Cyclists hospitalised after car crashes on rise

In 2005 there were 277 cyclists taken to hospital here and the TAC paid for hospital and other costs. But in 2014 the number had climbed to 386, a rise of 39.4 per cent on 2005.

In the decade to the end of 2014, during which the popularity of cycling soared, the number of cyclists ending up in hospital and covered by the TAC totalled 3270, including 348 who stayed in hospital for more than a fortnight.

TAC insurance covers cyclists injured on the road when the crash involves a motor vehicle. The figures come after two incidents in regional Victoria over the past fortnight left cyclists seriously injured.

In one of the crashes, near Shepparton, cyclists were injured when they tried to miss a dead kangaroo while on an early morning ride. And on Good Friday a young father was critically injured after an alleged hit-run collision in Ballarat while riding shortly after 6am.

Asked for her reaction to the statistics Samantha Cockfield from the TAC said she was "incredibly saddened. Because long-term we don't want anybody to be killed or seriously injured on Victoria's roads."

Motorists and cyclists could take steps to reduce the risk to cyclists, she said. To prevent dooring incidents, motorists had "to remember to take that extra look, absolutely make certain" it was safe before opening a door.

At intersections motorists should look carefully for "cyclists and pedestrians. Really, you just cannot be too vigilant in terms of looking," she said.

She urged cyclists to take important safety steps like wearing a "tightly fitting" helmet. She also advised cyclists to "try and choose the safest route. Make sure you've got a bike lane, or a bike path where possible."

Bicycle Network's senior policy advisor Garry Brennan said in response to the statistics: "Many of these injuries will have life-long consequences for those involved, and the tragedy is that so many of them were preventable."

Motorists had "an additional responsibility to be extra careful and attentive around people on bikes",he said.

Thirty-three-year-old James Baker cannot remember the accident that dramatically changed his life. Nor can he remember his university days, or that he enjoyed break-dancing.

But he has been told details of what happened when he was struck by a car while riding in 2002. "All I can say is that it involved a speeding car," he said of the incident.

"It was on my way home from Melbourne University to Hawthorn, my parents' house where I lived at the time as a 19-year-old, and apparently it was on Barkers Road," he said.

"I was clinically dead, my heart had stopped," he said.

The crash left him with a brain injury, deaf in one ear, partially blind and with a number of other health concerns. But after years of rehabilitation, the gentle 33-year-old recently started full-time study and is living on his own in a group of units occupied by TAC clients.

"I'm very very happy to be in my own place...But I'm upset for all the pain that my accident – me being hit by a car – about all of the pain that it has caused for my family," he said.

Mr Baker wants to work in aged care, and eventually, perhaps become a counsellor. "I want to do something to help people. That's all that matters," he said.