An early morning bike ride ended in tragedy after a cyclist lost control of his bike and crashed into a traffic sign.
The 49-year-old had sped out of sight of his fellow cyclists and crashed on Morgan Rd at Ironbank in the Adelaide Hills at about 8.15am on Sunday.
The cyclist from Tonsley, south of Adelaide, is understood to have been “catapulted” from his bike and thrown into nearby bushes.
The other two motorcyclists found the damaged road sign shortly afterwards and attempted to locate their friend.
Local resident Richard saw the commotion and offered to help the distraught couple, thinking someone had stumbled upon a kangaroo.
It was then that he saw the cyclist’s body in the nearby bushes.
“He was unconscious. We came and got him out, I checked for a pulse but he had no pulse and he wasn’t breathing,” Richard said. Adelaide Advertiser.
“So we started CPR until the ambulance got there, but I don’t think the ambulance revived him either.”
A 49-year-old cyclist has died after crashing into a road sign in the Adelaide Hills on Sunday morning.
The other two cyclists were “quite distraught” by the horrific accident and the resident recalled that neither of them were trained in CPR.
Richard told Nine News: “When I got there anyway, they had only just found him because he had practically disappeared from sight.”
He has since urged Australians to learn CPR.
“It’s not heroic, it’s just something you can do for someone who needs help,” he said.
He believes that a contributing factor to the cyclist’s death was the dangerous state of the road, with several hills and wide curves.
The cyclist’s friends were left ‘distressed’ after being unable to perform CPR on the cyclist.
The tragedy prompted a desperate call for road users to take care when driving in difficult conditions.
“I’ve been to at least four different incidents along this highway where people have crashed and gone off the road,” Richard said.
The man’s death is the 51st life lost on South Australian roads this year.
Officers from the Major Accident Section are investigating the accident.
