[OT] Cycling tragedy -- purr for them, please

[Monique Y. Mudama]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2005/jul05/jul19news2

"Australian rider Amy Gillett has died after she and five other riders
from the Australian women's team were hit by a car during a training
ride in Germany on Monday. Three other team members are reported to be
in critical condition after being helicoptered to hospital, and the
remaining two are also still in hospital, albeit with less serious
injuries. The other riders involved are Katie Brown, Lorian Graham,
Kate Nichols, Alexis Rhodes and Louise Yaxley. All are being treated
in hospitals in Leipzig and Zwickau; Rhodes, Yaxley and Brown are
believed to be the most seriously injured."

Please purr for Amy to find her way and for the other women to recover
fully. If you're a cyclist, please do what you can to be safe, and if
you drive, please, please, drive within your limits and be aware of
others on the road, especially when they have no crumple zone.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

[CatNipped]

"Monique Y. Mudama" > wrote in message
...
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2005/jul05/jul19news2
>
> "Australian rider Amy Gillett has died after she and five other riders
> from the Australian women's team were hit by a car during a training
> ride in Germany on Monday. Three other team members are reported to be
> in critical condition after being helicoptered to hospital, and the
> remaining two are also still in hospital, albeit with less serious
> injuries. The other riders involved are Katie Brown, Lorian Graham,
> Kate Nichols, Alexis Rhodes and Louise Yaxley. All are being treated
> in hospitals in Leipzig and Zwickau; Rhodes, Yaxley and Brown are
> believed to be the most seriously injured."
>
> Please purr for Amy to find her way and for the other women to recover
> fully. If you're a cyclist, please do what you can to be safe, and if
> you drive, please, please, drive within your limits and be aware of
> others on the road, especially when they have no crumple zone.

Ohmygawd, what a senseless tragedy! Purrs for all involved.

Hugs,

CatNipped

>
> --
> monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully
>
> pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

[KittyLady]

Oh how awful! purrs for Amy's family and all of the other injured
cyclist and their families.

Skritches,
KittyLady

[wafflycat]

"Monique Y. Mudama" > wrote in message
...
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2005/jul05/jul19news2
>
> "Australian rider Amy Gillett has died after she and five other riders
> from the Australian women's team were hit by a car during a training
> ride in Germany on Monday. Three other team members are reported to be
> in critical condition after being helicoptered to hospital, and the
> remaining two are also still in hospital, albeit with less serious
> injuries. The other riders involved are Katie Brown, Lorian Graham,
> Kate Nichols, Alexis Rhodes and Louise Yaxley. All are being treated
> in hospitals in Leipzig and Zwickau; Rhodes, Yaxley and Brown are
> believed to be the most seriously injured."
>
> Please purr for Amy to find her way and for the other women to recover
> fully. If you're a cyclist, please do what you can to be safe, and if
> you drive, please, please, drive within your limits and be aware of
> others on the road, especially when they have no crumple zone.
>
> --
> monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully
>
> pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

This was flashed around the worldwide cycling community yesterday, which is
in deep shock.

The incident is one of those one-in-a-million type things that if it
happens, there's nothing you can do to avoid it once it's started. A teenage
driver (passed test only about four weeks previously) somehow lost control
of the car she was driving and crossed over the road into the on coming
lane, where the cyclists were. There is absolutely nothing the cyclists
could have done AIUI the car was travelling at about 50mph. It could just as
easily been another vehicle the driver had hit and at a speed where fatality
was a likely outcome :-(

As for the driver... I read somewhere (darned if I can remember where...)
and I stress I do not know how accurate this is, that the road had been
recently resurfaced with SMA (stone mastic asphalt), which is used in many
countries, and there had been other skids on this bit of road recently. Only
recently over here in UK, there was a documentary on BBC about how *newly
laid SMA* is a surface that is easier to skid on in the dry than an older
surface in the wet.... Perhaps there is more to this incident than initially
meets the eye - but it does seem there is absolutely nothing the cyclists
could have done to be any safer and it may not have been entirely down to
driver inexperience or error. I'm sure there'll be an investigation in
Germany.

If anyone wants to, they can leave a message of condolence and support at
the website of the Australian Sports Institute there's a link on the web
site at http://www.ais.org.au/

helen s

[Christina Websell]

"Monique Y. Mudama" > wrote in message
...
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2005/jul05/jul19news2
>
> "Australian rider Amy Gillett has died after she and five other riders
> from the Australian women's team were hit by a car during a training
> ride in Germany on Monday. Three other team members are reported to be
> in critical condition after being helicoptered to hospital, and the
> remaining two are also still in hospital, albeit with less serious
> injuries. The other riders involved are Katie Brown, Lorian Graham,
> Kate Nichols, Alexis Rhodes and Louise Yaxley. All are being treated
> in hospitals in Leipzig and Zwickau; Rhodes, Yaxley and Brown are
> believed to be the most seriously injured."
>
> Please purr for Amy to find her way and for the other women to recover
> fully. If you're a cyclist, please do what you can to be safe, and if
> you drive, please, please, drive within your limits and be aware of
> others on the road, especially when they have no crumple zone.
>
> --
> monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully
>
> pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca


I am so sorry and send purrs and prayers for all involved in this.

Tweed

[Karen]

This is very very sad :( Purrs for the riders.

"Monique Y. Mudama" > wrote in message
...
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2005/jul05/jul19news2
>
> "Australian rider Amy Gillett has died after she and five other riders
> from the Australian women's team were hit by a car during a training
> ride in Germany on Monday. Three other team members are reported to be
> in critical condition after being helicoptered to hospital, and the
> remaining two are also still in hospital, albeit with less serious
> injuries. The other riders involved are Katie Brown, Lorian Graham,
> Kate Nichols, Alexis Rhodes and Louise Yaxley. All are being treated
> in hospitals in Leipzig and Zwickau; Rhodes, Yaxley and Brown are
> believed to be the most seriously injured."
>
> Please purr for Amy to find her way and for the other women to recover
> fully. If you're a cyclist, please do what you can to be safe, and if
> you drive, please, please, drive within your limits and be aware of
> others on the road, especially when they have no crumple zone.
>
> --
> monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully
>
> pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

[Adrian]

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2005/jul05/jul19news2
>
> "Australian rider Amy Gillett has died after she and five other riders
> from the Australian women's team were hit by a car during a training
> ride in Germany on Monday. Three other team members are reported to be
> in critical condition after being helicoptered to hospital, and the
> remaining two are also still in hospital, albeit with less serious
> injuries. The other riders involved are Katie Brown, Lorian Graham,
> Kate Nichols, Alexis Rhodes and Louise Yaxley. All are being treated
> in hospitals in Leipzig and Zwickau; Rhodes, Yaxley and Brown are
> believed to be the most seriously injured."
>
> Please purr for Amy to find her way and for the other women to recover
> fully. If you're a cyclist, please do what you can to be safe, and if
> you drive, please, please, drive within your limits and be aware of
> others on the road, especially when they have no crumple zone.

I will light a candle for Amy. Purrs for all who loved her. Purrs for
her injured team mates.
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy & Bagheera)
A house is not a home, without a cat.

[Wayne Mitchell]

"Monique Y. Mudama" > wrote:

>"Australian rider Amy Gillett has died after she and five other riders
>from the Australian women's team were hit by a car during a training
>ride in Germany on Monday..."

How tragic it seems when it's the young and vital who die.

By coincidence, we just had a similar accident locally, during a
road race at the Yarmouth Clam Festival (just two towns over
from me). From the Portland Press Herald, Monday, July 18,
2005:

"An elderly driver veered into a pack of cyclists during a
race Sunday morning, seriously injuring two and sending more
than a dozen to the pavement at speeds near 40 mph....
"The driver...apparently did not understand...instructions
from officials directing traffic."

Luckily, no deaths. Just broken bones, concussions and lots of
road rash.

--

Wayne M.