I have a confession to make.

[Shut Up Legs]

I ran over a young girl today on my bike, during my commute home .

While riding through a wide shared path near Federation Square in Melbourne, on my way home from work, I was travelling at about 20km/h, and a young girl, probably only about 6 years old, ran into my path. I didn't brake hard enough, and my front wheel hit her, she fell over, then the wheel went over her arm.

Her mother ran over, panicking and yelling, and picked her up, and I repeatedly said I was sorry. After her mother handed me her phone, I entered my name and phone number, then accompanied them both to a nearby first-aid office which was part of the nearby train station complex, where a first-aid officer took my name and phone number again, and told me I could leave them to it. I asked the mother to please call me to let me know how the girl was.

A short while ago, I got a text message saying the girl had been to a doctor, and luckily had only bruises.

I feel absolutely rotten now, because not only did I hurt someone with my bike, but I'm wondering if probably could have braked harder, even it it meant I fell off the bike . Now some young kid will probably never even want to go near a bike for years, thanks to me.

 

[Cycleops]

No fault on your part. These things happen and they do shake you up. Thank goodness she sustained no serious injury

 

[cosmicbike]

Accidents happen, and you should give yourself a pat on the back for doing the right thing in staying to see if she was ok.

 

[jagman.2003]

If blame is being handed out then I think the mother of the child has some responsibility for not keeping the child out of harms way. If it was a road the outcome would've been different. Accidents happen. People are always to quick to throw the blame at someone else.
I don't like shared paths much myself. They often don't feel very shared.

 

[ScotiaLass]

As others have said, you did the right thing.
It was a shared path - that means shared responsibility! The parent should know it's used by cyclists etc and look out for their child.
Don't beat yourself up about it....I've come close a few times with dogs and kids running out in front of me!

 

[numbnuts]

As stated above accidents do happen and it's not your fault

 

[I like Skol]

I'm afraid I am going to take the opposite view here although I have no intention of beating on the OP for the incident.

Accidents usually don't just happen, but we all make mistakes. Victor, you sound like a very experienced cycle commuter so I am surprised you got caught out this way. Without being there and having personal knowledge of the location it would seem on the face of it you had all the warning signs you should need to avoid this kind of mistake. You were on a shared use path with (young) people around at a busy time of day. In the UK the DfT recommendation for max speed on a mixed use cyclepath is 12mph but this is a maximum, not a target and personally (and I drum this into my kids as well) unless you have made eye contact and been acknowledged by all users you are passing then speed should be no more than walking pace <5mph and you should be prepared to stop at any moment.

It sounds as though you were going a bit too fast for the situation (probably felt slow on the bike if you often travel a lot faster). This time everyone was lucky and no serious harm done but I don't think the mother or child can take much of the blame here and hopefully all three of you will take away a valuable and positive lesson from the incident?

 

[welsh dragon]

It wasnt your fault victor. It's a shared path, the mother must have known this as well, and should have been keeping her eyes open to the possibility that there could have been bike traffic on the path as well. Don't beat yourself up with woulda coulda shoulda scenarios.

What happened was an accident, pure and simple. How are you feeling? Shaken I would think. Try not to dwell on it too long. Did you manage to finish your journey? Take care Victor

 

[Hip Priest]

Personally, I think cyclists have a responsibility to take extra care on shared paths, so I think the OP was probably at fault. But all credit to him for his response. We all make mistakes, but apologising and helping to make amends is the mark of a decent human being.

 

[ColinJ]

Yes, I would have been going slower than that.

Part of the town centre of Hebden Bridge is pedstrianised, but cyclists are allowed to use it. It often isn't safe to go much more than walking pace though because adults. children, dogs, and even ducks (!) wander about in front of you. Quite often I unclip one foot and 'scoot' my bike rather than ride it so I can go even slower.

I do think that some parents are a bit negligent though. I have been out on bridleways on my MTB and had couples warn each other about my approach, while completely ignoring the fact that their small children are running across the bridleway behind them and in front of me.

I treat children like sheep - you can't reliably predict what they are going to do, so I just assume that they will leap in front of me at the last minute. Ditto for dogs, horses, cows. geese ...

 

[CopperBrompton]

Faults on both sides here - mother should have been supervising her daughter, cyclist should have been going slower on a shared-use path in close proximity to young kids. Hopefully lessons learned on both sides.

 

[TheLondonCyclist]

Have you thought about going to Church and confessing?

 

[Steady]

I'm afraid I am going to take the opposite view here although I have no intention of beating on the OP for the incident.

Accidents usually don't just happen, but we all make mistakes. Victor, you sound like a very experienced cycle commuter so I am surprised you got caught out this way. Without being there and having personal knowledge of the location it would seem on the face of it you had all the warning signs you should need to avoid this kind of mistake. You were on a shared use path with (young) people around at a busy time of day. In the UK the DfT recommendation for max speed on a mixed use cyclepath is 12mph but this is a maximum, not a target and personally (and I drum this into my kids as well) unless you have made eye contact and been acknowledged by all users you are passing then speed should be no more than walking pace <5mph and you should be prepared to stop at any moment.

It sounds as though you were going a bit too fast for the situation (probably felt slow on the bike if you often travel a lot faster). This time everyone was lucky and no serious harm done but I don't think the mother or child can take much of the blame here and hopefully all three of you will take away a valuable and positive lesson from the incident?

I agree with that. Pedestrians, parents, dog walkers, kids don't usually care whether a path is shared use if it's not divided by a white line, it's just a path to them. Whether that's right or wrong doesn't matter, that's the way things are so that's the way shared use paths must be used slow and with caution when anybody is on it.

I check my speed when I'm coasting on shared use paths and I find I'm doing 13-14mph and hardly peddling at all and when it's busy that's just too much. I tend to brake to a crawl for all dog walkers and people with children and especially make sure I've been acknowledged.