By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
WHO knows how Doveton cyclist Michael Lynch is still alive?
The 68-year-old grandfather of 13 partly attributes his survival to his battered $400 bike helmet and – half-jokingly – his “solid” build.
He has little memory of the crash on 28 January 2015 that led to an extended stint in hospital and months of rehabilitation.
From what bystanders told him, he had been riding straight ahead on Princes Highway, nearing the Jones Street intersection, when he was struck by a Hi-Ace van towing a trailer turning left .
Mr Lynch went down and the trailer’s wheels went over him. He was able to give someone his wife’s phone number before he was hospitalised in The Alfred’s trauma section for five days.
He suffered a closed head injury with brain contusions, as well as fractured ribs and three broken vertebrae.
“I think I could have been killed. Every week you pick up a paper and read about a rider killed … ”
The driver was charged and fined $1000, according to Mr Lynch.
The collision was part of a real annus horribilis.
Just before Mr Lynch’s crash, his granddaughter died at birth, he had his prostate removed due to cancer and his brother passed away.
Afterwards, his heart took a “turn” requiring a quadruple by-pass.
Then there were the complications from the crash – stress, memory loss, depression, trauma, and a painful back that can no longer lift heavy things.
Every night, he takes anti-depressants to help him sleep, to stop him thinking “stupid things”. The coccyx still “kills me”, stopping him from sitting on a wooden chair for long.
Then there’s the brand-new watch smashed in the crash. Mr Lynch says his wife always told him not to wear it while riding.
Mr Lynch had been riding a bike since he was 15. He took it up with renewed gusto when he retired from truck driving.
He joined Southern Masters riding group and made a lot of mates. But there was also a lot of vitriol and road rage – not to mention bottles and spit – directed at him by drivers.
“I don’t think you’ll ever get people to like cyclists. There’s so many people who hate cyclists.”
Mr Lynch is back on the bike, riding in the Masters lower grades, but keeping it to the track.
He says there’s also too many long gaps in the off-road bike paths.
“It’s hard to ride on the road. Cars drive up the bike lanes in front of you.
“Here’s the government trying to encourage people to ride to work. What if you live in Dandenong? How do you ride to Melbourne?”
