Cyclist found dead near Gatton, QLD

[The 2nd Womble]

http://mypolice.qld.gov.au/blog/2012/08 ... th-gatton/

Initially the QPS said people on their FB page were jumping the gun regarding the possibility that the cyclist may have been hit from behind before being left to die in a ditch. ABC612 just announced on the news however that they believe this may indeed now be the case.
It's a very dangerous stretch of road for many, and as a cyclist at night time, riding on the Warrego is a definite risk. Provided however that he wasn't wearing dark colors and was unlit, a drivers visibility is only limited by his headlights through here.
RIP to the cyclist, and my sincere condolences to the family.

[Marto]

Terrible. My condolences to the family also.

[The 2nd Womble]

One of the chaps who was second on the scene early this morning has confirmed it appears to have indeed been a hit and run. He was still alive when they found him. Hopefully the bastard is caught and soon.

[The 2nd Womble]

Mr Douglas who attended the scene this morning posted on our wall.

"Guys today we found a 25 year old chinese male cyclist dead on the side of the hwy at gatton. Possible hit and run the police say but I saw the guy and his bike it was most defiantly a hit and run, so I urge all of u plz be carefull and let some one know we're u are goin and when u expect to be back. The guy was in the grass for over 12 hrs. I don't want to find any more dead people whilst at work. I got sent home. First dead body I have seen and it made me feel sick."

Not something a person ever forgets. My heart goes out to Mr Douglas and his mate who attended until the Police arrived.
I have driven the Warrego so many times I've lost count, and I know that in a truck it can be deadly depending on the stretch, with some truely third world road surfacing. There was heavy fog through sections of the Lockyer Valley last night which would not have helped. I trust the QPS will release further details soon.

[Marto]

A true horror. Driving away after hitting someone is a bigger horror though.

The road surface there is bad, but some local attitudes to cyclists are pretty poor, as shown in comments to a recent article in the local newspaper, the Gatton star (2/8/12): Link (ie comments by "D_Diamond_Brown")

[The 2nd Womble]

The QPS FB link to this contained similar comments. You would love to snap some peoples necks when they tell cyclists to stay the hell off the road in the Police post about a dead cyclist. Livid!

[dino1969]

Condolences to the family! It must be a very cold,selfish and inhumane individual responsible for this deed.It really does not say much for our "humanity" does it?


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[simonr23]

!! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! disgusting act by the other party. so very sorry for the rider and his family. some people(the driver) dont deserve to be alive.

[jasonc]

flying bicycles disgusting act by the other party. so very sorry for the rider and his family. some people(the driver) dont deserve to be alive.

simon. i'd prefer the culprit be caught and be made to rot in jail and think about what they have done for as many days as possible.


good job by the cops, sorrow for the fam

[The 2nd Womble]

Remember people that this an unlit open country stretch of road where you would not expect to find a bike rider At 8pm in fog.
If a heavy vehicle hit him, the driver may not have even felt the impact. The Roo's are common at night as well with the tarseal still being warm till around 9-10pm at night. There are alot of maybe's with this one unfortunately. If this was the case, I would feel for the driver.
As the area is almost devoud of houses and with the possibility of next to no traffic on the Warrego heading westbound at the time, we may bever know

[The 2nd Womble]

I agree Ox that there should never have been a collision under any circumstances.

[The 2nd Womble]

I agree Ox that there should never have been a collision under any circumstances.

[find_bruce]

It appears the cyclist has been dientified as a chinese backpacker, or should that be "bikepacker" who arrived in Australia four months ago, riding 6 ks from the McDonalds to the caravan park

[The 2nd Womble]

Nope, I've yet to come across a bikepacker who wasn't extraordinarily well prepared for the open road, although the Police added this: " He was wearing dark clothing and riding a red bicycle at the time he was struck". I'm confident he would have at the very least had reflectors, and on a dark stretch of road they would have been very hard to confuse with something else.

[Scotness]

Condolences to his family, this is tragic news.

I hope more information comes out so if any action is necessary by the police it can be taken - at this stage you can't speculate one way or the other who was at fault - sometimes it's cyclists, sometimes it's drivers - suffice to say something like this should never happen.

It would be good too to know the circumstances to see if there's anything new that can be learnt from what made this happen.

Scot

[KonaCommuter]

Condolences to his family, this is tragic news.

I hope more information comes out so if any action is necessary by the police it can be taken - at this stage you can't speculate one way or the other who was at fault - sometimes it's cyclists, sometimes it's drivers - suffice to say something like this should never happen.

It would be good too to know the circumstances to see if there's anything new that can be learnt from what made this happen.

Scot

From treehuggers summary of the Canadian Coroners findings http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/ontario ... where.html

Whose Fault is it?

The coroner found that cyclist's behavior contributed to 71% of the accidents, through inattention, failure to yeild, or disregarding traffic signals. Drivers behaviour contributed to only 62% of the accidents, mainly by speeding, inattention or failure to yield, but the coroner suggests that this is possibly a significant under-representation of the facts because, by definition in this study, the cyclists are all dead and can't defend themselves.

[elantra]

What a bloody shame to lose a young adventurer especially under such circumstances.

Circumstances that are not at all flattering to Australia's reputation.

There are a lot of questions to be raised and answered in relation to this tragedy.
Obviously the first question is who hit him and why and why not stop ?

Other questions include - how many pedestrians or motorists have been killed or injured walking to or turning into or out of that Roadside establishment since it was put there ?
This is not to say move it to a "safer" location, but perhaps some reduced speed limits and speed cameras/surveillance cameras need to be installled.

Also, an official roadsign or monument erected beside the road there might help someone to recall vital information

[KonaCommuter]

Circumstances that are not at all flattering to Australia's reputation.

There are a lot of questions to be raised and answered in relation to this tragedy.
Obviously the first question is who hit him and why and why not stop ?

Leaving a young tourist to die like a dog on the side of the road all alone is beyond disgraceful. Welcome to Australia we DGAF about other road users and we're damn proud of it. Just read comments left on any so called news sites.

[Scotness]

Two thoughts - east bound near the McDonald's/BP there is road works going on which causes you to slow down - however I believe the accident was on the west bound side and I'm not sure if there is still roadworks going on there - there was a few weeks ago I think.

And secondly in all fairness we don't know the full details - and I hate to say it but it is entirely possible in one of those big semi trailers to hit someone and not know it - I've been in oil tankers out in western Queensland and you barely feel or hear the big roos. If the collision was behind the line of site of the driver ie further down the side of the truck it's quite possible that the driver wouldn't have felt or heard it. However there should never be a situation where either are close enough for this to happen.

Who's at fault we don't know, and perhaps never will - if it's the driver I hope the bastard is caught and thrown in jail - if it's the cyclist then may the poor guy rest in peace.

Scot

[singlespeedscott]

If its on the west bound side there is a very large shoulder where trucks pull in and this continues all the way down to the turn off to Gatton. I went to Uni at Gatton and rode regularly to and from the college to town and never had a problem with the traffic (got hit by crop dusters a few times but that's a different story). You just need to ride in the right spot.

Honestly I don't think the guy would of been a bike packer. More likely he's one of the hundreds of transient workers who come through the area every year. As such he probably didn't have the right gear for riding at night and based on first hand experience, very little idea of the road rules. I could really see that he's was probably more at fault than the driver. And has stated previously, anything hit by the B trailer of a B-double is not going to be felt by the driver let alone seen on a foggy night.

A terrible tragedy but let's wait till we have some more facts before we jump to conclusions.

[The 2nd Womble]

This has yet to be confirmed by the Queensland Police and investigations are obviously ongoing, but I have been told that a local person of interest with a reputation of assaulting and harrassing cyclists is wanted for questioning. It is possible that this person may have fled interstate.
It would be fair to assume the Police know what happened and are doing all they can in what (if correct) can only be described as first degree murder. You'll probably hear more at the same time we do.

[KonaCommuter]

This has yet to be confirmed by the Queensland Police and investigations are obviously ongoing, but I have been told that a local person of interest with a reputation of assaulting and harrassing cyclists is wanted for questioning. It is possible that this person may have fled interstate.
It would be fair to assume the Police know what happened and are doing all they can in what (if correct) can only be described as first degree murder. You'll probably hear more at the same time we do.

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

[jasonc]

This has yet to be confirmed by the Queensland Police and investigations are obviously ongoing, but I have been told that a local person of interest with a reputation of assaulting and harrassing cyclists is wanted for questioning. It is possible that this person may have fled interstate.
It would be fair to assume the Police know what happened and are doing all they can in what (if correct) can only be described as first degree murder. You'll probably hear more at the same time we do.

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

I appreciate the info too, but lets continue to be careful with the wording, as you have womble, so not to pervert the course of justice....

[WashedUp]

although a while ago a pretty sad event