Cheryl O’Connor shouldn’t have been on her bike at all on the morning of Wednesday, January 22 when she was hit by a truck at a busy Yarraville intersection.
“It was just all those stars aligning incorrectly,” lamented Ms O’Connor of the turn of events that left her with two broken legs.
“The only reason I was riding was because my car was getting fixed.
“I’d gone to have a remedial massage after I pulled up a little bit sore from a triathlon.”
Due to what happened next, it’ll be the last triathlon the 46-year-old mother of two competes in for a long time.
“I was riding along Sommerville Road where it’s one lane of traffic and a bike lane until it gets to the intersection where the road splits into two lanes and the bike lane continues in the left lane making it narrower,” said Ms O’Connor of the road infrastructure leading up to the intersection with Williamstown Road that she believed contributed to her crash.
Heading west towards her Kingsville home, Ms O’Connor was planning to to go straight through the intersection when she noticed a semi-trailer coming up behind her that also wanted to go straight.
With two cars waiting to turn into Williamstown Road blocking the right lane, the semi-trailer merged left to go around them.
“I was in the (bike) lane and I could hear him behind me and I tried to get as close to the footpath as I could and was going to attempt to jump my bike up onto the footpath but he hit me before I could do that.”
The next thing Ms O’Connnor remembers is lying in the gutter outside the Carnovale Pharmacy on the corner of Sommerville and Williamstown roads and seeing bits of her bike strewn across the asphalt.
“My left shoe had been ripped off and there was incredible pain in both legs and there was a lot of people who stopped,” she said of the immediate aftermath.
“People from the pharmacy came out, two ladies on their way to a funeral stopped as well as a mum on her way to an appointment and two other gentlemen.”
The next person on the scene was the driver of the semi-trailer, who’d parked on the other side of the intersection and rushed back to apologise and offer assistance.
“I was not in the best frame of mind and just said ‘how didn’t you see me,” said Ms O’Connor of her response.
“I had lights on my front and back flashing, a white helmet, light coloured top and back pack with reflective bits on it.”
The truck driver was too distressed to continue his route and had to be picked up by a colleague.
Police have since spoken to the 37-year-old man from Tarneit, as part of their investigation, but will taking no further action.
Ms O’Connor said she couldn’t remember the driver’s name or the company he worked for, but bore no ill will towards him.
“He did the wrong thing but the road there is set up for failure,” she said.
“The fact that there’s no way the truck can fit in that left lane unless they’re in the bike lane as well, it’s not a great set up.”
Pierre Vairo from western suburbs cycling safety group, Bike West said the road infrastructure in the inner-west, combined with the amount of truck traffic, made these type of accidents inevitable.
“The roads around here kill and maim cyclists and very little has been done about it,” said Mr Vairo, who demanded more bike paths, bollards and barriers to separate cyclists from motorists.
Maribyrnong council were contacted for comment.
After two rounds of surgery and two weeks in hospital, Ms O’Connor is now recovering at her sister’s home in Torquay.
Being wheelchair-bound has meant she’s had to leave her two-storey house in Kingsville.
While being immobile and separated from her kids has led to some ‘darker days’, Ms O’Connor said she’s already looking for a new bike to get her back on the road.
“I’ve been looking on Facebook cycling groups to see if I can find a replacement. I loved that bike so I want the same one.”
