very impressive I'd say.

[King_Crispy]

Exactly what I was going to say isetech. Cars don't somersault when going slow

 

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