Winnie
7th January 2012, 04:41 PM
The Patrol and I were involved in a small accident today, caused by 3 cyclists. I was following my father on our way to the Hazelwood Pondage to have a day out on the boat, which he was towing, my uncle was driving behind me. We were driving along the Morwell-Thorpdale Road going well under the speed limit, as he was towing. There was quite reasonable spacing between my father's vehicle and my own, and my uncle was trailing behind by quite a lot, he was out of our sights most of the time.
There is one bend that you cannot see around after crossing a small bridge, and by the time I got around it I could just see brake lights and a boat almost stopped in front of me. I tried my hardest to stop the Patrol in time but it just cannot stop as fast as an FPV ute, even while it's towing a boat. I had about 1 second to make a decision, I had three choices.
1. Ram the back of my dad's boat, damaging the front end of my car and also his boat.
2. Swerve onto the wrong side of the road and risk a head on collision, possibly killing people.
3. Drive up the bank.
Option 3 seemed the safest, so I slowed down as much as I could and turned up the bank. I would say I was going about 40 by the time I hit the bank. We weren't going fast but we hit the bank pretty hard. The front end of the car was airborne and things were flying around the cabin.
We did a quick inspection of the car but we were blocking the road, so we drove a little further and pulled over to have a look. Oil was leaking out of the power steering box pretty quickly. Something else under there must be bent too, because the steering wheel has turned 90 degrees clockwise. Dad told me that he had to slam on his brakes because there were cyclists riding 3 abreast right in front of him, and he didn't see them around that bend. It was then that my uncle caught up to us, he said from where he was, him and his wife could see the whole thing. He said I made the right decision and said most people would have plowed the boat. Dad went ahead to pull over the cyclists to get their details, I was going to go to the police. I turned around and drove home.
My uncle came back with me to pick me up from home and take me to the pondage with him. We met Dad there and he said he didn't see the cyclists. The cowards must have hidden in the bush somewhere, there weren't any other roads to go down. They saw the incident happen, and did not stop, they kept on riding and had now hidden from us.
This is not the first incident I have had with a cyclist on that road. The first time I was driving along in my old Falcon, I came over a crest and there was a cyclist in the middle of my lane. I panicked and locked up, I was lucky I didn't have a head on collision because there was a car coming the other way.
Anybody who has driven on this road will agree with me that it is FAR too dangerous for cyclists to be using it, especially riding 3 abreast (which is illegal as far as I know). It's a narrow, windy road and there is not enough room for motor vehicles and cyclists.
I will be writing to the local newspaper, doubt anything will come of it, but if it can stop cyclists using that road, it could stop a serious accident. It is only a matter of time before a cyclist causes a SERIOUS accident on this road.
There is one bend that you cannot see around after crossing a small bridge, and by the time I got around it I could just see brake lights and a boat almost stopped in front of me. I tried my hardest to stop the Patrol in time but it just cannot stop as fast as an FPV ute, even while it's towing a boat. I had about 1 second to make a decision, I had three choices.
1. Ram the back of my dad's boat, damaging the front end of my car and also his boat.
2. Swerve onto the wrong side of the road and risk a head on collision, possibly killing people.
3. Drive up the bank.
Option 3 seemed the safest, so I slowed down as much as I could and turned up the bank. I would say I was going about 40 by the time I hit the bank. We weren't going fast but we hit the bank pretty hard. The front end of the car was airborne and things were flying around the cabin.
We did a quick inspection of the car but we were blocking the road, so we drove a little further and pulled over to have a look. Oil was leaking out of the power steering box pretty quickly. Something else under there must be bent too, because the steering wheel has turned 90 degrees clockwise. Dad told me that he had to slam on his brakes because there were cyclists riding 3 abreast right in front of him, and he didn't see them around that bend. It was then that my uncle caught up to us, he said from where he was, him and his wife could see the whole thing. He said I made the right decision and said most people would have plowed the boat. Dad went ahead to pull over the cyclists to get their details, I was going to go to the police. I turned around and drove home.
My uncle came back with me to pick me up from home and take me to the pondage with him. We met Dad there and he said he didn't see the cyclists. The cowards must have hidden in the bush somewhere, there weren't any other roads to go down. They saw the incident happen, and did not stop, they kept on riding and had now hidden from us.
This is not the first incident I have had with a cyclist on that road. The first time I was driving along in my old Falcon, I came over a crest and there was a cyclist in the middle of my lane. I panicked and locked up, I was lucky I didn't have a head on collision because there was a car coming the other way.
Anybody who has driven on this road will agree with me that it is FAR too dangerous for cyclists to be using it, especially riding 3 abreast (which is illegal as far as I know). It's a narrow, windy road and there is not enough room for motor vehicles and cyclists.
I will be writing to the local newspaper, doubt anything will come of it, but if it can stop cyclists using that road, it could stop a serious accident. It is only a matter of time before a cyclist causes a SERIOUS accident on this road.