Quebec coroner says a stretch of highway east of Montreal, where three cyclists were killed and three others were injured, is dangerous because it does not have a paved shoulder. The six cyclists, all from Montreal's South Shore suburbs, were training for a triathlon along Highway 112 when they were struck from behind by a pickup truck. Coroner André Dandavino, who is investigating the accident, said the four-lane road needs to have a paved shoulder so that cyclists can be safe. In fact, under Quebec highway rules, and road travelled by more than 5000 vehicles daily must have paved shoulders. Why then, were there no paved shoulders on Highway 112? Dandavino says it's because many of Quebec's roads have been neglected in the past 20 years.
I believe this story easily shows the ignorance of some people. How could someone driving a pick-up truck not see 6 bikers in a single file line? At first, I believed it to be from alcohol, however, police have proved that alcohol was not present in the driver at the time of the incident. It was human error. Also, if that highway was known to have no paved shoulders, why would the 6 bikers take the risk? The club they came from, the Saint-Lambert Triathlon Club, was aware of the dangers of that highway. It was the decision of the riders to take the risk. I don't know who to blame in this incident, though I believe it is still mainly the drivers fault. The government should take more care of those highways so that incidents like this become rare and unheard of.
I believe this story easily shows the ignorance of some people. How could someone driving a pick-up truck not see 6 bikers in a single file line? At first, I believed it to be from alcohol, however, police have proved that alcohol was not present in the driver at the time of the incident. It was human error. Also, if that highway was known to have no paved shoulders, why would the 6 bikers take the risk? The club they came from, the Saint-Lambert Triathlon Club, was aware of the dangers of that highway. It was the decision of the riders to take the risk. I don't know who to blame in this incident, though I believe it is still mainly the drivers fault. The government should take more care of those highways so that incidents like this become rare and unheard of.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/05/15/mon-cycling-accident.html
I agree with you for the most part. I believe it is both the governments and the truck drivers fault, but for the most part the governments. The government knew that there was a busy road, yet still didn't bother to install shoulder lanes. If the shoulder lanes were present, the crash most likely wouldn't have occurred. It is also the truck drivers fault, due to the fact that the truck driver bumped into the cyclist which casued them to fall. The reason for collision was I believe due to road rage. The driver probably got sick and tired of waiting for the cyclist to pull to the side and therefore got too aggresive and accidentaly hit them. However, this all wouldn't have occurred if the government had installed the shoulder lanes for the cyclists. In conclusion, it all leads back to the governments responsiblity to install the shoulder lanes. If they were to have installed them the collision most likely wouldn't have happened.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nicholas when he says that their needs to be more shoulder lanes. I have posted something very similar to this article and I have noticed that situations like this keep on happening. In this particular situation, I think that it is hard to put the blame on anybody. The driver wasn’t careful, the cyclists knew that they shouldn’t be on the highway, and the government didn’t think that cyclists would use this road. Shoulder lanes should be placed all across Canada so that these incidents do not occur as often. There would be many benefits from this, including people would be healthier. There have been too many cases of this and the government really needs to intervene.
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