Cyclist hit by Truck North Fremantle

[blkmcs]

Hope this is not anyone on here and that whoever it is recovers well.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/br ... fremantle/

[find_bruce]

Not good whichever way you look at it, but I hope it is not as serious as it sounds.

[toofat]

Mrs toofat was caught in the traffic jam as they had to close two lanes,
The bike was very mangled and riders from his group were at the scene
Hope its not too bad

[Aushiker]

Ah heck. That is no good at all. Tydeman Road is a shocker. I tend to cross over it now and take the North Fremantle connecting path.

Hope the rider is okay.

Andrew

[sambo3]

Ah heck. That is no good at all. Tydeman Road is a shocker. I tend to cross over it now and take the North Fremantle connecting path.

Hope the rider is okay.

Andrew

+1 its a more of a shock to me that this has not happened sooner here.
With the volume of riders and trucks who use this shoulderless road I believe the local council needs to address the road standard here.
Its just not suitable for both trucks and groups of cyclists. We cant have bunches of 30+ using the path as well.

A cycle lane needs to be put in place on the road.
I don't ride there a great amount but twice I have been close shaved by trucks.
I also use the path as well, however this still crosses a truck entrance and they are not to keen to slow down cornering it.

Hope the rider has a full recovery.

Cheers
Sambo

[MarkG]

Agreed. Its pretty scary there most times of the day and you always feel like you're running the gauntlet there. Not good.

[Troy C]

This was the riders bike post collision


"Craig is in hospital, presently be assessed for surgery; early

reports are that he has a broken leg (protruding) and other as yet undefined injuries to his hip."
from the SPR site

[Lizzy]

Holy living crap

All the best for a speedy recovery Craig.

[find_bruce]

Thanks for the update Troy - some pretty serious injuries, but given the state of his bike I feared much worse.

[SquareWheels]

Ah heck. That is no good at all. Tydeman Road is a shocker. I tend to cross over it now and take the North Fremantle connecting path.

Hope the rider is okay.

Andrew

+2
Best wishes to the downed cyclist and a speedy recovery. I live in the Freo area and some of the roads just freak me out. I take this one for my ride to Scarborough but admit I sit on the path along Tydeman due to a fear of trucks and oddball drivers.
I wont be telling my wife about this.

[trailgumby]

That is utterly horrendous. I can barely tell what brand of bike it is, it is so mangled.

So glad he wasn't killed outright ... and by the sounds of things prospects are reasonable.

[sil3nt]

Get well soon Craig, hopefully you heal up ok.

[dino1969]

A sobering reminder about the dangers we all face best wishes to Craig on his surgery and post op recovery routine.

[Marty Moose]

Scary bit of road it always stresses me. Hope all goes we Craig and your back on as soon as you can be, going to be 12 months or so by the sound of it.

Sent from my MB526 using Tapatalk 2

[Roinik]

I guess there's four things that we can all hope happens:
1. First and foremost that Craig has a speedy recovery so that he can 'get back on the horse'
2. That the truck driver is shaken up by the ordeal
3. That the truck driver has the book thrown at him for culpable driving (if not attempted murder)
4. That the council/State Government steps up and deals with this obvious black spot.

It doesn't matter whether Craig was single file, two abreast or in a cycling group, this sort of thing is unacceptable.

[eldavo]

Speak for yourself. Obviously everyone wishes speedy recovery, where are you getting the rest of the righteous conviction from?

[Marty Moose]

Speak for yourself. Obviously everyone wishes speedy recovery, where are you getting the rest of the righteous conviction from?

I assumed he was there.....

Sent from my MB526 using Tapatalk 2

[Roinik]

Both of you can get back in your box. Obviously I don't wish this on anyone, driver or rider, however the law is the law. In this case the truck is deemed to be at fault and the driver is likely to lose his licence. Unfortunately for him it will probably lead to him losing his livelihood given that the charge is likely to be culpable driving, attack with a deadly weapon or even attempted murder (depending on the prosecutor's determination to see a conviction or this is a repeat offence). Maybe next time he and others will think twice about saving a minute or so off their travel time by pushing past a cyclist (if this was the case - as is often in truck-bicycle incidents). I deal with trucks and truck drivers all the time (I also hold a heavy truck licence) so I'm well aware of the driver attitudes and the perceived time pressures. Nonetheless, all vehicles are required to give sufficient space to other road users so that they do not place the other road users into danger (bicycles included!). Yes, I am taking the liberty of assuming that Craig was in the right and riding appropriately to the conditions as most cyclists do. I think that there are sufficient comments to highlight that this road is dangerous and requires an appropriate alternative route to be implemented (once again, based on comments here). So, before you have a go at me you self righteous pair, give a little thought to the people involved here. My comments are applicable anywhere, in any city, in all states. My main wishes are to the injured party to have a speedy recovery.

[Aushiker]

Both of you can get back in your box. Obviously I don't wish this on anyone, driver or rider, however the law is the law. In this case the truck is deemed to be at fault and the driver is likely to lose his licence. Unfortunately for him it will probably lead to him losing his livelihood given that the charge is likely to be culpable driving, attack with a deadly weapon or even attempted murder (depending on the prosecutor's determination to see a conviction or this is a repeat offence).

I am curious as to what you observed or what factual information you have to come up with this statement? I haven't seen anything to suggest this outcome at this point. Is there something that I have missed?

As both a rider of this road (and on the receiving end of some less than pleasant driving mainly by car drivers, rather than the 100s of trucks that use the road weekly and a driver I have seen some pretty stupid and irresponsible riding as well as driving. "Merging" at Napier Road from a left turning lane immediately in front of vehicles, failing to make clear signal of one's intentions, merging into spaces which are at best tight, spaces often lacking good clearance for safe stopping, merging which in turn often forces motorists to take some sort of action to avoid a possible crash (none of which is the motorists fault), not taking a good position in the lane as part of traffic, jumping the red-light at Napier Street which is not the smartest idea as you playing with semis, particular those riding the shared path as the left turn slip lane is well used by trucks. Heading west on this road more than ever requires responsible lawful cycling AND driving.

From the cyclist perspective I find the two bad sections are merging into the westbound lane having turned left into Tydeman Road after crossing the Old Fremantle Traffic Bridge and care and sometimes patience is required to properly join the traffic flow heading west in a safe manner. The other section is the approach to the Port Beach Road, where a lot of the traffic turns left whereas most cyclists myself included go right and north. Again being part of the traffic helps here as does working with the trucks. My experience here is that "wharf workers" running late for work are a bigger issue than the trucks, not that there not issues with trucks here, just that personally I find the car drivers more likely to try and cut in on me more so than the semis

Heading east the issue is as much about traffic and safe passing and again having to cross to the middle or right lane to turn right on to bridge. At times if the traffic is bad I make a judgement to go straight ahead and then turn right down a local street for the simple reason making use of the traffic lights to give me a safe crossing opportunity.

I have no idea as to what happened in this shocking incident, don't even know if they where east or west bound, and don't see anything is being gained by blaming any party to the incident, even more so without proper facts as to what occurred.

I just hope that the all involved recover well from this and that at least a positive from it is an improved approach to road safety by all concerned.

Regards
Andrew

[RobertFrith]

I saw the Ambo in my way to swimming lessons, I'd say west bound just west of the railway bridge.
Tydeman Road is a nightmare. Such short road with so many problems. The "shared" footpath is a disgrace. The merge with traffic outbound from Freo is too short and too fast and complicated by also being one of the port access lanes. I have no idea what the cause was but it seems likely that lousy road design and impatience have played a part.

[RobertFrith]

I saw the Ambo in my way to swimming lessons, I'd say west bound just west of the railway bridge.
Tydeman Road is a nightmare. Such short road with so many problems. The "shared" footpath is a disgrace. The merge with traffic outbound from Freo is too short and too fast and complicated by also being one of the port access lanes. I have no idea what the cause was but it seems likely that lousy road design and impatience have played a part.

[Marty Moose]

Both of you can get back in your box. Obviously I don't wish this on anyone, driver or rider, however the law is the law. In this case the truck is deemed to be at fault and the driver is likely to lose his licence. Unfortunately for him it will probably lead to him losing his livelihood given that the charge is likely to be culpable driving, attack with a deadly weapon or even attempted murder (depending on the prosecutor's determination to see a conviction or this is a repeat offence). Maybe next time he and others will think twice about saving a minute or so off their travel time by pushing past a cyclist (if this was the case - as is often in truck-bicycle incidents). I deal with trucks and truck drivers all the time (I also hold a heavy truck licence) so I'm well aware of the driver attitudes and the perceived time pressures. Nonetheless, all vehicles are required to give sufficient space to other road users so that they do not place the other road users into danger (bicycles included!). Yes, I am taking the liberty of assuming that Craig was in the right and riding appropriately to the conditions as most cyclists do. I think that there are sufficient comments to highlight that this road is dangerous and requires an appropriate alternative route to be implemented (once again, based on comments here). So, before you have a go at me you self righteous pair, give a little thought to the people involved here. My comments are applicable anywhere, in any city, in all states. My main wishes are to the injured party to have a speedy recovery.

Are you kidding your comments indicated that you were there or had 1st hand information as to what happened . It turns out you have no idea what happened, you were not there and don't even know the road. Tragic accident yes but don't assume blame or guilt until the facts come out, it may have been an accident with serious outcomes nothing more the possible scenarios are endless. As far as being self righteous goes my comment was serious. I had assumed you were there instead it turns out you were speaking Cr@p and have no idea about this situation. Your last comment is the only one that makes any sense.

MM

[88mph]

Shocking section of road, from the southern side of the old traffic bridge to Curtin Ave in Leighton is essentially one big blackspot.

The new PSP (hardly PSP) Freo Council installed through to North Freo station is a joke too - it takes too long to cross Tydeman Road and the rail crossing at the station is shite.

For Freo Council to be so 'pro-bike', its amazing that this section of road is possibly the worst in Perth - plus trucks drive on it!!

I appreciate the effort the council has put on the PSP extension, but in reality it is a half arsed job. When you think PSP, it should be like Grant St to Karrakata.

[Sprocket]

You can go to Karrakatta using that section of road - just not on your bike.....

Mend well Craig.

[wellington_street]

Shocking section of road, from the southern side of the old traffic bridge to Curtin Ave in Leighton is essentially one big blackspot.

The new PSP (hardly PSP) Freo Council installed through to North Freo station is a joke too - it takes too long to cross Tydeman Road and the rail crossing at the station is shite.

For Freo Council to be so 'pro-bike', its amazing that this section of road is possibly the worst in Perth - plus trucks drive on it!!

I appreciate the effort the council has put on the PSP extension, but in reality it is a half arsed job. When you think PSP, it should be like Grant St to Karrakata.

Tydeman Road is controlled by Main Roads, I'm pretty sure.

Fremantle did what they could for the short PSP extension - they don't have funds for massive embankments or bridges etc. It may provide some relief for those who want to avoid the long way around. The level crossing issue is one controlled by PTA who are too bloody-minded to do anything but put in stupid pointless mazes. There's no evidence they contribute to reducing level crossing incidents but they sure make things difficult for peds and cyclists.

No piece of infrastructure will suit every type of cyclist.