On my commute home on Tuesday I was hit by a car and came off my bike pretty hard. Having a few days to think about it makes me even angrier at what happened.
It was at about 18:00 on Winnie St, in Cremorne (click on the image below to go to the Google maps markup).
Here are the events as I see it:
- I’m waiting at the traffic lights at the intersection of Winnie St and Gerard St, heading north, at the front of the queue on the left. There was a big queue of cars on the other side heading in the other direction.
- The lights turn green, I take off slowly so as to merge into the traffic lane from the parked cars lane. I merge about half way down the picture above. Just before I merged a van overtook me on my right side (traffic lane) and I see a car waiting to turn right into the queue heading the other way.
- The van passes this intersection and suddenly the car turning right is in front of me with no time to brake. I go over the bonnet and hit the road on the other side.
- I get up, pick up my bike, the car behind me honks their horn (!!!), a woman helps retrieve my water bottle, and the driver gets out of his car.
- He apologises, gives me his business card, takes my number, offers me a lift home (which I refused) and says he’ll call tomorrow. At this point I was in shock and his actions gave me no reason to suggest that he was unfriendly. Because of this I didn’t take down any further details.
- I went to the medical centre after getting home to assess any damage. No broken bones or concussion despite the heavy fall and my helmet being cracked.
- I then went to the local police station to raise a report. They took down the details and the business card and said that they would attempt to contact him and for me to notify them if he calls tomorrow.
- No call the next day. Called the police in the evening and they explained that the person on the card was not in the country and knew nothing of the accident. They mentioned that they were in Sydney in January for a conference and handed out lots of cards to prospective clients.
This doesn’t leave me with much to go on. Luckily there seems to be no serious damage to myself and my bike is insured for any damages, but the whole incident leaves me angry.
How can someone front a person they’ve just injured, apologise, appear sorry, and then give them false information? What would possess a person to do such things? Are we conditioned in this modern world to not take accountability for our actions?
Yes, I made the mistake of not taking down the registration number and the person’s license information, but I was in shock and his actions made it seem like he was legitimate. The funny thing is that earlier that day I remarked to my friend Michael that I’m trying to curb my anger towards motorists as we need to take the moral high ground as a cyclist even though there’s so much animosity towards us in Sydney.
Well sir, if you’re reading this, you are a disgrace.
I’ve attached some pictures below.
