Hi all
I saw a bike + vehicle crash today, 5 pm Monday 26 January 2004 in
Whitehall Street, Seddon, Victoria. The people involved said they were
both ok, so I didn't stay around or leave my contact details.
I later realised that I should have, so I left my details with a
Sergeant Smith at Footscray police station about 8 pm Monday 26 January
2004. And I'm also posting to aus.bicycles, just for peace of mind.
At about 5 pm Monday 26 January 2004, I noticed a male cyclist riding
north on the bike lane on Whitehall Street between Harris Street and
Youell Street Seddon (Melways ref 42 D7) about 50 metres ahead, to the
north of me. He was a tall man about 50-55, wearing a white t-shirt,
and riding either a hybrid or MTB, which I think was dark coloured -
maybe blue - with a frame/headset/bars set up so he was riding in a very
upright position. I was riding north along the shared footpath along
the eastern side of Whitehall Street. I briefly wondered why the other
cyclist wasn't taking the opportunity to ride along the shared footpath.
I assumed he was going toward the bike path along the west side of the
Marirbyrnong River as I was. The route to the Marirbyrnong starts just
north of the eastern side of Youell Street. I then shifted my attention
to my own ride.
Next thing I noticed was the cyclist sprawled on the road about about 3
metres from the eastern curb of Whitehall Street, about 10 metres from
the corner of Youell Street. He was on the road about 0.5 metres north
of his bicycle. He was being looked after to by a man of medium height
about 30-40. I can't remember what he was wearing, but he was the
driver of a small (maybe 4-cylinder?) dark-coloured (dark green?) 4WD
that apparently had come out of a driveway about 10 metres from the
corner of Youell Street and hit the cyclist. The 4WD was stopped about
2 metres from the eastern curb of Whitehall Street, about 10 metres
from the corner of Youell Street, and its front windscreen - obviously
safety glass - was from the passengers side 2/3rds smashed. I didn't
hear any impact sound.
I was concerned that cyclist might have suffered lower body and
especially mid body bone fractures - legs, pelvis or ribs - or injuries
to his abdominal organs, because of the height of the front of the 4WD.
My guess is that they were both very lucky indeed, perhaps because as
the 4WD was on a downward slope in the driveway and the cyclist was tall
and in an upright riding position.
I saw that cyclist had a big knee scrape on his left leg. I saw him
get up and walk over to pick up his helmet about a metre away from where
he was (either it was on the handlebars or not well secured to his
head... GRRR! - legs, arms, ribs, even hips can heal, but you can't get
a head transplant yet!.) I guessed this meant that the cyclist didn't
have any serious bone or other internal injuries. I asked them if they
were OK, and they both said yes. Since it seemed that the cyclist
hadn't received any serious injuries and he and the 4WD driver were
going to work things about by themselves, I rode on.
I don't think anything will come of this, but as I said, now I feel very
bad about riding off without leaving contact details.
Please email wherepetejunk19 at hotmail dot com or fred_kneeman at
hotmail dot com for further contact details..
[censored]
p