Trans Am Bike Race / TransAm / TABR

Reposting from fb

TC was struck by a vehicle while traveling south toward Newton KS around 10:30pm local time June 18 around a mile south of Hesston. He was transported by ground to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita -- the same trauma center where John Egbers is being treated. His injuries reportedly include a fractured pelvis, broken ribs and collapsed lung. He has been sedated and intubated.

FFS. Glad DF & TH are well past.

All struck from behind. Is there enough data now to see if time of day is a major factor?
Distracted driving in the USA is a huge problem, one that the organisers of long distance bike races must be aware of.

Ah man that's funny.

poor guy is on the limit.

all in Kansas.

One person had 3 rear lights.

Is this the 3rd? More info?

FFS.

Yes 3rd. John, Ashley and TC.

Post from John Egbers' wife. Sounds like he may be paralysed, not clear yet:

"Tuesday
Oh what a day!
I stayed late last night in John's room and we had a few hours of quiet and private time to talk. Yes talk!! Although it is difficult for him to, he uses all his strength to share his thoughts and worries and needs with me. The biggest demand is ice cream. Ice chips is all I am allowed to give him. He is at risk of aspirating which would not be good. The doctors made their rounds as usual. He bravely asked if he was paralyzed forever. There is no real answer for that right now. He was told everyone heals differently , and with time and rehabilitation we will know. He relied “ I feel I am going to recover “. He said he knows it will be hard work - harder than after his total knee surgery. I have discovered that he has superpower ears. He hears everything! I am thinking he might not trust me with some of his care because I am “too nice”. So I had to put on my bitch shoes and get to work. The staff here are very good so I don’t need to be bitchy just maybe a little more assertive. Got it. The next step is to repair his broken left leg. The external fixation is not an adequate repair for an athletic person like him so he told the surgeon “I want it fixed right because I am going to ride my bike again”. The surgeon consulted with me and we agreed. Now to get the whole team on board and get-r-done maybe by Friday. After he heals from that off we go to a spinal cord injury rehabilitation center near Denver. He asked about all of you last night. He asked me to open up the Website so he could see the dots. He wanted to know who was where on the trail. I read to him the whole list of GoFundMe donors and he would tell me who some of the people are. We are forever grateful to all those who donated. It eases John's mind to know that he is not causing a financial burden on his family.
There is strength in numbers and we have a huge number of supporters."

To hear that John is not only talking, but also planning his come-back is so encouraging and inspiring!! "

Yeah fucking bullshit isn't it.

I'm at a loss now.

70 people ride across Kansas and three get hit. That is insane.

Is he insured? Is the gofundme for medical expenses or to help with his wife's expenses?

It's a terrible situation either way.

(and at @ashton) Couldn't put it any better myself. Harrowing.

Yes 3rd. John, Ashley and TC.

Let's not forget Eric Fishbein's death last year. Also in Kansas.

I was talking about the race this year.

70 people ride across Kansas and three get hit. That is insane.

I can totally see how that might happen. Drivers just don't expect riders. The driving's incredibly monotonous, a tiny village (well, I think they'd call it a town) every 10 or 40 miles, often even set slightly away from the main road. No frontages, no animals that could cross the road. All the roads are extremely straight, drawn with a ruler. Many drivers are probably on these autopilot mechanisms and watch films (although I may be doing them an injustice with that supposition; it's just what drivers already reportedly do here on motorways--perhaps American drivers are more law-abiding).

It certainly would be good to get more info on how the crashes happened--time of day, vehicle types, locations (these all seem to have been away from junctions), etc.

Those multiple injuries sound absolutely horrible. I can't even imagine recovering from half of those.

I know. I still thought it was worth mentioning.

1 in 25 chance of making it through unscathed!

Only 38 have made it through KS so far. 3/41 is close to 1 in 14.

15 currently in KS, another 18 still to get there.

Bloody hell. When you put it like that...

I remember running similar numbers through my head on IndyPac last year and those ones are even worse. Basically there is hardly any traffic before Port Augusta after about 2000km. About 50 riders made it that far, one got killed and another hospitalised by a car. That was 1 in 25 and I thought that was unacceptably bad.

It certainly would be good to get more info on how the crashes happened--time of day, vehicle types, locations (these all seem to have been away from junctions), etc.

I agree it would be good to know more. I never heard any details of Eric's death from last year. However, it mustn't become a road to victim blaming. A car hitting a bike from behind is to blame. Always.

It is funny that drivers automatically accept the convention that when a car runs into the back of another one, it is always the fault of the one that hits the other from behind. Somehow, when it is a bike, people are only too ready to abandon that principle and look for reasons to blame the victim.

The situation that I find particularly scary is sunrise on these west to east races, like this and IndyPac, where you are riding directly into the sun. The drivers still have total responsibility for not driving where they can't see, but their ability to do so is dangerously impaired. The European races, which don't head due east-west, and don't have such long straights, don't have this particular risk to the same degree.

In general where I feel the most safe while cycling is on the narrow and twisting mountain roads where car drivers need 100% concentration at all time or they won't last too many seconds on the road. This means they never fail to see the cyclist because of the concentration needed. By the looks of it the roads in Kansas are in the very opposite.

No, I'm coming at it much more from the opposite end of the spectrum.
If these accidents are happening in full daylight then how is there any excuse for a driver not seeing a cyclist in the road, if it's literally the only thing in the road and if it's happening at night, how, with lights and reflectives are the drivers failing to observe cyclists.

It's always going to be the driver's fault unless something odd happens like the cyclist crosses the carriageway unexpectedly - but why, on a flat straight road, would you not pass another human being with as much space as was possible?

One of the cyclists collision happened in the evening. He had 3 rear lights running.

The two German cyclists killed in May were hit from behind in broad daylight as well (11am). From what I can see, no charges yet filed against the driver...

Second hand info here but.. a rider said the road where Egbers was hit had recently been resurfaced and had a wide shoulder with no rumble strips but also had not yet been painted with a solid white line to separate the shoulder from the right lane. It is easy to imagine a driver drifting to the right edge and hitting someone riding in the shoulder given the speed differential. Obviously there can be a time delay between road surfacing and painting, but it's got to be short and there has got to be significant signage warning drivers of the situation. They make a big deal here of warning vehicles to move left if any vehicle is in the shoulder (police, break down, etc) and the same effort should be given if the shoulder is incomplete. (If the road isn't going to be painted, that is completely unacceptable).

There was some chatter on fb about getting KDOT (dept of transport) involved to get some answers and hopefully improve things for next year.