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A COMPETING cyclist was injured when he was hit by a car during the November 23 Challenge half ironman competition, which has been criticised for organisation problems and poor traffic management.
North Coast professional triathlete Tim Berkell, 29, was taken to hospital for stitches after he sustained lacerations on his legs during a collision with a car driving down Macintosh Street at about 1.30pm.
It is not entirely clear how the car came to be driving down the street, which was supposed to be emptied of traffic for riders during the bike leg of the afternoon’s racing.
A 40-year-old Canberra man driving a Toyota Prado turned east on Lake Street onto Macintosh Street and proceeded slowly.
However, police stated Mr Berkell, who was in full race mode and expecting the street to be clear, had his head down and never saw the car.
The bike hit the front passenger side of the car and he was thrown over the bonnet. Police are still investigating the incident.
Traffic control was a major concern for residents and visitors in the lead-up to the event, with residents of Pacific Palms and Forster Keys particularly concerned about the length of the road closures and its impacts on local businesses.
In an effort to lessen the effect of some of the road closures south of Forster, Great Lakes Council’s director of engineering services Ron Hartley said organisers decided to change the route slightly in the lead-up to the event.
Mr Hartley said council did not believe the event went well in terms of traffic control. The changes to the route, made in the days leading up to the Challenge and after road block times and places had been publicised, created unforeseen traffic problems.
Among these were increased traffic delays in the business district of Forster and volunteers told the Advocate that they bore the brunt of the increasingly frustrated motorists’ deteriorating tempers.
Mr Hartley said, instead of cyclists heading out of town early in the bike leg as originally planned, they were diverted into town much sooner.
This meant the cyclists were still in one big pack travelling through the town, instead of broken up into small groups with gaps in between that would have allowed for some traffic flow.
As a result, cars banked up around Forster.
“The changes (to the route) didn’t impact on the closures themselves, it meant that the intersections that were open couldn’t be utilised,” Mr Hartley said.
While complaints had been received by council about the traffic problems from the event, Mr Hartley said none of these had been “formal”.
A debrief with event organisers Elite Energy following the event identified problems which would need to be addressed before the staging of next year’s event, he said.
The Challenge has approval to be staged in Forster for the next four years. Mr Hartley said it would be likely that council would take over “communication strategies” from the organisers in order to make sure that all people affected by road blocks and traffic changes would be notified in good time.
“There was a lack of communication with affected residents,” Mr Hartley said.
He envisioned that council’s discussions with residents would need to start six months out from next year’s event, so that residents felt much more part of the event.
Changes to the event’s format may also be considered, including the number of laps (a possible reduction from two to one).
Elite Energy was contacted for comment, but the Advocate was told the two people who could comment on these issues, CEO Mark ‘Emo’ Emerton and managing director Mark Stewart, were out of the country.
A list of questions on the issues raised in these articles was also emailed to them for comment.