Video: Australian TV news takes piss out of cyclist in crash video
The cyclist hit by the falling tree branch joined the commentary on social media.
It is an extraordinary piece of footage and its appearance on a TV news show should perhaps not be regarded as unusual.
But hosts of the 7 News Sydney programme that carried the item looked to have enjoyed it just a little too much.
One of the hosts suggests another cyclist just ahead may have ripped the branch as he passed, much to everyone else’s amusement.
Then they move onto a few Lance Armstrong “jokes”.
The cyclist wasn’t badly injured, but the Safe Cycling Australia campaign clearly wasn’t amused.
It pointed out that another cyclist had been killed on Sydney’s roads on the same day.
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The early morning show may have been broadcast before that (unrelated) fatality occurred, or news of it broke.
But it is difficult to imagine a TV show taking the piss in this way had the branch landed on a car, somebody jogging or a dog walker.
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"These comments are disgusting,” Safe Cycling Australian said.
“7 News Sydney, you really are scraping the bottom of the barrel today. On the day a cyclist is killed on Sydney roads, this is the best you can do.
“These are people, flesh and bone. These are the lives of Aussies, human beings.”
A Facebook user claiming to be the cyclist in the clip added to the comments being made by readers of 7 News Sydney's Facebook page.
A lot of the comments were very offensive but after a series of complaints to the channel they seem to have been filtered out now.
"I am the cyclist in the footage," the Facebook user claiming to be the victim wrote.
"I was lucky not to be seriously injured. I will be speaking to Channel 7 management during the week.
"In the interim, I wish you all nothing like the kind of luck I received in still being able to walk."
7 News Sydney
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