It's not a very upbeat story, there isn't much detail in the story and it seems kind of short-sighted to only give much thought to stories about cyclists getting killed locally but here's an incident which happened a couple of days ago:
Cyclist dies in a road accidentA cyclist has died following a road traffic accident in Antrim on Thursday.
The victim was on a bicycle which collided with a lorry on the Randalstown Road at around 5.15pm.
The road was closed for several hours leading to serious traffic congestion and motorists were advised to avoid the area.
Police in Antrim have appealed for anyone who witnessed the collision to contact them on 028 9065 0222 or Crimestoppers 0800 555111.
As I mentioned before, it somehow seems rather short-sighted, backwards and selfish to only stop to think about things happening locally but it definitely 'hits home' more when incidents happen somewhere we know from personal experience. We were out for a cycle today and part of it took in a section of the very road the fatal crash (I'm hesitant to refer to it as an 'accident' without knowing the exact circumstances) occurred on a couple of days ago. It didn't get much press coverage and I can't seem to find out any further information.
As I wrote before, it's not very uplifting but it was on my mind and I thought I would write about it.
As I wrote before, it's not very uplifting but it was on my mind and I thought I would write about it.
4 comments:
It does seem scarier when it's somewhere you're familiar with. My first thought is
to assume that it was a motorist's fault, which is a bit unfair, though unfortunately in this country it seems (in my experiece anyway) that a lot of motorist's don't even consider that the way they drive near cyclists could cause a fatal accident.
I agree with you about motorists not being overly considerate of cyclists. It can be very scary indeed. I would say most motorists are pretty considerate and will give cyclists ample room but a small percentage are terrible. Given the amount of motorised traffic on our roads, it doesn't take a big proportion of poor motorists to make things dangerous for cyclists. Unfortunately, whilst I think Ireland (or Northern Ireland anyway) is pretty bad as these things go, I doubt it's something specifically located here and I can only imagine you get it round the whole world. I've heard people say French and Italian drivers are very noticeably more considerate to cyclists than we would be used to. Not having cycled in either country (although I would love to cycle in both), I can't speak/write from any personal experience.
I think incidents, such as the death I mentioned in the post, certainly 'hit home' a lot more when it's somewhere you go on a regular basis. It seems to form much more of a part of one's life than the anonymity of somewhere we've never been.
Sorry to hear! Things like this really hit the local cycling community hard, whether or not you knew the rider. It's quite sobering to realize this thing that's so much a part of who we are is the very thing that puts us at risk.
Keep riding. Be safe!
-TOB
I don't know any details about the death, other than where and roughly when it happened. It would be good if it was deemed worthy of a proper report in the local news. Then again, I'm sure there are many non-cycling related deaths people don't feel are reported in an in-depth manner too.
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