The sun was in their eyes (again)

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redsonic
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The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby redsonic » Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:25 pm

Cyclist critically injured at the Gold Coast this morning.
Happened at an intersection, and it looked like the ute was on the wrong side of the road.
7 News reported it was just a "terrible accident" as the sun was in the driver's eys. :roll:
Brief report here:
http://www.mygc.com.au/emergency-crews- ... olangatta/

More from Yahoo 7:
A 47-year-old female cyclist is in a critical condition after her bike collided with a ute on the Gold Coast.

Police say the crash happened as the woman was riding down a steep hill at Coolangatta around 6.10am on Wednesday.

She is fighting for life in the Gold Coast University Hospital while the 29-year-old driver of the utility was not injured and police are investigating.
Hope the rider pulls through.

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biker jk
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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby biker jk » Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:03 pm

redsonic wrote:Cyclist critically injured at the Gold Coast this morning.
Happened at an intersection, and it looked like the ute was on the wrong side of the road.
7 News reported it was just a "terrible accident" as the sun was in the driver's eys. :roll:
Brief report here:
http://www.mygc.com.au/emergency-crews- ... olangatta/

More from Yahoo 7:
A 47-year-old female cyclist is in a critical condition after her bike collided with a ute on the Gold Coast.

Police say the crash happened as the woman was riding down a steep hill at Coolangatta around 6.10am on Wednesday.

She is fighting for life in the Gold Coast University Hospital while the 29-year-old driver of the utility was not injured and police are investigating.
Hope the rider pulls through.
Can you reference the report stating that the ute was on the wrong side of the road?

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Cheesewheel
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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby Cheesewheel » Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:38 pm

I read the earlier first version of this story (which has since been revised and is no longer available online). The whole "sun in the eyes" thing was initially (at least as far as reading the article is concerned) voiced by one of the first responders to the incident (ie no one in an official capacity, and no one who saw the accident unfold). They also said the hill the cyclist eas descending was so steep there was no way the cyclist could have stopped in time (remember, they didn't even see it happen).

It appears everyone, from the very beginning, was defaulting to any excuse except that of the driver failing to give way. :evil:

(The ute driver was turning right into the intersection)
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biker jk
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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby biker jk » Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:43 pm

Cheesewheel wrote:I read the earlier first version of this story (which has since been revised and is no longer available online). The whole "sun in the eyes" thing was initially (at least as far as reading the article is concerned) voiced by one of the first responders to the incident (ie no one in an official capacity, and no one who saw the accident unfold). They also said the hill the cyclist eas descending was so steep there was no way the cyclist could have stopped in time (remember, they didn't even see it happen).

It appears everyone, from the very beginning, was defaulting to any excuse except that of the driver failing to give way. :evil:
A news report on the radio said the female cyclist lost control on a steep descent and crossed to the other side of the road. It'll will be interesting to see if there are witnesses to confirm what actually happened.

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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby Scott_C » Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:13 pm

The initial police statement is here:
https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/blog/2017/1 ... olangatta/

The Gold Coast Bulletin have the story up crediting Sergeant Brendon Karr of Coolangatta CIB with the statement that, "It appears the sun may have played a factor ... it’s still a bit early to tell if he (the ute driver) will be charged."

Be warned that The Bulletin have also decided it was tasteful to include a photo of the blood pool left in the gutter.

News.com.au also have a story up with some photos that give context to the position the car stopped, about 10m up Petrie St.

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redsonic
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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby redsonic » Thu Nov 16, 2017 10:45 am

biker jk wrote: Can you reference the report stating that the ute was on the wrong side of the road?
That was my interpretation of the footage from the channel 7 news report last night. Supported by the photos in the news.com article linked to by Scott C.
Looks to me that the ute may have cut the corner whilst turning right into Petrie St.
The 7 news article also praised the driver for potentially saving the cyclist's life by rendering first aid at the scene.

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redsonic
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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby redsonic » Thu Nov 16, 2017 10:53 am

Looking at the images from the Gold Coast Bulletin, it seems that the ute was on the left side of Petrie Rd where the collision occurred. I was thrown by how close the right gutter appeared on the TV news footage: evidently quite a narrow street.
If you can't get past the firewall for the Bulletin article, try googling
Driver ‘blinded’ when cyclist hit
POLICE believe a driver may have been “blinded” by the sun when his ute collided

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biker jk
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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby biker jk » Thu Nov 16, 2017 11:02 am

There seems to be some confusion.

The Police statement says,

Preliminary information indicates the woman was riding down a steep gradient on Marine Parade around 6.10am when she collided with a utility that was travelling in the opposite direction before turning right into Petrie Street.

The Gold Coast Bulletin article say,

The woman was riding down Petrie St at Coolangatta near Snapper Rocks at 6.15am when a ute, turning right from Marine Pde, collided with the bike.

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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby human909 » Thu Nov 16, 2017 12:29 pm

So a right hook then. (The first statement just is very clumsily worded.)

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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby Scott_C » Thu Nov 16, 2017 12:46 pm

redsonic wrote:Looking at the images from the Gold Coast Bulletin, it seems that the ute was on the left side of Petrie Rd where the collision occurred. I was thrown by how close the right gutter appeared on the TV news footage: evidently quite a narrow street.
I wouldn't make any conclusions about where the collision occurred from the final position of the car, if you look at the photos showing where the bike is under the front left wheel of the ute you can see a scape mark all the way from out of frame to where the bike has ended up which implies that the collision occurred out of frame from where the car finally came to a stop.

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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby Scott_C » Thu Nov 16, 2017 12:52 pm

human909 wrote:So a right hook then. (The first statement just is very clumsily worded.)
The 2 statements are different, the first one (police) says they were both travelling on Marine Parade and the cyclist was right hooked by the turning ute the one in the Bulletin says the cyclist was travelling down Petrie St which the ute turned on to (head-on collision, unclear as to which party was on the wrong side of the road).

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Comedian
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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby Comedian » Thu Nov 16, 2017 1:06 pm

The problem is with these things is that you rarely actually every find out what happened. I understand that the police might not make the information public as a privacy thing. Perhaps they don't want the public criticising their work.

However I think we would have a safer road culture if these reports were made freely available for all to see. If the information is hidden - then people have no chance of seeing the nature of mistakes and the consequences. I understand that it's one thing to make it available and another for the public to look - but if it's hidden then there is definitely no learnings to be had.

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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby uart » Thu Nov 16, 2017 1:43 pm

biker jk wrote:There seems to be some confusion.

The Police statement says,

Preliminary information indicates the woman was riding down a steep gradient on Marine Parade around 6.10am when she collided with a utility that was travelling in the opposite direction before turning right into Petrie Street.

The Gold Coast Bulletin article say,

The woman was riding down Petrie St at Coolangatta near Snapper Rocks at 6.15am when a ute, turning right from Marine Pde, collided with the bike.
Yes, there definitely seems to be some confusion as to exactly what happened. One of the following two scenarios.

1. She was travelling down Petrie and had a head on with the ute coming up the hill from Marine and turning right into Petrie. Narrow road, ute may have been partially on the wrong side of the road, cyclist may have been travelling wide to take the corner at speed.

OR

2. She was traveling down Tweed Terrace (which is basically a continuous road with with Marine Pde but just a different name above that intersection) and the ute failed to give way and turned right directly across her path.

Both the news_com_au story and the police media release suggest the latter scenario, but the gold coast bulletin suggests the first one. In the second the scenario it's much clearer that the driver is at fault, but not so clear if it's the first one.

You would think that the Police Media release would be most likely to be the correct one, so that makes the second scenario with the driver "right hooking" her as human said.

HOWEVER, looking at the images of where the damage is on the car and where the bike ended up, I've got to say that it seems much more likely to be the first case as the GC bulletin reports. I say this because the damage appears to be on the far right front side (driver's side) of the ute where as I would have expected the other side if the driver rturned right across her path as she was coming straight down the hill. Also, if she did manage to contact the right side of the ute in this scenario it would have been more of a glancing impact and she and the bike would have ended up much further down the hill than shown in the photos.

If on the other hand she was coming down Petrie and it was a head on with the driver turning right into Petrie, then the area of damage to the car and the final position of the bike makes a lot more sense (to me).

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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby redsonic » Thu Nov 16, 2017 2:38 pm

Comedian wrote:The problem is with these things is that you rarely actually every find out what happened. I understand that the police might not make the information public as a privacy thing. Perhaps they don't want the public criticising their work.

However I think we would have a safer road culture if these reports were made freely available for all to see. If the information is hidden - then people have no chance of seeing the nature of mistakes and the consequences. I understand that it's one thing to make it available and another for the public to look - but if it's hidden then there is definitely no learnings to be had.
There was a good but short series on TV called SCIU (I think); Serious Crash Investigation Unit.
Australian and New Zealand case studies showing the forensic investigation of traffic crashes involving fatality or serious injury.
Very interesting and very informative and, as you suggest Comedian, shows what you should and should not do on the roads.
One example of relevance here was a motorbike undertaking a left turning truck. The truckie had no idea he had hit (and killed) the rider, and drove back to the depot unawares.

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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby silentC » Thu Nov 16, 2017 3:03 pm

Police only attend accidents where someone was hurt these days, and if someone is hurt there's a very real chance it will wind up in court. I think that is the main reason you won't ever hear the full details until some point in the future - by which time the media cycle has moved on and no-one cares any more. Except us :)
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redsonic
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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby redsonic » Fri Nov 17, 2017 5:08 pm

Unfortunately the cyclist, Suzy Wallace, has died of her injuries.
Gold Coast Bulletin

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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby Bob_Hornsby » Fri Nov 17, 2017 6:26 pm

Very sad :( .

I hope journalist will stay on this case that we find out what exactly happened and what are consequences for the driver.

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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby uart » Fri Nov 17, 2017 6:29 pm

redsonic wrote:Unfortunately the cyclist, Suzy Wallace, has died of her injuries.
Gold Coast Bulletin
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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby Scott_C » Tue Nov 21, 2017 2:39 pm

Another "sun was in their eyes" collision, hopefully this time with a better outcome:

http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/sto ... l-bendigo/
The driver of a white Hyundai – a 40-year-old Bendigo man – was turning right from Barnard Street into View Street when he knocked the cyclist from his bike. The cyclist was riding east along Barnard Street through the intersection at the time, in the opposite direction to the car.

Leading Senior Constable Peter Bullock said the driver claimed the sun was in his eyes as he turned, and he did not see the cyclist. “It’s clear the driver failed to give way,” he said.

Ambulance attended the scene and treated the cyclist, who was a 36-year-old man from Doncaster. He suffered grazes to his arms and was taken to Bendigo Health for observation.

The driver is likely to be issued a penalty notice for failing to give way.
My emphasis added.

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Re: The sun was in their eyes (again)

Postby Cyclophiliac » Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:33 pm

I wonder if the sun would have been in his eyes had a car been coming the other way, instead of a bicycle? Not a bloody chance. It's just a lawyer's excuse.

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