Rider down - Turramurra, NSW, Wednesday

I meant to post this yesterday, but got a little sidetracked. Anyway,
I ducked out for a quick blat on the mutter road /mutter yesterday -
my place to Mt Colah via Bobbin Head and back is a good 40km trip with a
couple of decent hills. About 6km in I saw a bank up of traffic, and as I
filtered through saw a bike down in the middle of the road. Not good.

Anyway, I stopped just as the assisting motorists helped the rider to the
side of the road, and stuck around to see if I could help. As best as can
be reconstructed the rider was signalling right and either dropped his
hand to the brake or hit a bump causing the front wheel to turn and him to
fly over the bars. Looks like he landed on head and shoulder, and the
shoulder was sitting at a nasty angle. A few scrapes elsewhere as well. He
was having some memory troubles, but knew his name. The ambos came fairly
quickly. Bike needed the front lever adjusted back into position, and
he'll need a new helmet since his was nicely squished at the front.

I doubt they'll see this, but who knows, so thanks to the people who
stopped, and best wishes to Peter (the rider) in making a quick and full
recovery.

--
Dave Hughes |
"One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that,
lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of
their C programs." -- Robert Firth

In article ,
"Dave" wrote:

I meant to post this yesterday, but got a little sidetracked. Anyway,
I ducked out for a quick blat on the mutter road /mutter yesterday -
my place to Mt Colah via Bobbin Head and back is a good 40km trip with a
couple of decent hills. About 6km in I saw a bank up of traffic, and as I
filtered through saw a bike down in the middle of the road. Not good.

Anyway, I stopped just as the assisting motorists helped the rider to the
side of the road, and stuck around to see if I could help. As best as can
be reconstructed the rider was signalling right and either dropped his
hand to the brake or hit a bump causing the front wheel to turn and him to
fly over the bars. Looks like he landed on head and shoulder, and the
shoulder was sitting at a nasty angle. A few scrapes elsewhere as well. He
was having some memory troubles, but knew his name. The ambos came fairly
quickly. Bike needed the front lever adjusted back into position, and
he'll need a new helmet since his was nicely squished at the front.

Needs some way to signal without taking our hands off the handlebar...
Ummm.
--

In aus.bicycle on Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:31:37 GMT
Artoi wrote:

Needs some way to signal without taking our hands off the handlebar...
Ummm.

You can buy turnsignals for bicycles on ebay....

Zebee

On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:31:37 +0000, Artoi wrote:

Needs some way to signal without taking our hands off the handlebar...
Ummm.

Maybe. I got the impression from bike + kit that he hadn't been riding
that long, though he told the ambos that 50-80km was a decent ride so has
been going for a little while. Road bikes are a lot twitchier than MTBs and
kids' bikes, so it's easy to see someone coming unstuck while learning or
refreshing their skills. OTOH this bloke could have been riding roadies
forever and was simply riding a hack bike with an old helmet. I know some
of my bikes and the helmet I leave at the station look pretty dodgy! [1]

That said, it's fairly easy to ride one handed and even no-handed most of
the time, and sometimes you can have the front wheel kicked out even with
both hands on the bar - most of the time you'll recover it, but falling
off a bike happens. In this case I suspect it was simply a goof,
possibly exacerbated by a lack of experience.

[1] Some may extend this statement to the rider.
--
Dave Hughes |
"Forty-two" - Deep Thought

Dave wrote:
I meant to post this yesterday, but got a little sidetracked. Anyway,
I ducked out for a quick blat on the mutter road /mutter yesterday -
my place to Mt Colah via Bobbin Head and back is a good 40km trip with a
couple of decent hills. About 6km in I saw a bank up of traffic, and as I
filtered through saw a bike down in the middle of the road. Not good.

Anyway, I stopped just as the assisting motorists helped the rider to the
side of the road, and stuck around to see if I could help. As best as can
be reconstructed the rider was signalling right and either dropped his
hand to the brake or hit a bump causing the front wheel to turn and him to
fly over the bars. Looks like he landed on head and shoulder, and the
shoulder was sitting at a nasty angle. A few scrapes elsewhere as well. He
was having some memory troubles, but knew his name. The ambos came fairly
quickly. Bike needed the front lever adjusted back into position, and
he'll need a new helmet since his was nicely squished at the front.

I doubt they'll see this, but who knows, so thanks to the people who
stopped, and best wishes to Peter (the rider) in making a quick and full
recovery.


So would he have been any worse off without a helmet?

--
Ben - Wipe off 25

"My name is Korg from planet dyslexia, your arses are fruity, take me
to your dealer, or you will all be laminated, ." RV, melb.general

On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:05:03 +0000, PHATRS wrote:

So would he have been any worse off without a helmet?

No, because now he'll need to fork out for a new one.If he hadn't been
wearing it he'd be financially better off.

--
Dave Hughes |
Love wouldn't be blind if the braille wasn't so damned much fun.
- Armistead Maupin

In article ,
"Dave" wrote:

On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:05:03 +0000, PHATRS wrote:

So would he have been any worse off without a helmet?

No, because now he'll need to fork out for a new one.If he hadn't been
wearing it he'd be financially better off.

A dead rider is a lot cheaper to deal with from Medicare's point of view
too.
--

"Artoi" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Dave" wrote:

On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:05:03 +0000, PHATRS wrote:

So would he have been any worse off without a helmet?

No, because now he'll need to fork out for a new one.If he hadn't been
wearing it he'd be financially better off.

A dead rider is a lot cheaper to deal with from Medicare's point of view
too.
--

Dead people are surprisingly expensive. It's only the really nasty severe
injuries with lots of surgery and followup therapy and care that cost more.

Resound wrote:

Dead people are surprisingly expensive.

How much would one cost? And is shipping included?

Theo

In article ,
"Resound" wrote:

"Artoi" wrote in message
...

A dead rider is a lot cheaper to deal with from Medicare's point of view
too.

Dead people are surprisingly expensive.

Out of private funds, nothing to do with the government.

This argument is similar to restricting tobacco sales. The more people
smoke, the earlier their death will come after their retirement, the
less government will have to fork out in continuing health care and age
pension. At the same time, there'll be a solid tobacco tax revenue.
--