Trouble on Perth's Principal Shared Path Network

[cavebear2]

On Sun 11th Feb. I was riding alone on a warm almost windless summer night on Perth's main shared path (cyclists, peds & low powered veh. only) network. On a very dark section a bright light which was obviously that of a petrol powered motorbike appeared behind me. Quickly beside me, 2 appendages shoved my forearm & torso with force and momentum and left me alone on the asphalt path. (10:25PM) I lay on my stomach for some time regaining regular breathing and figuring out how I would pull myself up the mesh wire fence & stand my bike upright so that I could access my mobile to call my wife. (I found my glasses in the dirt by the side of the path & popped the L lense back in) I did this albeit with severe pain from my RHS buttock/Pelvis. My wife Helen had visibility of my location via Google. I then fainted from shock/pain & fell over once again after making the call.

Within perhaps 15 minutes there was another bright light from behind though this one had a walking Policeman behind it, followed quickly by an Ambulance driving down the path. A few puffs on the 'blue whistle' with an assisted roll had me on the stretcher. Into the E.D. of Fiona Stanley Hospital by roughly midnight I had many scans which revealed multiple fractures to my Sacrum, R Hip, Pelvis, mostly R side with an associated haematoma. Also 7 badly broken ribs, 1 of which punctured my R lung and resulted in a Pneumothorax or blood & air pooling around the lung resulting in a collapsed lung leaking inhaled oxygen. I wasn't immediately placed on oxygen during the scan period and soon after the last scan I had a fainting episode with sweating and nausea that led to me being placed on O2. However within 30 minutes I fainted again this time waking to many ED staff around me with a Nurse telling me that she had given me 45 seconds of CPR as they had lost my pulse. This was fairly surreal and as I lay there I briefly considered calling my wife whom I knew was on her way. I wisely waited until Helen arrived and she burst into tears when I told her but at least we could hold hands and I could console her with more than my voice.

Early afternoon on Monday 12th Feb it was decided to transfer me to the Trauma Ward of Royal Perth Hospital because of my lung condition. At that hospital's E.D it was decided not to drain my Pneumothorax, instead to let it resolve itself. This proved to be the wrong call as 9 days later I fainted after another nausea wave after having a shower (seated in a wheel chair) I hadn't reached the alert switch on the wall though shortly after waking 2 nurses opened the door and retrieved me, whereupon many staff surrounded me in the generous space at the foot of my bed. Most were student observers though a few medical staff were taking an active role in my treatment. Very quickly a local anaesthetic was applied to my R chest, an incision made and a drain pushed in and sealed with surgical dressings/tape. For some days following this my sleep was interrupted by deep nerve pain radiating from my R pelvis down to the R side of my foot. A pain specialist remedied this by putting me on 75mg of Pregabalin capsules (AKA 'Lyrica') My 1st couple of sleeps after this were in the 9 to 10 hr range! I took this drug for roughly 9 nights having been discharged on 28th Feb after 17 days in hospital. The drug does cause brain fog until early afternoon so I decided to go without by using more traditional pain killers. The nights since have been very strange affairs typically with blocks of 3 or 4 2 hour sleeps punctuated randomly with some nausea and digestive discomfort having to stay up for as much as 5 hours before returning for more short sleep periods.

3rd March: 3 weeks from the incident I was allowed to lightly weight bear on my R leg. I started doing that on March 2nd, increasing the frequency by getting out of the wheelchair and walking mostly on 1 leg using a walking frame. 6 weeks is the timeframe for most bone fractures to heal. I plan to start walking in a shallow warm swimming pool and swim to regain muscle strength in both legs from about 8 weeks post incident. In the meantime my arms have been strengthened by lots of wheel chair propulsion to water the garden, move around the house with the occasional trip to visit local cafes to sense the real world once again!

Monday 26th Feb: I had a local newspaper photographer visit me in hospital followed by a phone interview with a Journalist from the same paper. Large spread 'West Australian' 27th Feb. pg. 14, I was sold the last copy held by the hospital newsagent. Following the phone interview, another interview with channel 7 television Presenter and TV camera man to film. Very comprehensive / accurate report led the evening's news items 26th Feb. Monday night though I didn't see it until arriving home on 28th Feb. CCTV footage mentioned below was included in the report. All of this was with the aim of raising the profile to cyclists and public regarding the increase use of illegal motorbike on Perth's PSPs. Also a sudden increase in violence related issues with motorbike involvement.

The incident on 11th Feb was being connected by Police with CCTV footage from the Fiona Stanley Hospital car park (12km N of incident) which captured my assailants very near the time of my assault driving into the bottom floor. (probably to break into cars) The occupants were not identifiable facially - smaller pillion rider obscured by taller male driver who had swaddling on head leaving only mouth & eyes uncovered. The police also took my back mounted hydration pack and jersey for forensic examination.

BEFORE THE INCIDENT: On Friday night 9th Feb, 3 days prior to the incident I was riding in a fully lit area on the PSP next to the busy Kwinana freeway 5 km from Perth's CBD when a motorbike with driver and pillion rider paused alongside me, the driver kicked me in the R thigh/ITB and they rode off laughing. (Not the same bike/riders from my crash) Being low centre of gravity this impact did not knock me off the bike, indeed my direction of travel barely changed. I was just surprised by the pain in my ITB and instinctively rode hard towards the Swan River Narrows freeway bridge, driven by adrenalin and anger. The leg was fine following a hot/cold treatment in the shower. The morning revealed no bruise/much pain, just a 4 cm imprint from the rider's footwear.

My wife Helen has raised the issues with Main Roads Dept. regarding lack of security cameras and lighting on these sections of PSP all adjacent to the well lit freeway. (Also adjacent to many new well lit suburbs) Main Roads just handballed the issue to the Police who are under resourced and can't legally follow any of these people onto shared paths using motorbikes.

UPDATE

The detective involved with my case visited us last Thursday to inform us that my assailants are currently in custody at a local Juvenile Detention Centre (captured for another/other of their multiple offences) The guy driving the motorbike confessed to kicking me in the forearm and then indicated that they had waited down the path a bit to watch me pull myself up and make the phone call to my wife. If this was the case they would have to have waited at least 5 minutes as it took me some time to do these things. It sounds like a bit of a fabricated story given that they had seen the television report which was quite detailed.

During the last week I appear to be suffering from delayed concussion with head fog, constant tiredness and interrupted sleep. I had a CT scan of my head yesterday with a GP consult today.
On close inspection, the 'minor damage' to my helmet mentioned in my hospital discharge notes is anything but, with deep fractures to the foam casing in multiple places. Without the helmet I would either be dead of substantially disabled. I will be replacing it with something similar to my other helmet which has a MIPS harness which is better at dissipating the rotational forces of an impact.

There is a meeting of the Bike Riding Reference Group next week where the Department of Transport (DoT) is keen to discuss this issue with Main Roads, WA Local Government Association (WALGA), WA Police, Road Safety Commission and Westcycle to understand the scale of this problem, and what can be done to deter illegal behaviours on PSPs/shared paths.

[Mike Ayling]

What an experience!
I hope you recover fully in time and the scrotes responsible get more than a slap on the wrist.

Mike

[jasonc]

Horrible cavebear. Hope the recovery keeps heading in the right direction

[Retrobyte]

Glad you're on the mend from what sounds like a terrible time for you. There are similar teens on trail bikes that try this type of behaviour on the M7 cycleway here in Sydney - not sure why they think it's fun to knock cyclists over for no reason.

[Andy01]

Terrible thing to go through. I hope that you continue recovering well.

Good thing that they have caught the cretins and hopefully the justice system works better in Perth than it does in Brisbane, and they actually get charged with something serious that carries some real jail time.

[g-boaf]

Glad you're on the mend from what sounds like a terrible time for you. There are similar teens on trail bikes that try this type of behaviour on the M7 cycleway here in Sydney - not sure why they think it's fun to knock cyclists over for no reason.

Society educates them they cyclists are w__e and don’t matter, they are cockroaches on wheels, etc and they will get away with it because it’s the only time public doesn’t expect law and order. And besides, if the rider didn’t do “whatever” it wouldn’t have happen.

The little angels deserve a hefty penalty.

Sad to hear the OP has gone through that.

[Mr Purple]

Society educates them they cyclists are w__e and don’t matter, they are cockroaches on wheels, etc and they will get away with it because it’s the only time public doesn’t expect law and order. And besides, if the rider didn’t do “whatever” it wouldn’t have happen.

This is the exact problem. I have been mocked by 80km/hr+ PMD riders on the V1 veloway who pass me at speed while I'm pushing 40km/hr. These are manchildren on overgrown children's toys breaking their limit by 55km/hr and they feel it's appropriate to make fun of someone doing it all legally on their own efforts. It's pretty easy to imagine the step to outright assault is a small one.

The current public perception that e-bikes and e-scooters are harmless and over-regulated is also one that needs to go. Because the step to actual motorbikes on the veloways is a very small one at this point.

Best of luck with your recovery, OP. I fully believe your assailants should be charged with assault with a deadly weapon but apparently using a vehicle to attack someone is perceived as less evil than using a baseball bat, despite being far more dangerous. I've never worked that one out.

[jasonc]

The current public perception that e-bikes and e-scooters are harmless and over-regulated is also one that needs to go. Because the step to actual motorbikes on the veloways is a very small one at this point.

This. Sadly there's a few on this forum who don't agree

[g-boaf]

The current public perception that e-bikes and e-scooters are harmless and over-regulated is also one that needs to go. Because the step to actual motorbikes on the veloways is a very small one at this point.

This. Sadly there's a few on this forum who don't agree

Yes, we have a number of “I’m a cyclist, but” types on here who are very quick to defend motorist rights in any situation.

[jasonc]

The current public perception that e-bikes and e-scooters are harmless and over-regulated is also one that needs to go. Because the step to actual motorbikes on the veloways is a very small one at this point.

This. Sadly there's a few on this forum who don't agree

Yes, we have a number of “I’m a cyclist, but” types on here who are very quick to defend motorist rights in any situation.

I'm talking about the pmds that are really motorbikes in the same group

[warthog1]

That is sh it Cavebear!
Turds, if they are not adult aged, will likely get no meaningful penalty either.

Hope you recover fully Cavebear.

[blkmcs]

That's a horrifying tale cavebear2, hope you recover well.

Mike

[cavebear2]

I must apologise for the sequencing of stuff in my post, I first posted all of this stuff on to a Bike Journal forum, some of it from my hospital bed as I realised the need to create awareness of the problem some 9 days before my wife and I got the media involved.
Then it suddenly dawned on me that this forum was the obvious place to promote more local awareness, though it's obvious that you are all pretty aware of this and the electric bike/petrol bike issues doing high speeds. (on paths & on roads)

I'm staying positive regarding the attempt by local authorities to determine/quantify at least the scale of the issue in Perth. Westcycle already had completed a survey where more than 270 cyclists responded regarding the use of motorbikes on Perth's PSPs.
https://westcycle.org.au/perths-world-class-shared-path-network-blighted-by-illegal-motorbike-riding/

As for as the juvenile offenders in question, it is clear to me that very little will happen in regard to charging them, though a motor bike rider was sentenced to jail for 10 years for killing an 80 year old man on Perth's Roe Hwy PSP about a year ago.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/tyson-denny-sentence-motorbike-crash-killed-john-peters/102363804

On a positive note my walking is getting better by the day at 5 weeks today - we went to the movies today by train and I walked unaided from the TS to the cinema. I have paid for it a bit by being unable to sit comfortably tonight because of the deep ache in my pelvis. The cure is a good nights sleep then I'm generally good for at least a short period in the morning though I find it best to keep moving and changing position throughout the day as there is less pain and this strategy appears to be aiding my recovery.

Also I am determined to get back on the bike having achieved my lifetime AUDAX goal of 100,000 km last year (currently at 110,000 km) and I'm only 89,000 km short of my major goal of 300,000 miles (482,802 km) since 2004. The 300,000 Mile Club is a U.K. group https://300k-cc.co.uk/ who are similar like minded obsessives! Looking at the site there appears to be 179 people who have been accepted as members: 64 current and 115 deceased...

[elantra]

Thankyou, Cavebear 2 , for posting on this forum.

Your predicament and the issues that it raises have obviously flown under the radar of the usual commercial media so I guess few people in the broader Australian cycling community were aware

Sadly our commercial media world is a bit dominated by click bait news items these days, and social media is dominated by flimsy content

Yours is more than just an issue of personal pain and setbacks.
It’s also an issue of Public safety, and many other issues such as justice etc etc etc

In terms of “Public safety” it’s part of the broader issue of how to prevent criminal behaviour.
I would contend that it’s actually more important for the local authorities to discuss ways to reduce or eliminate criminal behaviour rather than to just investigate it’s scale such as on the bikeways etc

Because if there are no good plans made to deal with the problem of lawlessness then it will get worse.
And another person will be injured or killed. And then they might decide to do another study to determine its prevalence. And so on, a cycle of useless dithering by the authorities.
Of course the other problem is that if using public spaces (eg bikeways/footpaths) becomes too hazardous then they will get used less and less and probably get even more hazardous, neglected and vandalised.