Subscribe to RSSCyclist Hit By Train
A cyclist has died after being hit by a train at Mt Maunganui.
The accident has happened on the railway crossing with Matapihi Rd, Mount Maunganui .
The cyclist died immediately.
Police are examining the scene .
The man’s name hasn’t been released.
8 Comments
I am a bit concerned about the message that is being sent when every cycle death anywhere within this country seems to find its way into the news. Accident per accident, I doubt that there is anything like this level of reporting for car crashes.
And I have just seen a coworker have a serious but not life-threatening crash on his own bike (technical fault, no one else involved). His wife now reads him every single such article, making sure he stays off the bike. That is one of the results of such reporting, I am afraid. Probably hard to avoid for Jon (and I am not implying any bad motive) but it’s like crime statistics: talk about crime cases daily, and it matters not a whit if the actual rates are low - people will feel endangered…
Maybe I am biased, but playing tag with trains ends pretty badly for everyone.
@ingolfson Not every cyclist accident is reported and certainly not reported here. But as a cyclist myself, I think a cyclist being killed or seriously injured is worrying news. It was reporting of a serious accident on Tamaki Drive that ended up getting the council looking into safety issues there.
There is plenty of good positive cycling news here to encourage cycling - I have extensively covered the Kingsland cycleway last week but I’m not going to hide the fact cycling safety is an issue and we also need to ensure things can be done in that area where needed or lessons learnt when cyclists are in the wrong.
As I said, I don’t blame you - and you are not a cycling advocate, so this is really a question for others.
@ingolfson LOL You guys are welcome to keep me in line anytime!
There are stories in the media all of the time whenever a car gets hit by a train, as there are when there is a death as a result of a car crash.
I think from reports I have seen this is the fourth cycle fatality this year or about one per month average. A quick look at the statistics shows the accident rate has varied little over the years @ about 12-15 per year. There has been a massive decline in utility cycling over the decades and a dramatic increase in competitive/recreational cycling in the past few years. There was one year twenty odd years ago where there was a huge jump in accidents, a statistical blip, possibly due to thousands of wobbly novices who hit the roads in the “Ten speed boom”.
There are more swimmers drowned per year
Nearly as many children run over in drives (disgusting)
The most dangerous place to be is the home,
etc. etc. etc.
Many activities are much more dangerous than cycling- and you don’t need a crash helmet!
The story in the Herald about this today states the rider had headphones on so couldn’t hear the train and also ignored bells and barrier arms.
The point is not about cycling, it’s about the headphones.
Just after reading about this in the Herald, I headed out on my bike to work (for the first time this year).
I stopped for a train at the Asquith Ave crossing (just east of Baldwin Ave). Walking the other way was (I think) a Mt Albert Grammar student (I think with an iPod) who paid no attention to the lights and bells and walked through the pedestrian maze and across the tracks with a train coming from the east. The train driver sat on his horn for several seconds. Unbelieveably, the student did notice but didn’t change his pace and remained at walking speed, missing a collision by about two seconds.
He got an earful from me, telling him to read the paper, someone just died doing that. He stared at me as vacantly as the train and just kept walking, at the exact same slow speed.
How do you get through to these people? It’s like the music in his ears had hypnotised him - he’d even notice these things happening around him, yet he still didn’t react.