Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

Club member Anthony Platts-Baggs was involved in a collision with a truck this morning.

The collision occurred on the Princes Highway, May Street intersection at St Peters according to media reports. He's in hospital with a reported fractured pelvis and was conscious and reportedly in good humour before they took him off to surgery.

All the best for a speedy recovery and best wishes from all your club mates.

So many people recognised Anthony's bike from the media pics.

MSM already blaming Anthony for the crash .... I'm off to calm down.

I've written to the Daily Tele to ask them to turn off comments btw. That's just appalling.

The comments are still coming on the Telegraph article, simply horrible

Anthony is named in the SMH article: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/cyclist-recov ... zr1px.html

Update over night

"Hi guys it's Bec, thank you all so much for your kind offers of support. Ant is in intensive care and in a stable condition. He is in good spirits. We will know more in the coming days. I will post up when we move to hospital and can have guests. Thanks again, Bec xoxoxo

Really sorry to hear this.
Wishing Anthony all the best for a speedy recovery.

and this morning on the MC Hills ride I was targeted by a truck driver who passed so close to me on Military Rd at Bondi that if there hadn't been a gap in the parked cars I could easily have joined Anthony in IC, or the be in the morgue. The driver just didn't care at all - big man in a big truck. I was shaking afterwards it was that close. It's almost enough to stop me riding. The attitude of many drivers is so appalling and I just can't see a solution.

A good example of why you should control your Facebook privacy settings. The last thing you want in this sort of situation is the Telegraph having access to it.

yay! technology.

i just had a dude from the tele call my work looking for me. i recon it's for an inside 'scoop' story

If they do call again Lizanne can you just say that they have to speak to Eleri. They seem to be attempting to contact everyone.

Appalled that the police have so quickly and publicly exonerated the truck driver from any blame, thereby blaming Anthony. Whereas when six cyclists get hit from behind on a three lane road where clearly the driver is at fault, they're 'still investigating' months later. Just shows the attitude of the NSW Police towards cyclists.

Best wishes to Anthony.
Is there any practical help required that the club can provide?

Paul

Appalled that the police have so quickly and publicly exonerated the truck driver from any blame, thereby blaming Anthony. Whereas when six cyclists get hit from behind on a three lane road where clearly the driver is at fault, they're 'still investigating' months later. Just shows the attitude of the NSW Police towards cyclists.

This infuriates me.

I must say going on the admittedly scant detail I know of this incident, it does stun me that they've already cleared the driver

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/n ... 6901436621

Comments are appearing under this article, seems to be heading the same way as the other Telegraph article

and....
Also on Wednesday, at 4pm I crossed the Princes Highway along with many pedestrians when the "Green Man" showed. A red P plated car shot through the red light and hit me side on. It's a miracle that I am alive. A witness couldn't believe I actually stood up. He repeated saying "You've got to buy a lottery ticket!"
Nothing is broken just bruising.

Interestingly, it would appear that in light of this accident and the fatality involving another cyclist on Military Road last night, the NSW Transport Minister, Duncan Gay, is considering taking action.

And by action, I mean looking at a really dumb option, licensing cyclists, and possibly banning them from certain roads.

NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay says he is "increasingly persuaded" that a licensing system needs to be introduced for cyclists on the state's roads to combat an alarming number of rider deaths.

Asked if cyclists should be banned from certain busy thoroughfares, such the Princes Highway, Mr Gay told 2UE that he was considering the option.
"We will look at it on a safety basis," Mr Gay said.
"The hard thing is, if I put a carte blanche ban in, there are some really good rides that cyclists do, and part of it involves Southern Cross Drive and then on down to Wollongong. I understand how important this is for cyclists, but there have been a couple of accidents there," he said.

Full Story

here's a better idea, these two accidents were caused by motor vehicles, nealy every accident on NSW roads are caused by motor vehicles, let's ban them instead.

Knuck Fuckle.

I would like to hear the licensing reasoning behind the licensing system bit. It will cost and make money, but besides that? I think that in ten years time when more people are on bikes it will be a highly regretted decision by most people.

I don't really care who was at fault here, I just think that people should realize that a good lad has been stuck under a truck here with disastrous consequences here. Comments should show some compassion.

The licensing idea is so stupid that's not even worth taking serious note of. Clearly one of those off the cuff comment geared for certain segments of the electorate. The key word is "consider". It won't come to anything as it's way too expensive to administer and impossible to police.

I don't really care who was at fault here, I just think that people should realize that a good lad has been stuck under a truck here with disastrous consequences here. Comments should show some compassion.

Too many motorists can't/don't/won't see cyclists as a living breathing human being who can pass the Turing test. They just see someone who they don't think pays for the use of the road.

They make asinine arguments for why we shouldn't be on the road all of which are utter garbage and are PRATT (Previously Refuted A Thousand Times) reasons.

As is pointed out in Michael's response, 4 out of 5 accidents between cyclists and motorists were determined as being the motorists fault, yet repeatadly, when accidents like these two happen, people want to blame the cyclist for just being there.

With Anthony's and other accidents being used as a political punching bag, Cycling NSW has released the following statement;

Mike
This statement is from BNSW. Cycling NSW is a totally different body.
Their target membership are everyday commuter cyclists, while CA/CNSW looks after sports cycling.
BNSW has been going thru a difficult spate recently and it is good to see them taking a strong stand on this issue. Only hope CA/CNSW can do the same.

Update on Anthony

He's had one big op and further surgery due this week which will have him fully stabilised. He's looking good and getting there, and nearly off all life support machines. He's still not able to have visitors but hopefully in the next few weeks.

I've offered the club's full support.

Thanks for the update Eleri.
Sending lots of positive thoughts for Anthony from the west.

I've been holding off, because of how pubic Anthony's situation got, but I'm hoping that now it's just us? Love and hugs Anthony P-B, and many virtual flowers. I've been thinking of you a lot these last few weeks.

Camilla
xxx