Cyclist down...

positron

Drove by an incident on old N1 around 7:25 am heading south, bit north of Lissenhall Junction, where the road works are going on and the two lanes merge into one (location). Cyclist, wearing helmet, high-viz jacket etc was lying on his left on the road, half on the bike and half off, motionless but covered to keep warm. There were a couple of cars stopped at the scene and at least one person on phone to emergency services I hope. AndI just hope he is okay and it's nothing serious. Please be careful out there as it's getting darker out there which makes it harder for drivers, and with traffic getting heavier, some of them are getting very impatient too.

It is the route of some of the boards bikers - Jawgap, please post!

Beasty

It's not Jawgap, and it's not me, nor any other boardsie

The guy is a regular commuter on that route. I've spoken to him a few times. I was through (in the car this morning) just after the accident, and stopped when I saw him on the road

I stayed around until he was taken away by ambulance (which was just before 8). I'm not going to speculate over injuries, other than to say he was fully conscious at the scene, and remembers pretty much what happened (again, it's not something for me to comment on here). The cyclist had lights on front and back, as well as a high viz jacket and rucksack cover

The car involved stopped at the scene, and the driver spoke to the Gards when they arrived.

The bike is currently in the back of my car

positron

Thanks for confirming Beasty, such a relief to know that all is well, and it's very good that you were at the scene and were able to help. Hopes he recovers quickly.

murph226

Is the bike ok?












Only joking, hope he's ok and makes a speedy recovery!

Bit of a wake up call though, lights, hi viz jacket and bag cover and driver still managed to hit him:eek:

BostonB

Hope hes alright.

Hauk

Christ, hope he is alright. Keep us informed.

bcmf

That section of road is a disaster.If ever there was a call for a dedicated cycle lane its there. Really hope the cyclist makes a full recovery.

Cabaal

Beasty I'm sure he's thankful for all your help and transporting the bike for him, hope he'll be ok.

Caroline_ie

I hope he recovers well.

fenris

murph226 wrote: »

Bit of a wake up call though, lights, hi viz jacket and bag cover and driver still managed to hit him:eek:

People drive out in front of ambulances and fire engines with full lights and sirens. If somebody is not paying attention it doesn't matter what you are wearing or how you are lit up because their attention is focused inside the car while they light up their ciggie, fiddle with the radio, coo at didums in the baby seat etc. If you meet one of those in the wrong circumstances you are screwed and even if you were in a car or on a motorbike they would have a good chance of clipping you also.

For the rest it is all about doing what you can to be visible and safe with a plan B to get you out of trouble, e.g. when you spot the car edging out in front of you, you should have a plan, if it pulls out, will you break, pass behind, take a different exit line, if you have to hit them will you take less damage from hitting the front middle or laying down the bike, what is the car behind you doing etc. figuring out that lot during your reaction time is probably way too late, so do it earlier and make a habit of noticing the hazards and planning your strategy for dealing with them, have the usually post crash "I should have/could have" chat in your head before hand.

wersal gummage

is this a good idea to post this ? i'm sure plenty of people could stumble across this who have friends/family using this route - hardly the best way for them to find out that a loved one may be in a serious condition surely ?

Beasty

OK, although I have a pretty good idea what happened, it's ultimately for the Gardai and parties involved to determine.

All I will say is I echo bcmf's comments above - that is a treacherous stretch of road at present. It has been for some time, but ongoing roadwords have made it worse. You basically have 2 lanes travelling southbound, with the left lane supposed to take a left and the right lane heading straight on through the roadworks. One of the problems is the left lane fills up with drivers trying to head to the front of the queue and push into the right lane. You then have vehicles turning right from the Northbound lane. Add to that a very poor road surface in places, and everyone has to be very careful

Having said that, at the time of the accident the traffic was already backing up quite a lot, and I suspect the car involved was unlikely to have been travelling fast.

Velo Bro

Beasty

I appreciate that you have to be careful what you say however the details are important for us all to know, What exactly

1. Is the bike model and size
2. Groupset
3. How much mileage on it
4. Any extras
5. Did you get the rucksack????

Seriously though fair play for helping him out proper code of cyclists!!

Cheers

Velo Bro!

Beasty

wersal gummage wrote: »

is this a good idea to post this ? i'm sure plenty of people could stumble across this who have friends/family using this route - hardly the best way for them to find out that a loved one may be in a serious condition surely ?

Firstly I have taken care not to provide details of the accident or condition of the cyclist in this thread.

Secondly the cyclist spoke to his wife by telephone at the scene.

Thirdly, this is the sort of thing that could end up being reported by the press anyway (as happened with the 4 vehicle pile-up that closed the M1 Southbound just down the road from this accident this morning)

Raam

As the recipient of bad news for bicycle related crashes on three separate occasions, the manner of the news delivery does not matter: it gives you a near heart attack regardless.

Beasty

Velo Bro wrote: »

5. Did you get the rucksack????

I had a serious accident less than a kilometre away from this one last year. I ended up in hospital for 4 days, and still cannot remember exactly what happened (although I have been informed by witnesses)

When I found myself in hospital, the first thing I remember thinking about was the bike (I didn't even have an idea of what day of the week it was). Fortunately someone had put my rucksack (and Garmin!) in the ambulance - they had also taken my bike for me, and left a note in the rucksack. The rucksack also had my Blackberry - I had for some reason left the normal phone at home that morning. But with the Blackerry I could start communicating (when I felt up to it, which was about 6 hours later).

I then discovered that no-one had noticed me missing - the family were away on holiday, and no-one had realised I was missing from work:eek:

Anyway, this morning the Gards asked me if I wanted to take the rucksack, and I said no - he should have it with him, in case there was anything in it (such as phone) that he needed. I also left a note in it with my contact details

positron

Beasty wrote: »

I then discovered that no-one had noticed me missing - the family were away on holiday, and no-one had realised I was missing from work:eek:

:eek: indeed!

English Bob

This is the same route I would cycle to work & over the past couple of weeks have noticed drivers are becoming more impatient at waiting to merge to the single lane.
I would use this route at min 3 x p/wk and Ive decided the best bet is to sit in the traffic and be on a 'go slow' instead of trying to cycle between the two lanes as NOBODY seems to use their mirrors except for applying lipstick in the morning!!!
I sincerely hope the cyclist is OK & will fully recover.
Really get annoyed with the attitude of drivers when they feel it's acceptable to brush past you with inches to spare and NEVER think about the possible consequences of what might happen if they actually tip into you.
Having rode a bike in the UK for many years for both sport and commuting I am much more nervous of the lack of attention given to cyclists in Ireland.

Jawgap

not me - although that's already been established.

Hope the guy is ok.

Beasty, was it the chap on the Colnago?

neris

Hope the guys ok that is a crap piece of road.

fenris

neris wrote: »

Hope the guys ok that is a crap piece of road. Still alot of idiot cyclists going around at dawn and dusk with no lights, no hi viz vest and dressed in dark clothes. I know it was said that the guy had lights which the driver may have seen too late but it could have been worse if he hadnt had any lighting or safety gear

How?

Beasty

This is not a lights/high viz discussion thread, and no speculation on what either did, or might have happened

Thanks

Beasty

tomasrojo

English Bob wrote: »

I would use this route at min 3 x p/wk and Ive decided the best bet is to sit in the traffic and be on a 'go slow' instead of trying to cycle between the two lanes

I don't know this particular junction, but I also try to queue up at junctions. It can be quite a bit slower, but unless traffic's at pretty much a standstill, I find it much less stressful.

I sincerely hope the cyclist is ok.

Staro

Really glad to hear this guy is ok. I also have stopped commuting on this stretch of road.

positron

This road is just as dangerous about 500 meters north from this spot, where traffic from Lusk joins the N1 (is that Blakes cross?). For some strange reason, the two roads comes together at 60 or 80 kmph, and I have no idea how anyone on a bike heading south should deal with this situation, because you will end up in the outside lane, with with cars from Lusk flying up around a slight on the inside. Nightmare!

Raam

positron wrote: »

This road is just as dangerous about 500 meters north from this spot, where traffic from Lusk joins the N1 (is that Blakes cross?). For some strange reason, the two roads comes together at 60 or 80 kmph, and I have no idea how anyone on a bike heading south should deal with this situation, because you will end up in the outside lane, with with cars from Lusk flying up around a slight on the inside. Nightmare!

Eyeball the shít out of all the drivers. Do anything to get their attention.

Jawgap

Raam wrote: »

Eyeball the shít out of all the drivers. Do anything to get their attention.

what he said........and timing!

chakattack

Hope he makes a full recovery. Well done Beasty for stopping and taking care of the situation.

High Nellie

It occurs to me that if ye took the trouble to send those specific observations on the dangers of that particurlar road to whoever is responsible, it might have more effect than venting here.

Now, hold it there before you start giving out to me and saying that the suggestion would be a waste of time - I'm not interested!

If the person who IS responsible gets enough communication about the dangers to cyclists from a specific piece or road, then he begins worrying: "what happens if some stupid cyclist gets killed there after I have received all these complaints, which are obvioulsy orchestrated?"

If someone could find a name and e-mail address for someone who is responsible - e.g. a local authority engineer - and everyone who posted above and is familiar with the road e-mailed with specific observations about danger issues and road layout etc, it would be interesting to see what happens.

superrdave

Beasty wrote: »

I then discovered that no-one had noticed me missing - the family were away on holiday, and no-one had realised I was missing from work:eek:

I've often thought this could happen to me. Self-employed during the week, only work at weekends in a bar, often go days without seeing my flatmates, parents phone once or twice a week.... i could go missing for three or four days and chances are no-one would notice.... it's nasty, but a side effect of independence and a solitary lifestyle.

Beasty

I've just spoken to him - he's out of hospital, very sore, but should make a full recovery (sounds like it may take a few weeks though)

Looking at the state of his bike, he's very lucky.

Ant

Well done, Beasty for being so helpful in the wake of such a traumatic incident. Best of luck to the cyclist with his recovery. I vividly remember my last fall from the bike and as a result am one of the most cautious cyclists in Dublin.

kincsem

Beasty needs to change his name to nicey or softy. Well done.

poochiem

just good to hear he is relatively ok, might suggest that people don't use these kind of threads to prevaricate on the best way to cycle as though supposing that injured parties may have been at fault.

GlennaMaddy

Must have just missed this incident on my commute yesterday, passed the area (start of Turvey Ave) about 8:10am -filtering past cars stuck in horrendous traffic, but I'm told this is the norm for this time of year.
Sadly, the road improvement works will do little to improve the situation for cyclists as can be seen on the planning submission at http://documents.fingalcoco.ie/AnitePublicDocs/00069830.pdf

Wishbone Ash

Best regards to the chap involved and well done Beasty.

I cycle that route most mornings but at a much earlier time. I didn't hear about the incident until I was in the pub last night. Some of the lads thought it might have been me.

tomasrojo wrote: »

I don't know this particular junction, but I also try to queue up at junctions. It can be quite a bit slower

It's not a junction as such. It's two lanes merging for road works. The left lane is supposed to be a dedicated left turn prior to the merge. A cyclist going straight ahead needs to be in the right lane but most drivers appear to have trouble accepting that. It wouldn't be practicle to queue as it could go back over a km.

positron wrote: »

This road is just as dangerous about 500 meters north from this spot, where traffic from Lusk joins the N1 (is that Blakes cross?). For some strange reason, the two roads comes together at 60 or 80 kmph, and I have no idea how anyone on a bike heading south should deal with this situation, because you will end up in the outside lane, with with cars from Lusk flying up around a slight on the inside. Nightmare!

It's a bit messy there alright. You're correct - it's Blakes Cross but it's the R132 not the N1. It was renamed back in 2003 when the M1 opened as it's no longer under the remit of the NRA.

(PS - got my first puncture in many years this afternoon. I was blessed as I was only about 500m from a bike shop at the time).

wobblyknees

I do a regular long commute from Balbriggan to the south side and cycled past him the other morning. He was well taken care of at that stage with people which was good, but looking at his bike the first thing I said out loud was 'oh ****'. Glad to hear he is fine. Definitely a terrrible piece of road though. Shook me up a bit afterwards thinking about it as my cycle is nearly two hours each way and there are loads of chances for me to be involved in accidents along the way.

Beasty

It's now at the bike shop - initial assessment is the frame, front wheel, handlebars and forks are probably write-offs. The back wheel, drivetrain and lights may possibly be salvaged.

The rucksack is also a write-off (they had to cut the straps to get it off him at the roadside).

He's up and about, but still very sore. I explained to him that on boards a write-off is looked upon as a good thing, particularly as it looks like he'll have plenty of time to peruse retail and on-line outlets for an "upgrade". I think he's seeing it this way now.

I mentioned he caused quite a stir around here, so hopefully he'll get a chance to check out what we've all been saying about him ....