Accident in the cradle.

[FreeSoul]

Anyone know what happened? There was a truck stopped in the middle of the road and a cyclist lying on the floor being attended too...

[marcfr]

This was posted on our cycle group

 

This morning’s incident occurred about 1km after the turnaround point at the caves.

The rider injured this morning is Victor Chatue.

He was in a small bunch that joined the back of CycleLab C1, which Rob Marshal and I (Avi Mistry) were group leading.

We called for single file after seeing a very large truck (>10T) in the middle of the road. Cyclists kept extreme left and as the back funneled to keep left, wheels touched and Victor fell right in front of the truck !

 

The truck was already moving a lot slower after we flagged him down.

 

According to Tsepo Pitse (riding w Victor), he was stabilized on site w the help of a cyclist doctor.

The helicopter airlifted Vic to Milpark.

He didn’t get run over by the truck although he did slide under.

 

I’m told that his injuries, whilst extensive, don’t appear to place Vic’s life in danger.

 

Pls keep Victor in your thoughts and prayers and let’s wish him a speedy recovery.

[Thomo]

Accidents happen so quickly.

Be alert and safe out there hubbers.

Strongs to the injured rider.

[shaper]

I was just behind Victor about to latch on to the back of the group. Was horrible to see up close.

 

There was a big group coming up to the caves, the truck pulled out to the middle of the road to overtake, whilst overtaking the C1 group passed on the other side, there was some touching of wheels and braking in the group, a few rode into the back of others, some ended up bailing left into the grass. Victor was unfortunate, he seemed to loose control and veered into the front of the truck, hitting it at bumper height and in a way fortunately stuck on the bumper rather than dropping to below and being run over. The truck stopped immediately.

 

I was close enough that I was also in a full braking slide but managed to stay upright.

 

There is nothing the truck driver could have done and was just a terrible freak accident.

 

Hoping Victor makes a full recovery and glad to hear was not fatal.

[Traveler]

Terrible to hear, hoping that Victor will make a complete and quick recovery.

[Skylark]

Heal up soon Victor!

[Trek man]

Speddy recover to the cyclist. Hope nothing is broken.

[Bonus]

Am I right in thinking that the truck was overtaking one group of riders while another group of riders was coming the other way?

[cat-i]

Sjoe imagine how rattled the poor truck driver must be.

 

Wishing Victor a speedy and full recovery.

[Patchelicious]

Am I right in thinking that the truck was overtaking one group of riders while another group of riders was coming the other way?

In the Cradle, on Saturday morning, that’s very likely.

[Coolspin]

Wish Victor a speedy recovery.

 

Bunch riding without road closure is always going to be high risk especially in S.A. where driving is shocking at the best of times.

In a bunch you get taken down even if you have nothing to do with the actual incident.

[Vetplant]

Am I right in thinking that the truck was overtaking one group of riders while another group of riders was coming the other way?

 

Yep, that is how I understood the report from shaper:

I was just behind Victor about to latch on to the back of the group. Was horrible to see up close.

 

There was a big group coming up to the caves, the truck pulled out to the middle of the road to overtake, whilst overtaking the C1 group passed on the other side, there was some touching of wheels and braking in the group, a few rode into the back of others, some ended up bailing left into the grass. Victor was unfortunate, he seemed to loose control and veered into the front of the truck, hitting it at bumper height and in a way fortunately stuck on the bumper rather than dropping to below and being run over. The truck stopped immediately.

 

I was close enough that I was also in a full braking slide but managed to stay upright.

 

There is nothing the truck driver could have done and was just a terrible freak accident.

 

Hoping Victor makes a full recovery and glad to hear was not fatal.

[shaper]

Am I right in thinking that the truck was overtaking one group of riders while another group of riders was coming the other way?

That is correct and there was plenty enough room for both groups and the truck, the yellow line is quite wide in both directions at the point where the accident happened

[shaper]

Wish Victor a speedy recovery.

Bunch riding without road closure is always going to be high risk especially in S.A. where driving is shocking at the best of times.

In a bunch you get taken down even if you have nothing to do with the actual incident.

This has nothing to do with the driver, he was overtaking one group on his left, another group which I was latching onto the back of was starting to pass him on the right. As stated by the Cycle Lab leader of the approaching group, the truck driver was flagged to slow down further which he did.

 

Chaos happened because part of the group got jittery, and rather than holding line and just roll on through, started moving left and hitting brakes which cause the tyre clipping, bunch crash and unfortunately Victor loosing control and veering into the oncoming truck.

 

It is too easy to blame the driver and driving in SA, but with this freak accident it could be justified that the truck driver was in the wrong place at the wrong time and now he has to live with the fact that he ran over a cyclist and could have killed him, when he was doing nothing wrong, just doing his job.

[Coolspin]

This has nothing to do with the driver, he was overtaking one group on his left, another group which I was latching onto the back of was starting to pass him on the right. As stated by the Cycle Lab leader of the approaching group, the truck driver was flagged to slow down further which he did.

Chaos happened because part of the group got jittery, and rather than holding line and just roll on through, started moving left and hitting brakes which cause the tyre clipping, bunch crash and unfortunately Victor loosing control and veering into the oncoming truck.

It is too easy to blame the driver and driving in SA, but with this freak accident it could be justified that the truck driver was in the wrong place at the wrong time and now he has to live with the fact that he ran over a cyclist and could have killed him, when he was doing nothing wrong, just doing his job.

Sorry, was referring to the general state of driving on the roads in SA.

Never said the truck driver was to blame. Bunch riding without road closure is the culprit in this accident.

I once rode in the "fast one" race with no road closure, was very dangerous, big bunches riding in opposite direction to cars, shudder to think what could happen if a bunch had to go down in that instance, the oncoming cars were flying as per usual.

[LEMINO]

The man is stable and making good progress. He will back in the theatre tomorrow, not out of the woods yet, so please keep him in your prayers.

 

From another chat group.