We have had a number of incidents in KZN over the last couple of weeks, some very serious with prominent members of the cyclist community being injured. This morning my friend Nick was involved in a very unfortunate incident where a guy in an old VW Jetta decided it would be a nice gesture to drift from one side of the road to the other and hit my training partner. The driver had the cheek to drive off, had it not been for a set of red robots at a busy intersection there is no way this guy would have stopped!
What was even more surprising was the guy actually had the audacity to say to us that he couldn't see us and we didn't have the right to use the road. First of all we are lit up like Christmas trees with lights, all of us had reflective clothing on, secondly we have a backup vehicle to warn drivers we are on the road and lastly we have a right to use the road.
It has become necessary for us to train in the early hours of the morning to avoid traffic, it has become necessary for us to wear reflective clothing even in the daylight, it has become necessary for us to have one of us drive a car everyday to ensure our safety.
When is the government going to finally do something to protect us?
I can't say that the driver was drunk or whether he was under the influence of anything else, this we left up to the police but I can tell you that he was not fully aware of what had happened, he even admitted to not knowing "what he had hit, he just heard a thump".
I wonder what will happen to the driver, a small misdemeanor? a slap on the wrist? He will no doubt get back in his car, minus the side mirror, drive to work and forget everything that happened at 5:35 this morning.
To those of you reading this who are riders, guys it is time for us to stand together and finally do something for the safety of our family.
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