Visibility focus in cyclist death inquest
Matt CoughlanAAP
Thursday, 28 February 2019 2:02PM
Camera IconMike Hall died almost instantly after being hit by a teenage driver on an ACT highway last year.
Mike Hall died almost instantly after his bicycle was "impaled" by a teenage driver as darkness enveloped a rural road near Australia's capital.
It was just before 6.30am on March 31, 2017 when the British ultra-endurance cyclist was killed on the Monaro Highway, south of Canberra.
Shegu Bobb's Mazda 323 was doing 100km/h when it smashed into Hall from behind, flinging his body to the side of the road.
Hall died from massive head injuries, with spinal fractures and abdominal wounds rendering CPR futile, despite the efforts of one of the drivers who stopped to help.
"The bike was effectively impaled on the front of the car," counsel assisting the coroner Ken Archer told an inquest into Hall's death last year.
The elite athlete was running second in the closing stages of the Fremantle-Sydney Indian Pacific Wheel Race, a 5500km odyssey which makes Tour De France riders look like they've still got training wheels.
At the inquest, the court heard the race described as the "Hunger Games on wheels", with Hall's "almost superhuman" capacity lauded by coroner Bernadette Boss.
On Thursday, Dr Boss found the death was avoidable, but hoped it would be a catalyst for changes to help rider safety.
Visibility was one of the central points pored over during the three-day hearing.
The majority of drivers who saw him during his final ride said he was hard to see, with three almost hitting him in the hours leading up to the collision that killed him.
Other witnesses were adamant lights and reflective equipment helped them identify a cyclist.
Police re-creations showed it would have been almost impossible to see Hall's bicycle, while documentary footage from the race showed the glow of front and rear lights in pools surrounding the rider.
For many tracking the race around the world, when Hall's GPS tracking dot stopped moving about 6.22am it would soon be clear that something was gravely wrong.
"Mike's dot was moving, but it was moving at a speed that was consistent with it being transported by a vehicle ... that was a really horrific moment, where it really was confirmed," an Adelaide-based "dot-watcher" said last year.
P-plater Bobb, 19 at the time of the incident, secured legal representation at the 11th hour.
The coroner ruled he wouldn't be grilled in the witness box.
Boss said the driver was a vulnerable person who picked up English as his second language when he migrated from Sierra Leone in 2005.
She said the quality of Bobb's evidence would have been poor, agreeing he had been a suggestible witness in police interviews.
In his statements, Bobb remembered spotting a truck parked unusually, before refocusing on the road.
But it was too late to avoid Hall.
Witnesses approached Bobb, in shock and unable to speak as his phone lay in his lap with emergency services on the other end.
Hall's former partner Anna Haslock, who travelled from the UK, left the inquest unsatisfied.
"I've seen chilling photos of Mike's bike impaled on the front of the car," she said outside court.
She's weighing up her legal options, deeply disappointed with what she views as a flawed police investigation.
Her concerns are shared by cyclist advocacy groups.
Pedal Power chief Ian Ross said he was astonished no charges were laid, questioning if the inquest's focus on Hall's clothing and lighting implied blame on the victim.
The counsel assisting made it clear in his opening remarks the inquest would not be a proxy for debate over the rights of cyclists versus motorists.
Hall was legally entitled to be riding on the Monaro Highway when he died, but he was the first cyclist almost every driver who spoke at the inquest had seen on that particular road in darkness.
The tragedy led to the cancellation of the 2017 and 2018 Indian Pacific Wheel Race.
The global cycling community continues to focus on the light left by Hall's indelible legacy.
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