This cyclist was trying to change lane and indicated with his hand. But the huge truck sped past, hitting him as he moved across the road. It was all captured in the frightening clip below.
This is one of the craziest clips we’ve seen online and the cyclist involved – in fact all three of them – are very lucky to be alive.
But aside from simply marvelling at how the riders lived to tell the tale; there’s a really valuable lesson for all cyclists to be taken from this - be decisive and act quickly.
The camera angle of the clip makes it difficult to determine exactly what took place.
The clip starts just moments before impact and better footage, and perhaps knowledge of the junction where this occurred, would be needed to truly understand what happened here.
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But it looks like the cyclist was seeking to move to the right to merge into another lane.
The truck coming behind him – which seems to be going much too fast and also crossed a continuous white line– was hurtling straight down the lane the rider was cutting across.
The cyclist simply rode into the side of the huge vehicle halfway through his attempted lane switch.
The rider very nearly goes under the truck's wheels and his buddy filming from the bike behind has a close shave too. He truck doesn't bring him down but he falls when he hits his stricken mate on the ground.
It’s not our role to apportion blame. And seeing as we’re a cycling site after all, let’s focus on the cyclist’s behaviour and what we, as bike riders, can take from this.
- There seems to be no effort, or certainly a half hearted one at best, to check over his shoulder to see what’s coming behind.
- The rider hit by the truck puts his arm out to indicate where he is going. Again, he doesn’t really commit to sticking his arm out quickly and strongly and holding it there.
- If you look at the clip closely, the cyclist is virtually on the white line on the right side of the lane before the truck arrives in the frame. But he then significantly veers to his left, into the centre of the lane and into the path of the truck while (weakly) indicating right. As he indicates one way he (disastrously) veers the opposite way on the road.
Leaving aside the trucker’s speed and inability to react when something unexpected happens; there are several things the cyclist should have done and that you should make part of your routine on a bike.
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The guys anxiously assess the damage, with the rider furthest from the camera confirming with his moans of pain, and perhaps fright, that he's still alive.
The key thing here is to be assertive, clear and to act quickly.
- When changing lane, always take a good hard look behind you and assess what’s happening; whether it’s safe to move or better to stay put for a few seconds. Look properly; don’t make a token glance.
- If signalling left or right, put your arm out – straight and strong at shoulder height – and keep it out there to leave those behind you in no doubt that you are about to move and where you are going.
- When you take one hand off the bars and/or look behind you, your steering is compromised. So make sure to focus on maintaining your position on the road.
- Once you have checked behind clearly and indicated properly, act briskly when making your move. Commit to what you are doing and don’t hang about; something this cyclist failed to do, with his indecision and lack of assertiveness very nearly costing him his life.
Just to stress one more time; we are not apportioning blame.
We have focused on the cyclist’s actions, rather than the trucker’s, simply because it’s his shoes we will be in next time we’re on the bike.
They say it's a fine line between pleasure and pain.This is the line and this is insane!!
Posted by Safe Cycling Australia on Monday, 13 April 2015
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