Cycling in Brisbane Australia
Woman dies in Mount Coot-tha luge crash (Saturday 17 Dec 2011)
I was just looking at the QPS's Facebook feed to get a picture of the incidents from what sounds like a busy start to the weekend, with everyone out and about and sadly noticed this amongst it:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/woman-dies-in-mount-coot...
News Ltd takes a very different approach to the story:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/person-killed-in-stre...
Neither paper devotes probably as much attention and detail to all the other "generic" road fatalities that have occurred over the rest of the week - each one no less significant.
Of course, my condolences to anyone who might have known or been associated with her.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Big Steve on -
Very tragic. :( I was doing Cootha laps when this happened. I did one pass and saw them going the other way down the back past us. By the time I got around again the road was closed. My friends got through before the closure and saw her being worked on. Very sad.
Having said that she hit the guardrail on the other side of the road which is where I'd been riding at most 15 minutes before which makes you think. Possibly better I don't ponder it too much.
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Permalink Reply by Doc Embrey on -
I never knew this person, but thought it tremendously sad when the news broke - and I felt for a kindred spirit. In spite of the inferences made in the media, I understand why people do such things.
Here was a woman nearly the same age as I am, who chose not to sit quietly while age overwhelmed her. While I doubt I have the courage walk the path that she chose - I greatly respect her choice to live as fully as as fearlessly as she was able.
Vale SUE WICKENDEN
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Permalink Reply by Paul Martin on -
I agree. I hope I die doing something that makes me happy. Nothing in life is risk free, particularly sitting at home being 'worried' about 'bad things' happening... that is perhaps the riskiest thing anyone could do with their life.
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Permalink Reply by Big Steve on
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Yep... I've said it before. I reckon not riding is riskier than riding but there you go...
They have been talking about the legality of luge riding and I'm really not sure where they fit in. My only comment is that while I understand there are technical issues they should have some kind of a brake... IMHO. There is a video of them going down the front side of Cootha which isn't as steep and if I got the moment they put the brake on correct it took them a full 15 seconds to come to a stop. I'm sure it wasn't a panic stop but I don't know how much stopping power they had in reserve.
Maybe we should just let them go for it. There are only a few people doing this in BNE. It would just be twice as tragic if this lady had hit someone on a bike (like me only a few minutes earlier) or even a car going the other way. I'm reluctant to be a kill-joy but there could well be repercussions from this and it would be a shame to see this road somehow cut off to other recreational users.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Martin on
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I would imagine that they are 'wheeled recreational devices' and as such can ride legally on roads with speed limits below ?60km/h. So technically it was perfectly legal.
It would have also been technically perfectly legal for them to be wearing thongs and no helmet... but that would be a bit stupid!
I hope they don't ban any non-car activity on that road (because we all know how safe cars are... *sight*). That is precisely the direction in which we must NOT head.
They should ban helicopters from the area too as one crashed there a few years ago. Ban everything!
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