947 Ride Joburg 2021

[Nikita Loreggian]

Hi all

I would like to find out if anyone who participated in the 947 Ride Joburg knows of, witnessed or did crash on the De Villiers Graaff Motorway by the Carr Street M1 South onramp (after the Nelson Mandela Bridge), about 10kms from the finish.  Please can you contact Andrew to let him know, as the matter is URGENT. 

Please contact Andrew on 071 176 2129 or email Andrew at andrewberry017@gmail.com, with your Name Surname, cellphone number and what you witnessed or experienced. 

Thank you so much! 

Your help is truly appreciated.

*If you are able to circulate this with your cycling groups please do*

[MudLark]

It would help if you would explain what the purpose of the gathering of such information is and what you (or Andrew) intend to do with it. Absent an explanation, people may well be reluctant to provide a response. Just sayin'.

[JJDT]

Just to add extra info...The start group the rider was in and the time that the incident more or less happened.

[Vetplant]

28 minutes ago, MudLark said:

It would help if you would explain what the purpose of the gathering of such information is and what you (or Andrew) intend to do with it. Absent an explanation, people may well be reluctant to provide a response. Just sayin'.

I see this as a class action lawsuit coming against the organizers for abdicating their responsibilities to ensure the route is safe for riders. Alternatively, taking them on for not fixing the issue once the first rider fell.

I hope they have insurance against this type of thing.

All I can add is that I started in D-Batch, got dropped very quickly by the lead riders. And by the time I passed this specific section at around 10h07 the organisers had already put barriers in place to force you to cross the slot in a specific place where there was a rubber mat. 

[Gr3mlin131]

47 minutes ago, Vetplant said:

I see this as a class action lawsuit coming against the organizers for abdicating their responsibilities to ensure the route is safe for riders. Alternatively, taking them on for not fixing the issue once the first rider fell.

I hope they have insurance against this type of thing.

All I can add is that I started in D-Batch, got dropped very quickly by the lead riders. And by the time I passed this specific section at around 10h07 the organisers had already put barriers in place to force you to cross the slot in a specific place where there was a rubber mat. 

Ditto same, by the time I passed after being dropped from E bunch there was a line of people from the garage all the way up yelling to slow down and cross it at 90 degrees. Pretty idiot proof by then. So seems the first couple of groups had to know from experience to not go parallel to a rail line when crossing. I thought this was common knowledge ????.

[MudLark]

@vetplant, see the indemnity and especially paragraph 2. 

https://ridejoburg.co.za/indemnity/

Anyway, a reasonable rider keeps a close eye on road surfaces and anyone on a road bike would know that this was a hazard and should either be crossed at a sharp angle (eg 90 degrees) or that the bike should be stopped and lifted over the obstacle. It's not any different really to the many things we encounter riding road bikes on a day to day basis. The fact that its a race doesn't mean you may throw all caution to the winds in the interests of 'going like hell'.

I think the indemnity will survive legal challenge. But if it doesn't, you can kiss all cycling events like this goodbye. Can you imagine mountain bike events, never mind road....?

This is why I want to know what they intend doing with this data.

 

 

[mecheng89]

35 minutes ago, MudLark said:

@vetplant, see the indemnity and especially paragraph 2. 

https://ridejoburg.co.za/indemnity/

Anyway, a reasonable rider keeps a close eye on road surfaces and anyone on a road bike would know that this was a hazard and should either be crossed at a sharp angle (eg 90 degrees) or that the bike should be stopped and lifted over the obstacle. It's not any different really to the many things we encounter riding road bikes on a day to day basis. The fact that its a race doesn't mean you may throw all caution to the winds in the interests of 'going like hell'.

I think the indemnity will survive legal challenge. But if it doesn't, you can kiss all cycling events like this goodbye. Can you imagine mountain bike events, never mind road....?

This is why I want to know what they intend doing with this data.

 

 

This will keep the organizers out of trouble. But the organizers must also try their utmost to assure the safety of the riders, which in this case, does not seem to have happened. 

[Vetplant]

59 minutes ago, MudLark said:

@vetplant, see the indemnity and especially paragraph 2. 

https://ridejoburg.co.za/indemnity/

Anyway, a reasonable rider keeps a close eye on road surfaces and anyone on a road bike would know that this was a hazard and should either be crossed at a sharp angle (eg 90 degrees) or that the bike should be stopped and lifted over the obstacle. It's not any different really to the many things we encounter riding road bikes on a day to day basis. The fact that its a race doesn't mean you may throw all caution to the winds in the interests of 'going like hell'.

I think the indemnity will survive legal challenge. But if it doesn't, you can kiss all cycling events like this goodbye. Can you imagine mountain bike events, never mind road....?

This is why I want to know what they intend doing with this data.

 

 

I agree with you, this is common sense in a road race and even though I feel bad for the people that came down there I don't think taking the organizers to court is the way to handle this.

Will be keeping an eye on this to see what their intentions are. But my gut tells me something is brewing here.

[Sitting@89]

As far as indemnity in law goes, you can not indemnify yourself (natural person or juristic person) from gross negligence, is this gross negligence from the organiser’s side? Bikehub jury go! (I lean towards common sense should prevail, it is the rider’s responsibility to be vigilant on the road)

 

[Danger Dassie]

Hope theres a good prognosis for the chap, never good to see anyone go down.

Don't see this as a class action perse, an entire bunch went over without hassles as well other riders behind this guy. Perhaps the line of enquiry is to gather info in order to claim insurance. 
Looks like one of the Protouch riders, just after him it's one of the Mad Macs guys. Pretty sure they came over Jan Smuts together just before here, have a photo of them together. 

[MudLark]

2 minutes ago, Danger Dassie said:

Don't see this as a class action perse, an entire bunch went over without hassles as well other riders behind this guy. Perhaps the line of enquiry is to gather info in order to claim insurance. 
Looks like one of the Protouch riders, just after him it's one of the Mad Macs guys. Pretty sure they came over Jan Smuts together just before here, have a photo of them together. 

With reference to the specific video, if you ask me the problem was his support car. It went into the intersection alongside him and effectively prevented him from crossing the gap at a sharp angle. The support quite effectively forced him into a situation where the wheel would fall into the gap. It could simply also have stopped and crossed the gap slowly. Watching the video, he doesn't seem to have been moving very fast at the time, anyway. It may have cost him a few seconds at most.

[Cyclewizz]

This request has been making it's rounds on some WhatsApp groups but nowhere is there an explanation on why they are requesting the information.
I heard that a few people ended up in hospital because of coming down there but don't know if it's related or not.

When I went past that spot the Police were telling everybody to slow down and pay attention to that gap, however the gap was filled with something.

 

[TNT1]

1 hour ago, MudLark said:

@vetplant, see the indemnity and especially paragraph 2. 

https://ridejoburg.co.za/indemnity/

Anyway, a reasonable rider keeps a close eye on road surfaces and anyone on a road bike would know that this was a hazard and should either be crossed at a sharp angle (eg 90 degrees) or that the bike should be stopped and lifted over the obstacle. It's not any different really to the many things we encounter riding road bikes on a day to day basis. The fact that its a race doesn't mean you may throw all caution to the winds in the interests of 'going like hell'.

I think the indemnity will survive legal challenge. But if it doesn't, you can kiss all cycling events like this goodbye. Can you imagine mountain bike events, never mind road....?

This is why I want to know what they intend doing with this data.

 

 

Yeah, that wasn't a particularly dangerous bit of road anyway. Unless you're a wrapped up in cotton wool type who drives alone in their car wearing a covid mask, I guess then the entire world is a horribly dangerous place.