Main Road, Diep River cycling accident

[canadonis]

RIP fellow cyclist

 

its so sad to  hear about this senseless loss of life.

 

i read a post now which hits home..this stretch of rd is a place ive ridden past on so many occasions ..i guess it couldve easily been me too. 

 

strength to the family and friends

[Wally39]

Not been following this thread closely but I saw mention of other cyclists being injured. Any updates on their condition?

 

Condolences and sympathies to all affected by this tragedy.

[Bonus]

Not been following this thread closely but I saw mention of other cyclists being injured. Any updates on their condition?

 

Condolences and sympathies to all affected by this tragedy.

 

I was going to ask the same thing. How are they doing?

[Bonus]

Any progress here?

[Meezo]

CEO Letter

September 2018

Dear Members

 

My condolences go out to the family of Lance Botha, who was tragically killed in a crash in Diep River on 29 September. We are also in touch with the family of Lynette Burger, who was hit by a taxi in Johannesburg recently. She has apparently been taken off the ventilator, which is encouraging, but less encouraging is the fact that the driver in Lynette’s crash is only being charged with negligent driving! Through his actions be put a person in a coma, attached to all kinds of life-supporting machines in hospital, but he was only deemed to be negligent. Spilling a cup of coffee over your laptop is negligent!

 

The driver that crashed into Lance said he was driving while on medication! What does that mean? That it excuses his actions?

 

By the way, 9 days after the death of Lance, SAPS have still not charged the driver! The ambulance took an hour to arrive and SAPS took even longer to get to the scene. It’s pathetic and tragic at the same time.

 

Geoffrey Merrick, the driver that was found guilty of killing Greg Basson on Bottelary Road, is going on with his life while he waits for his appeal hearing. The crash happened in 2013!

 

Drivers are exploiting every loophole to escape with a mere slap on the wrist and the criminal justice system seems to make it easy for them to do so.

 

Are there any PPA members out there that are willing to assist with some pro-bono legal advice and assistance? It would really help us in those first days after a crash, giving the family the right advice & guidance, asking the right questions of the authorities and guide us in how PPA can help in a meaningful way. I would really appreciate your help.

 

AGM

The AGM took place 3 weeks ago, but almost didn’t have a quorum of 50 members.

 

We welcome Alexis Scholtz-Wheeler and Frank van Asperen as new faces to the Exco. Alexis works in the field of low-carbon transport and sustainable mobility and Frank worked as GM for Heineken in a number of countries around the world. No doubt, they will add a lot of value to the PPA committee and I look forward to working with them.

 

Highlights:

 

We are following a sound fiscal strategy, but are aware of the challenges around event participation and our membership numbers. We have factored these into our strategies going forward

Due to better efficiencies, the event portfolio is becoming self-sustaining

Look out for an 8-event Cyclosportif series next year and new mountain bike & gravel offerings

Our partnership with Qhubeka has unlocked 10,000 bicycles over the next 2 years. These bicycles have been made available at no cost, which means we have R10 Million worth of bicycles to distribute each year

PPA Partnership

 

If you own or work for a company that would like to invest in a cycling-related CSI project, is keen to sponsor an event or is interested in supporting a wide range of initiatives, PPA is the perfect portal and partner to get involved with all aspects of cycling. I am sure we have some captains of industry on our membership database and this call goes out to you! Let’s talk.

 

As always, suggestions, comments and critiques are welcome. Please send your emails to me directly, robert@pedalpower.org.za or give me a call on 081 0439890.

 

 

Warm Regards

 

Robert

[Meezo]

Taken from other thread

[reflexus]

Hi All,

 

The other cyclists involved are recovering well (1 is ready to get back on his bike, the other out of hospital and is mobile, will be a while until he is fit to ride again though).

 

As a team we have decided to carry on with the DC this year and will be lining up at the start.

 

In conjunction with Safe Cycling there will be a memorial ride taking place, I will post details here once they have been fully confirmed.

 

We are all appreciative of the messages of sympathy and expressions of concern regarding this tragic accident.

 

I was going to ask the same thing. How are they doing?

[Shebeen]

Shocked to hear how long services got to this accident. The police station in diepriver must be 600m down the road. The mediclinic maybe 100m, yes you can see the building from the three arts.

 

If the driver was on "medication" did that mean he was not breathalysed?

 

Just not good enough.

[Bonus]

Thanks for the updates. 

 

What a shambles of emergency service response and law enforcement.

[SuperDooperSnooper]

Why should people breaking the speed limit be more entitled to use the roads than those who abide by the law? To answer your question, though, I don’t sit in the right hand lane and hold everyone up, for the exact reason you mentioned – I feel the sheer impatience (and ignorance) of a lot of drivers these days will end up putting lives in danger by trying to overtake someone who did happen to be in the right hand lane at 120km/h. I do tend to feel that the sense of entitlement and nonchalant attitude towards the rules of the road (speeding was just the example I used, but it is more the mindset that irks me) is more indicative of a broader attitude that many people seem to have these days – “I’m more important than that driver”, “me getting in front of that car is more important than our collective safety”, “me getting to my destination is more important than the other driver getting to theirs”, “I won’t let that car that’s indicating in because how dare they try get in front of me”. Wouldn’t driving be so much nicer (and safer) if we were all just a bit more considerate of others?

 

But, as you mentioned, not the topic to go into this ☺

 

Sadly, with the amount of self-entitled people in our SA society these days your suggestion will simply evaporate into thin air, things will probably continue to get worse and more innocent lives will be lost. It is unfortunately uncool to advocate doing the right thing as apparent by the amount of middle-finger salutes I get on a daily basis from motorists and cyclists behaving like *&(*s to whom I offer a thumbs-down. 

 

RIP to Mr Botha and condolences to his family in their time of bereavement.

[reflexus]

Hi All,

 

The memorial ride for Lance will be taking place this Sunday.

Meeting at 6 for 6:30 am at Fish Hoek Beach Surf Lifesaving Club, all details are available here:

http://www.pedalpower.org.za/news/ppa-organises-memorial-ride-lance-botha-sunday-4-nov/

 

Peter