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Audax Australia
This is the umbrella organisation running long distance cycling events in Australia Their website includes a calendar of events.

Bikejournal
A place where cyclist can keep track of their mileage and any number of other statistics, as well as an attached forum.

Bikeforums
A set of discussion forums covering almost every conceivable cycling related topic.

Cycling Adventurer
The Cycling Adventurer has tossed in the structured life of an urbanite to explore the world by bicycle. A well-written site detailing how he came to cycling, and what he learned along the way.

Crazy Guy on a Bike

Bicycle touring journals from all over the world, including a couple of my own.

Johns Cycles

This is my LBS on the Gold Coast. While they cater more to the racing market, their service, advice and workmanship is the best on the coast.

St Kilda Cycles

Importers of all manner of things hard to find in Australia, including the legendary Schmidt hub dynamo & E6 lights.

Blogs

Bicycle-eye
Wonderings and wanderings out and about in Portland, Oregon, US

The Journey
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Lance Notstrong
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Iron Gambit
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Aussie Writer and Cycletourist
A blog chronicling the writing and cycling of a seaside baby boomer.

Up in Alaska
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The Kin Chronicles
Taking mediocrity to a new level of ordinary.

Allez
Riding and running with a vengeance.

London Cycling Diary
Pedalling across the capital since August 2005.

CouchPilot-2-BikePilot (Zin's cycling blog)
Living an adventurous life with Type-2-Diabetes.

The adventures of Crazy Biker Chick
... Including cycling, adventuring, cooking, knitting and ranting.

Redneck Espanol
The two wheeled Spanish redneck.

Treadly and me
"Work is something I do between riding my bicycle".

Crowlie
Womanist philosophy and theology. Cycling, climbing, art, single-motherhood and fire-twirling.

Adrian Fitch's random rambling.
A bit about cycling, a bit about genealogy, a bit about radio but mostly a lot about nothing at all.

Geo's big adventure
The life and times of Geo.

It's about the bike
Musings on the cycling life.

Spinopsys
Various cycling tidbits.

Industry Outsider
A blog about bikes and stuff.

Tweed Coast Treadly
An old man's bicycle riding diary.

A cyclist's life in Tenerife
(Canary Islands).

Bike to work to live to bike
It's never too late to get back on the bike

Stupid Hurts
Just the random scribblings of a guy with a bicycle

I'm not drunk enough for this
Really, I'm not.

BikeHacks
What can I say? Just read it.

Mozam's cycling adventures
A random collection of the things I like to do most, and mostly that is to ride my bikes, bicycles that is... My musings from competitive riding, long distance endurance to puttering around the neighborhood..

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Tosspot of the week



According to this report, there have been 441 hit and run assaults on the Gold Coast in the last 12 months, and yes, the term "assault" is a far more accurate description than the politically correct expression, "accident".

441 hit-and-runs on Gold Coast
Stephanie Bedo January 20th, 2010

THERE is more than one hit-and-run on the Gold Coast each day, with a six-year-old being dragged for 20m after being struck by a moped in the most recent incident.

As police hunt the callous moped rider, figures released yesterday showed an alarming 441 hit-and-run incidents happened on the Gold Coast in 2009.

On Monday a moped rider struck the boy, who was riding a children's scooter on a footpath in Seaworld Drive in Main Beach.

The boy, who was holidaying with his family from NSW and staying at the Sheraton Mirage Resort, is in an induced coma in Brisbane's Mater Children's Hospital with a fractured skull and severely cut leg.

He was riding his scooter with his nanny when the moped crashed into him from behind.

Police said the moped rider dragged the boy for about 20m on the front of the bike.

Other pedestrians had to jump out of the way as the moped nearly hit them while fleeing.

Gold Coast Police District Superintendent Jim Keogh said he did not know why the moped rider was illegally on the footpath.

"I don't know if it's deliberate (but) it's certainly a callous act when you consider the young boy was dragged along for some (distance)," he said.

Supt Keogh said the moped looked too 'flashy' to be from a hire company.

"Without doubt he's hit the boy and knew he struck him," he said.

Regional traffic co-ordinator Darren Soppa said hit-and-runs made up about a tenth of all accidents on the Coast.

"It means people aren't abiding by traffic regulations in that they're supposed to stop and provide details of name and address and contact details so appropriate action can be taken," he said.


Let's be realistic here, people run away from these crime scenes because they have something to hide. This guy took off in the way he did because he was drunk, stoned or guilty of something else that would have been exposed if he waited the two hours it takes for the police to show up, and that's before we even consider the illegality of the act of running away, but then, it's not as if the police or the courts ever consider that either.

I've said this before, but now would be a good opportunity to say it again, this problem requires a serious, third-world fascist police state solution. What is needed here is to bring in a penalty that includes a mandatory minimum five year prison sentence for ANY hit and run assault, and a mandatory minimum 25 years if the victim is killed. Do that, and the hit and run assaults will stop after the first two offenders are sentenced. Unfortunately, road safety just isn't a high enough priority in the eyes of the electorate, so after the usual whining, nothing will be done.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aye, there's the rub... a third world fascist response may not contain itself to ONLY hit-and-run scofflaws. One might find that blogging about any number of topics could be off-limits and subject to the same penalty. I'm in full agreement with you- something must be done; far beyond the usual rhetoric, too.

Perhaps the parents, friends and family of the injured party should be permitted to determine the perpetrator's penalty?

4:38 am  
Blogger Chris L said...

The idea of the victim's family deciding the perpetrator's fate is stragely compelling, but I'm not sure we'd get any consistency in the sentencing. Some would want them sent straight to the firing squad, while others would be naive enough to believe that it was an "accident".

Perhaps fascism is going a bit far, but I do think we need mandatory sentencing for this offence. At least until people get the message and stop doing it.

Incidentally, I've already learned that the Australian government considers certain blogging topics to be off-limits. I wasn't allowed to vote in the 2004 election out here, because my name somehow disappeared from the electoral roll shortly after I wrote this post:

http://life-cycle.blogspot.com/2004/09/editorial-how-did-we-get-to-be-so.html

8:23 pm  

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