Cyclist counts the cost of ‘a moment’s inattention’
Philippa Thompson Ng has biked around Wellington for nearly 20 years but says her two broken bones in a recent crash are testament to the vulnerability of cyclists in even the most innocuous of collisions.
On the day of her accident last month, she had to travel in the main traffic flow near Wellington Hospital because the cycle lane was closed. A car pulled into Thompson Ng’s path as she was crossing the entrance to the Emergency Department.
The impact sent her sprawling onto the concrete, fracturing scaphoid and radial bones in her wrist and elbow.
‘‘Bike lanes cause a lot of conflict but, in this case, could have made a difference. When it was taken away, that’s when the accident happened,’’ she said.
Crashes and close calls between vehicles and more vulnerable road users in Wellington hit the headlines in September. A horror week saw
cyclist, Aaron Nonoa, hospitalised after being hit in Karori, council candidate James Sullivan shared footage of a close shave with a Countdown delivery truck and a pedestrian died after two people were struck by a ute in Thorndon.
‘‘At the end of the day, when it’s car vs bike, you’re aware that you’re always going to lose,’’ Thompson Ng said. An Official Information Act request revealed the number of cycling related ACC claims in Wellington had leapt from 1297 in 2016 to 2219 in 2020.
Thompson Ng said she welcomed the growing number of cyclists on the capital’s roads and the protection afforded by the newly installed lanes on her route.
‘‘When I first started you’d wave at any other cyclist you saw, there were so few of us. Nowadays, you often see four or five bikes at the lights.’’
At the time, Thompson said she thought of her crash as ‘‘just an accident’’ and was reluctant to file a police report. Two weeks later, she changed her mind.
‘‘I didn’t want to make a fuss but, as I face the inconvenience of six more weeks with my arm in a cast, I have finally started to feel like it is worth making a fuss,’’ she said.
A police spokesperson said on Wednesday that in a collision between a vehicle and a cyclist there was an expectation that ‘‘all involved stop and check that everyone was okay’’. If no one was injured or no criminal offence committed, then the matter could be dealt with by insurance companies.