Safety Considerations #3 : The Accident

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SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS #3 : The Accident

Just less than a week after writing my piece on Riding Safety (see Safety Considerations #2 - My Thoughts On Riding Safety) I fell victim to my own lapse in alertness.


The Incident

I was on a ride - the Gangnam Style Ride - on 29th September 2012 with a group of bikers. The plan was to ride from Subang USJ to Jenjarom and back. The ride was schedule to end at around 1pm. But as I had another appointment at 12:30pm, I thought I would ride with them till Kota Kemuning and turn back while they continued on.

So I rode with them till the end of Kota Kemuning where it joins up with Kampong Batu 7, there I stopped and said my goodbyes and good luck to them.

After seeing the last of them riding off, I rode back the route we came from, along the KESAS Highway and headed back towards Subang Jaya. Although riding alone, it was nice too, and I took the necessary precautions like ensuring that all my lights (front, rear and helmet) were turned on. I also rode as far left as possible.

Along the way I also took nice photos, including a silohuette of myself - was this a foreboding of something bad to come?

Picture is a reenactment just after it happened, to show how it happened. 

As I approached the ramp leading from KESAS up to The Summit Commercial Complex of Subang Jaya, I saw that the traffic queue was long. I cycled to the left of them up the ramp. But motorcyclists kept on wanting to overtake me. So the first chance I had, seeing a widening splay in the road, I swung left. With my attention on the motorcyclists behind me, I did not notice a manhole cover-grating with its slots parallel to the road.

"Whoomp!" my front wheel went into the slots of the grating and I was sent flying, landing face-flat onto the road. A bit daze, I quickly got up and examined myself. I had abrasions on my face and hands. Pulling my bike up the curb, I washed my wounds and treated myself with my on-board first aid kit.

It was a good thing I was wearing a helmet too. Notice the dent and scratches on the front left of the helmet. Without it, I would probably have more serious injuries.

Surprisingly, my bicycle was still ride-able and I rode the 3km. back to our start point. Packing my bike into the car, I drove off to seek further treatment.

My reflections after this incident :

1. Do not be distracted, a lapse in alertness can cause accidents.
2. Always wear helmets and make sure there are securely tied. Remember NO HELMET NO RIDE!
3. Do not ride alone. Co-riders can and will help look out for danger and point them out.
4. Inform others of dangers along cycling route, eg poor manhole gratings, poor lighting, speeding traffic, etc.
5. Always have a first-aid kit on board.

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Safety Considerations #2 - Riding Safely

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SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS #2
My Thoughts On Riding Safety

These past few days my thoughts have been on the tragic accident at the recent Penang, Malaysia Event -CFAL4 (see Safety Considerations #1 - Tragic Incident At CFAL4, Malaysia) where a cyclist died tragically.
These are my reflections as a newbie rider, perhaps I will learn more from the experienced riders when I ride more often.


My thoughts:

1. How can we all try to avoid incidents like this?
2. How should we as bikers behave when riding? Ride Safe!
3. How should we as motorist behave when driving?
4. What else can be done?


How To Avoid Incidents Like This?

Letter to the Minister by a friend of a cyclist who died in a Singapore accident.

1. Ignorance! That is always the core issue in safety. So we have to educate ourselves to ride safe and also educate others to be aware of cyclists and give them due considerations. 
2, If a cyclist in your group rides recklessly, remind them of the Penang incident, a split second error can cause injury or even death.

3. When talking to motorists, try to tell them to watch out for cyclists and give them the 3-feet buffer distance when overtaking. Of course, don't go to lengths as it will sound like preaching, take a subtle approach.



Bikers Safety

Always remember we are on two wheels - it can be fun riding but a bicycle is one of the most unstable and unbalance mode of transport. Meeting a sudden bump or pothole while riding fast can cause one to lose balance, so be alert; look at the road ahead and notice what is in front.



A. Safety Gear

1. Helmets are a must. No hemlets no ride is a good rule.

2. Gloves for long rides are helpful to take the stress off the hands.
3. Always make yourself noticable! A biker's profile when compared to a car is negligible. 

4. So advertise your presence. Wear bright colored clothes, especially for night riding. Reflective vests would be an added bonus.

5. Ensure your bikes have front and rear blinking lights which are bright and switch them on even during the day. Lights attached to the helmets will also be useful, especially if you to need to alight from you bicycle at night.
6.Shoes will protect your feet, but make sure they are comfortable and breath well. I once wore shoe that did not have adequate ventilation and end up with prickly feet after one hour's riding.

7. Tie shoe-laces outwards and away from the bicycle gears so that they do not get caught up in the gears.

8. Wear a bandana, etc. to absorb any forehead sweat. Sweat getting into the eyes can be painful and a distraction.

9. To protect from the sun, use sun-block or even arm gloves. A strong tan may look good, but could lead to future skin problems.
10. Have a first-aid kit on board.

B. Ride Safe!

1. Whenever possible ride in single file and avoid riding abreast.
2. Ride as close to the road edge as possible.
3. Avoid any sudden movements, i.e. don't swerve in and out - other motorists may not anticipate your movement.
4. Be alert - use you ears, eyes to feel your surrounding. Look out or Listen out for other traffic.
5. Don't ride too close to each other, keep a safe distance from the rider in front of you. Many an accident have happened when the front rider applied emergency brakes and the rear rider could not stop in time. A good rule of thumb is 3-5 bike lengths behind the bike in front.
6. When swinging across lanes, Ensure that the road is clear before swinging across lanes. Mirrors would be helpful, but physically turning back to look is the best. As a newbie, sometimes turn-backs caused me to ride wobbly - so practice your turn-backs.

7. If you have to stop at busy roads, try to stop at a place where there is a road shoulder. Quickly pull your bike onto the shoulder.

8. Don't stop in dark underpasses especially during the day. Coming in from the glaring sunlight, a rider will be blind when riding into these underpasses. So vice versa - when going into underpasses, go slow.
9. Remember the hand signals we learnt as learner motor-cyclists, use these as standardized signals and tell your biking buddies about it. Standardized hand signals will avoid confusion.


C. Safe Group Riding

1. Prior to the ride, have a safety briefing to ensure participants are clear on the dangerous sections of the route, and are also clear on riding safety.
2. Plan for re-grouping points and make all aware where these are.
3. For large groups, a couple of leaders, a few marshals and a couple or more sweepers will ensure an enjoyable ride. Some ride faster than others, some slower - so extra sweepers will be helpful to fold the slower riders.
4. All leaders, marshals and sweepers must know the route well.
5. For communications between them, walkie-talkies will be useful.
6. For large groups, it will be good to stop for quick re-group before turning at busy junctions. Marshals should stop other oncoming traffic for the group to quickly cross. This may inconvenience other motorist, but it would be safer than bikers sporadically crossing. 


D. Riding Routes

1. Plan ahead!
2. Whenever possible, ride at roads where there are minimum traffic. Avoid highways, busy roads, especially roads with fast traffic. Speed kills!
3. If night riding is carried out, try to ride in residential road where there traffic is minimum


E. What Else?

1. Be active in campaigning for bicycling lanes. There are many events, forums to attend. Whenever possible support such events.
2. Attend discussions/forums on riding safety.

3. Get business corporation to support/sponsor riding safety, eg road signs, advertisements.
4. Shell Malaysia organizes "Shell Traffic Games", encourage youngsters to attend such games so that they will pick up good traffic habits from a young age.
5. Push for more Government involvement in educating motorists of all age on safety.

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Safety Considerations #1 - Tragic Incident At CFAL4, Malaysia

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SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS #1

A tragic accident at the recent Penang, Malaysia Event -CFAL4 (Campaign For A Lane,Sept.9th 2012) gave pause for me to reflect on the mortality of man, and how fragile we are.
The circumstances surrounding the incident is unclear, how it happened, whether it happened during the ride (some says the poor cyclist was on the way back already) is still subject to some speculation.

Irrespective of how or where, a young man of twenty-eight died while cycling. So let's give some thought on how safely we cycle, and when we drive how much consideration we give to other users of the road, be it another motorist, motorcyclist, cyclist or a pedestrian.

The following is the comment written in FaceBook on 10th September 2012 by our fellow biker Jordan Tan who witnessed and assisted in the unfortunate incident. It gives some details on what happened.

Photo posted by Jordan Tan in FaceBook 

"Hi,
I've decided to write this to remind the seriousness of safety gears and the need for safe riding education for all cyclist after I've witnessed a fatal accident. You might think it's not so vital but trust me,it might save your life. You can't deny that cycling is the "in" thing at the moment and as thing goes,will still be for a period of time. So please take this as a wake up call.
The unfortunate incident happened on Sunday morning 9 Sept 12. As you all know,there was an event on that day, it's called "Campaign For A Lane". The round island event was held to request just for a small narrow lane solely for bicycles and if not granted, at least create an awareness not only to cyclists but to all road users of the importance to share the road. But how ironic;the accident have to happen on that day. There is no finger pointing and blaming others in this. The event was held for a good cause and the deceased is not a registered rider for the event. Let me get back to the accident.

That poor guy was riding down hill from Balik Pulau heading towards Paya Terubong hill road when he lost control of his bicycle (Mtb) and slipped onto the path of a car. He was ran over... It did not end there,another car hit him immediately after he was ran over by the first car.
He was motionless and blood gushing out from both his mouth and nose. At times, he was seen grasping his hand fighting the pain that he had to endure. He was carried to the side of the road by good samaritans. Effort to wake him up failed but he is still breathing. 3-4 minutes later, a passing St John ambulance was waved down. The ambulance stopped,but they are short-handed as there is only the driver and a paramedic. I helped to carry the victim to the stretcher and the ambulance sped off to the General Hospital. I was entrusted to take care of the victim's bike and belongings maybe because i was wearing a cycling jersey during that time. I took down the details of the vehicles involved and headed straight to the GH's ICU. His father was expecting me. He needs me to explain what had happened. His father was calm throughout our conversation and he was so confident that his son will make it through. It wasn't to be,the victim died after an operation few hours later due to head and multiple internal injuries.......
I was dumbfounded upon hearing the news. My heart shattered even though i'm just a stranger to that guy. Imagine the feeling of his family during this hard time.
His father came with an inspector to have the picture of his bicycle taken today and his father again told me he was 100% sure his son will survive when he was wheeled in to the ICU.

This is wrong. Very wrong. Nobody should die doing what he/she love to do. Moreover, cycling is not an illegal activity!
By the way,for car and motorbike rider,cycling is a good thing and it doesn't pollute the air we are breathing as u move. It might not make a drastic change but at least,there is an effort to make the future a better place to live for our children, so please don't unleash your "Tokyo Drift" as u overtake a group of cyclist.
I sincerely hope a safety awareness campaign to be held soon to educate cyclist and a lane will be allocated to bicycles before any more lives taken from their loved ones.

R.I.P

The deceased's funeral will be held at Farlim Mortuary either on 11th or 12th of Sept. You can pay your respect starting tonight 10th of Sept.

Excuse me for the bad grammar and poor command of English."

LET'S US ALL PRAY FOR OUR POOR COMRADE AND ALSO TAKE TIME  OUT FOR SOME REFLECTION.

I post this incident as a blog so that we can always come back here, to reflect now and again.

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AhPek Biker's Reflections

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REFLECTIONS

These are the reflections how biking have affected me,  both generally & personally.
Since taking up biking, some of my ideas have changed, some metamorphosized,
I guess as time goes on, I will have to take pause and reflect again.

Safety Considerations #1

A tragic incident at CFAL4, gave thought to the fragility of being mortal.

Safety Considerations #2

My newbie thoughts on how to improve cycling safety.

Safety Considerations #3

A personal accident along the KESAS Highway leads to more reflections on safety

Reflections #1 - First Experience In Ride Organizing

Planning and organizing our first ride. Pleased to mention that it was a success.

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Why AhPek Biker?

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Why AhPek Biker?

Why do I call myself the AhPek Biker?
I wasn't much of a sports person... so when my friend Sin encouraged me to take up biking, I really thought much and hard about it. Most of all I was worried whether I could take it physically. But finally I considered that at my age I could need the exercise. So I went ahead.

My earlier biker look. Come to think of it, I do look like an old trishaw man.

Not having done much sports activities over the past years, my ward-robe was lacking in suitable attire. So I just grab whatever I could - a pair of bermuda shorts, a white T-shirt and a pair of Timberland shoes. Off I went for my first ride, a short 6km ride.

Shoe Casualty

I rode from TTDI to Ikea to pick up some stuff for friends and then continued to 1-Utama to pick up more stuff. As I neared 1-U, I suddenly heard and felt some flapping sound, looked down and saw that my precious Timberland had split opened, gaping like a hungry dog. Ha! Seems like this old man could take more than the shoes. (I found out later that when shoes have not been used for a while this happens)

Thought I looked pretty cool, but the attire was just all wrong.

Having done that, and feeling fairly proud of myself, I posted some pix onto my FB page. Gosh! I didn't expect the odd responses from my FB friends. All were encouraging, but there were more comments on my dressing like - "Biking thumbs up, attire thumbs down.", and many "Hey you look like a Ah Pek (Hokkien for "old man)!"

Old Tinsmith Shop in George Town, Penang

A week later, I took my bike up to Penang and went on a ride from Tanjong Tokong down to the city (see Penang Ride). At Kimberley Street, I passed by an old tinsmith shop, realizing that this is a dying trade, I took some photos for keepsake. As I was snapping away, the boss-lady looked up at me & said in her Manglish "Go biking must be wear more stylo wan. Cannot dress like Ah Pek wan!" Seems my reputation as an Ah Pek has preceded me. (Sigh!)

Dwarf AhPek

Then on my TTDI-Kiara Park Ride, I asked a passer-by to take a photo of me. Oops! That didn't turn out well. Not only did I look Ah Pek, I also looked dwarfish. And my bicycle looked like one of those kiddie rides. Time to do something about it? Yeah!

Here's me..... so top half look okay, not so AhPek after all. Heh! Heh! Time to re-look at the bottom half.

But come to think of it, my AhPek gear feels comfortable to me, so probably will maintain it until someone convince me otherwise. Huh!

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