Tuesday, 11 December 2007

One more down

Crikey, there have been two cyclists killed in the last week or so in Sydney. One got knocked down in Newcastle this morning whilst out on a training ride. By a truck of all things. Nasty way to go.

I deal in risk indentification and risk mitigation every day. It's part of my job. It's something useful that I have applied to cycling a lot - I am always assessing risk whenever I am riding. A big part of my risk mitigation strategy is to avoid trucks. I do that by staying away from roads where there are a lot of trucks, and giving them a wide berth whenever I see one. If I see a semi trailer indicating to turn a corner, I don't try and zoom around him - I slow down and stop if necessary and wait for him to turn. I don't want to find myself alongside a truck that suddenly isn't turning and I have 50 tonnes of semi coming my way.

I'm patient enough now to just wait a few seconds.

This poor bloke didn't have that luxury. The truck just took him out. Wouldn't be surprised if it was a swaying trailer.

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