John Fittall, 70, broke numerous bones and suffered a concussion when he fell off his road bike last month. Photo / John Borren
John Fittall, 70, broke numerous bones and suffered a concussion when he fell off his road bike last month. Photo / John Borren
John Fittall can't remember the freak cycling accident that left him in hospital for three weeks with broken bones and a head injury - or the three days after.
The 70-year-old Papamoa Peddlers rider hit a piece of wood on the road and was thrown off his bike on Papamoa Beach Rd nearly a month ago.
He suffered a broken hip, collarbone, rib, finger and a concussion, which affected his memory.
His accident comes as ACC figures show an increase in the money paid out and number of days lost as a result of road cycling accidents across the Western Bay of Plenty, despite a drop in the number of individual claims.
The number of ACC claims for road cycling accidents in the region dropped nearly 27 per cent from 2013 to 2014 but pay-outs increased by more than $100,000 to $465,881. ACC noted that claims from previous years could have had ongoing costs paid out in 2014. Days lost jumped from 672 in 2013 to 1176 in 2014.
Mr Fittall is now four weeks into his recovery, with at least six weeks of not being able to put weight on his broken hip.
He is retired but still had to turn down a month of holiday-cover plumbing work with his previous employer.
Mr Fittall admitted it was one of the worst crashes he had known of in his cycling group, in terms of the seriousness of his injuries, but said it was just the reality of cycling.
"Most cyclists have at least one crash. It's just one of those things ... a freak accident," he told the Bay of Plenty Times.
John Fittall in Tauranga Hospital the day after his accident. Photo / Supplied
His head injury meant he could not remember the accident and, as he was at the back of the Papamoa Peddlers pack on their Friday ride, no one clearly saw what happened.
He said they would have been riding about 30km/h when, it is understood, he hit a 4-by-2 piece of timber on the road, "so all they can remember is seeing me flying through the air".
"I've lost about four days," he said.
"I vaguely remember getting ready before the ride but nothing after that until about Tuesday."
His wife Jenny cycled past the crash while she was out riding alone, without realising it was her husband on the ground.
"By the time I got home, one of the group was here to tell me," she said.
She had been since then in Tauranga Hospital every day with him, helping with his recovery. She had to feed him for the first nine days after the accident.
He had been cycling seriously since 2012, and usually rode between 50km and 70km every Tuesday and Friday with the Papamoa Peddlers.
