Dozens of bike enthusiasts retraced the route taken by runner-biker Maria Hellene Grace Piñero when she was hit by a car from her back while riding her road bike towards Dauin early morning of Dec. 24.
Triathletes Ricardo Cordova and Irwin Ramas-Uypitching said the activity, which started and ended at the Pantawan sa Rizal Boulevard, was geared towards raising awareness among fellow motorists that bikers and runners also have the right to use the road like everyone else, without compromising anyone’s safety.
Many bikers also shared their sad experience of “close encounters”or brush with rude drivers who sometimes purposely maneuver their vehicles dangerously close to the bikers to force them off the road.
The cyclists also recalled several instances of tail-gating (driving too-closely behind bicycles), refusing to yield the right-of-way, and lane-blocking.
These unsafe actions by four-wheel drivers put themselves, the bikers, and even pedestrians in unnecessarily-dangerous situations.
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Piñero, who teaches English at Silliman University, is currently being treated in a local hospital after sustaining compressed spinal injury. She is required to stay in the hospital for the next months to fully recuperate.
The driver of the car, identified as Marlow Bulandres, has agreed to settle the medical expenses of Piñero, including her carbon frame bicycle estimated at around P150,000.
Uypithching said he hopes the Land Transportation Office and the Provincial Highway Patrol Group will educate drivers who are undergoing mandatory seminars before getting their licenses that bikers and runners also have a right to use the road or streets.
Meanwhile, bikers are also advised to continue wearing their safety gears and helmet, to always stay on the slow lane (rightmost lane) or the shoulder of the road, and to be always on alert against reckless drivers. (Dems Demecillo)
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