Safety reminder on another black day for cyclists

Arthur Orsini developed the Bike Better programme, which hopes to make children cautious but confident cyclists. Picture / Greg Bowker

As an elderly cyclist died after being hit by a car in one part of Auckland yesterday, holidaying schoolchildren were riding home from a council-sponsored "bike better" obstacle course in another.

The 77-year-old man, who was knocked down in Takanini about 2pm, is the second cyclist to die on New Zealand roads this week and the seventh this year.

His death follows that of a 65-year-old Hamilton cyclist who turned in front of a tourist bus near Ngaruawahia on Tuesday.

Two other cyclists are seriously ill in hospital after recent crashes in Auckland - a 17-year-old boy paralysed from the chest down after a vehicle allegedly forced him off a road in Glen Eden last week, and a 52-year-old man whose leg was almost severed in a collision with a 4WD at Gulf Harbour on Monday.

The latest victim is believed to have been a Takanini man who rode along Porchester Rd almost every day to keep fit.

He was wearing a helmet and visibility vest and collided with a northbound car at the intersection of Porchester and Popes Rds. He died in Middlemore Hospital.

Sergeant Emiel Logan said the car driver swerved after the collision and crashed into a fence, but was uninjured.

The spate of crashes has not deterred Auckland City Council from rolling out its Bike Better cycling safety programme, at primary and intermediate schools.

About 30 children from five schools and a handful of parents revelled in an off-road obstacle course at Kowhai Intermediate in Kingsland yesterday, aimed at making them cautious but confident on two wheels.

Council project manager Arthur Orsini, who developed a similar award-winning scheme in his native Vancouver, said recent crashes reinforced the need for all road users to be cautious.

Kowhai Intermediate principal Paul Douglas said that although the number of children who cycled to his school had grown to 27 since winter, too many were still driven there, and so had less opportunity to gain road awareness skills for later life.