REPORTING SAFETY INCIDENTS: PRETORIA

[Cyclesport]

A lot has been said about rider safety since Mathilda was savagely attacked at Doringkloof in March 2009, but seemingly to no avail! Bottom line, the vast majority of trails on which these attacks occur are on private land, making it virtually impossible for any formal preventative measures. The SAPS will and must attend to these incidents when they are reported but just don't have the numbers to patrol the whole area. Attacks on cyclists are furthermore not viewed as a priority crime! We often hear cries like "burn them out" and "clean the area", however these criminals are linked to logistical networks to get rid of their merchandice and it is highly unlikely that local inhabitants of the bushes are the guilty ones. The solution: we have to identify "hot spots" to determine where these incidents are most likely to take place. When we have that we can employe better political leverage to ensure that the perpatrators are brought to justice!

 

In order to have statistical muscle to id hot spots, we need the following info on each incident - post them here or mail them to me as GN Cycling has approved our efforts to consolidate this information:

Date

Place

Name of a witness

Number of riders

Number of assailants

Weapons used

Losses

Injuries

We need your help!!!

Chairperson: Cyclesport Club

[Dibles]

Cyclesport, thanks for making the effort to ensure our safety. I hope this doesn't come across as sounding negative but what is the SAPS going to do? They caught one lot of attackers only to release them a day or two later if I remember correctly.

[Dibles]

Here's the incident I was referring to (top post of page):

 

https://www.bikehub.co.za/forum_posts.asp?TID=40189&PN=23

[Cyclesport]

There are many reasons why it could not be worth the effort, but more reasons why it could be worth it! It is not the purpose of this topic to argue this, but to gather information.

 

Regards

[Bateleur1]

Cyclesport' date=' thanks for making the effort to ensure our safety. I hope this doesn't come across as sounding negative but what is the SAPS going to do? They caught one lot of attackers only to release them a day or two later if I remember correctly.[/quote']

 

Bugger what the police is going to do about it.  For my own safety I would like to know that information.  So I am very interrested to know the information.

[Dibles]

How recent must the attacks be for us to report them for your purposes? I am more than willing to sift through the Hub posts and contact all the victims so that they can get hold of you.

[David #7]

Cyclesport. Would this also include Joburg?

[Bateleur1]

Did we not use to have a forum for Cycling safety on the hub? But it hardly ever got a post.

[Dibles]

Did we not use to have a forum for Cycling safety on the hub? But it hardly ever got a post.

 

This is the Cycling Safety forum. This is where I was going to sift through the posts and get the info CycleSport is looking for.

 

Jagwil also went to a lot of effort to try to assist the police in preventing more attacks so he might already have some of the necessary info. Will PM him.

[Bateleur1]

Did we not use to have a forum for Cycling safety on the hub? But it hardly ever got a post.

 

This is the Cycling Safety forum. This is where I was going to sift through the posts and get the info CycleSport is looking for.

 

Jagwil also went to a lot of effort to try to assist the police in preventing more attacks so he might already have some of the necessary info. Will PM him.

 

 

Sorry.  Looked under the forums button and did not see it there.

[Cyclesport]

All information will be shared periodically as it has a safety implication!

 

Regards

[Cyclesport]

If we can start from Jul 09 and work from there on to the future it will suffice.

 

Regards

[jagwil]

The attack on Mathilda was on 7 January 2009. As far as I can recall there had been 3 or 4 attacks in the same area prior to her attack.

 

 Subsequently there were 4 more attacks in the area.The police picked up 2 people who were positively identified by 2 other victims.

 

 These 2 were released on bail and 2 weeks later the attacks started again, albeit a bit further out, in the vicinity of the Engen garage next to the airport highway. All in all there were about 9 attacks within the space of about 3 months starting in January 2009.

 

Things went quiet for a while until about 2 or 3 months ago when the attacks started up again in the area between Smuts House and the Engen garage.

 

I may be wrong but I think there have been a further 5 or so attacks, the last of which was recently reported and discussed at length on the Hub about 3 weeks ago.

 

Almost all of the attacks seem to have had an airing on the Hub and I believe most of them were reported to Director Andre Wiese at Lyttleton Poice Station.

 

I hope this helps. If I can be of more help please send me a PM.

 

Starting from July 2009 will exclude at least 9 attacks of which I am aware. Maybe more.

[Dibles]

Thanks jagwil.

 

I have found five posts about attacks in the Pretoria area since July and I am busy entering the info into a spreadsheet. I still need to contact a couple of Hubbers to obtain some missing info to complete this task.

 

I am going to start keeping a spreadsheet of all attacks I read about on the Hub from now on regardless of the area. I will then make this available to anyone who wants it. Not everyone knows about the Cycling Safety forum and only two out of the five attacks were posted under the correct forum.

[jagwil]

Dibles, if you start with the attack on Mathilda you should find more pre July. I think some of them are mentioned in her thread.

[Cyclesport]

If each of us/we can start with some sort of a listing I shall consolidate it, which will give us a pretty clear picture of what is cooking. In the mean time I'll again take it up with all the GN clubs and Retief to get all the clubs involved. I also agree that it doesn't matter where the incident happened, get it on a list! I believe we can have a meaningful list by the end of January latest. It will add immense value if we can standardise information - the stuff I mentioned initially is imperative! I have my club's on an Excel spreadsheet and Club members have started to send information to me as soon as they hear of it. You can actuall do the same - send it to club@cyclesport.co.za.

 

Regards