Hell Ride crash 'inevitable'

I can understand the view that the rider should have taken more
responsibility for his actions, but there are a number of additional
things that I think need to be considered.
- If he had put on the breaks, knowing that the habit of the ride was
to push through, and a crash was cause because of this and you were one
of the cyclist caught up in the crash who would you have held
responsible.

-if the mentality of the group is to push through lights, then should
not have the whole group been held responsible?

From what I understand the Hell ride is very similar to a ride here in
Canberra called the Bakery Ride. Fortunately for this group there is
almost no pedestrian traffic on the route so a Hell ride incident is
unlikely, but the fact that no one has been hit by a car is a real
wonder. The other saving grace is that the numbers are not in the same
league as the Hell Ride.

Having been on this ride once (admittedly got dropped reasonably
quickly), I made the conscious decision that I would never do it again.
The behaviour of the group when it came to traffic lights and the
disregard that the group has at roundabouts was of the same mentality
that of the Hell Ride.


--
jcjordan

On May 3, 7:15 pm, Zebee Johnstone wrote:
In aus.bicycle on Thu, 3 May 2007 16:35:17 +1000

MikeyOz wrote:

Zebee Johnstone Wrote:
What would be an equivalent decision for non-HellRide cyclists to show
the dilemma? Not sure, what is a common cyclist thing that's
theoretically illegal but is often done and almost never causes a
problem?
Zebee

I understand what you are saying, but you missed my point.

Yes, I was riffing on it really.

IN that there is certainly personal responsibility but why are people
"not responsible"? Do they think "I will be irresponsible"? Do they
think "I'll kill someone but I don't care"?

Nope... more likely to be normal people doing something that has
ceased to be "wrong" because there have been no consequences. TIll
now.

Zebee


I'd say the person responsible is living out the consequences as we
speak, and they are about
as serious as they get. Not in terms of legal or whatever, but put
yourself in his
position.

I recall the religous group in the US that had some kids killed in a
shooting
from one of their members. They invited the shooter to the funeral.
Now that's
commitment. Their belief is in forgiveness, and they believe in
putting their
convictions into action.

You can't base civilisation on endless blame, and revenge. There was a
mistake,
it was a minor one, but it had totally unexpected consequences. End of
story.

jcjordan wrote:
I can understand the view that the rider should have taken more
responsibility for his actions, but there are a number of additional
things that I think need to be considered.
- If he had put on the breaks, knowing that the habit of the ride was
to push through, and a crash was cause because of this and you were one
of the cyclist caught up in the crash who would you have held
responsible.

You are responsible for riding safely. He should go to gaol, just like I
xpect a mv driver to be sent for killing someone.

You really need to read some of the comments. It is clear that some
people in front of him did stop at the lights.

jcjordan Wrote:

-if the mentality of the group is to push through lights, then should
not have the whole group been held responsible?


Nope.... no way.... and has been quite clearly stated people in front
of him had already stopped, they were the people that had blocked the
visibility of Mr Gould to see the riders and vice versa. Did they not
fear they were going to get hit as well ?

I do not do the ride anymore exactly for the reasons you have said,
particularly after some of the nasty incidents I saw on it, involving
just cyclists in the ride. But even back when I was riding it, people
still made a decision whether to run the lights or not.

If you are going to do that you have to be responsible for your
actions.


--
MikeyOz

"MikeyOz" wrote in message
...

Plodder Wrote:

Picky bit: It's "arse" here in Oz.


as in "You are a pain in" ?

You must know me


I can't be assed writing arse, so I write ass..... ooops sorry.


--
MikeyOz

TimC wrote:
MikeyOz wrote
Zebee Johnstone Wrote:

My point was take responsibility for your actions, instead of hiding
behind the guise of "I was riding in a group, it was going to happen,
it just happened to be me, but because I was riding in a group,
nothing should happen to me"

Total bullsh*t

Put your hand up and say, it was my fault I decided to run the red
light and I Killed someone, not the group, not the person behind me
or in front of me. But me because "I" decided to run the red light.

Particularly since there are (unsubstantiated) allegations he rode
around a part of the bunch that had already stopped. Of course, they
are going to say that to get themselves out of trouble, but who do you
believe?

I think the decision to run reds were made by a lot of people when they
decided to join the ride.

Theo