November has blogged the story at Ubin Stories: http://pulauubinstories.blogspot.com/2008/09/fatal-cycling-accidents-on-ubin.html
It is very sad to hear about people getting badly injured let alone during a lesiure ride. It’s tragic, and my heart goes out to the poor family.
A critical thing about cycling safely is not going too fast – it’s not just about speed but also about a person’s actual skill in riding and breaking their fall. So you might not be relatively slowly compared to your friends but it could still be too fast for you.
The most critical thing that has kept Pedal Ubin free of injuries thus far is the very slow speed at which we travel. Pedal Ubin participants are mainly from the “how to use a mountain bicycle” group. We actually explain the use of gears, braking, fit, etc. Then when we set off, the pace is slow but we’re there to explore the island’s natural heritage and learn to handle a bike effectively in the process. With the regular stops, it is quite a tame ride with ly one real exertion at the Ketam mountain trail. The final element that helps us keep safe is ending while we’re still coherent – the midday end is good habit since accidents are more likely to happen when we’re tired.
The most critical thing that has kept Pedal Ubin free of injuries thus far is the very slow speed at which we travel. Pedal Ubin participants are mainly from the “how to use a mountain bicycle” group. We actually explain the use of gears, braking, fit, etc. Then when we set off, the pace is slow but we’re there to explore the island’s natural heritage and learn to handle a bike effectively in the process. With the regular stops, it is quite a tame ride with ly one real exertion at the Ketam mountain trail. The final element that helps us keep safe is ending while we’re still coherent – the midday end is good habit since accidents are more likely to happen when we’re tired.
So we will keep puddling along at our slow pace when we have others in our care.
Otterman speaks... 