The handling of a cyclist's death failed by authorities, again.

Mike Hall, an awesome, highly successful endurance cyclist died in March 2017 after a driver hit him at 62mph while Mike was racing the Indian Pacific Wheel Race, in Australia.

I am writing this article now because the inquest is to be concluded this week.

A few things I'd like to bring to light, from the Guardian's article:

"The inquest heard Bobb had seen a truck parked in an unusual place on the Monaro Highway. When he refocused on the road, he saw something briefly but had no time to avoid what he believed was an animal." [my boldface]

So are we going to ignore the fact the driver WASN'T LOOKING at the road when he hit Mike? What use is Hi Vis clothing, reflective lights, any kind of lights at all if the driver isn't looking at the road ahead?

"An inquest on Monday heard Hall, 35, was wearing dark clothing, with limited reflective qualities."

The colour of your clothes is irrelevant at night. The reflective qualities in this video look good to me as do, incidentally, his lights. His setup is ideal, in my opinion. If you're not going to see him (or are looking at parked trucks), you're not going to see him. Wearing Hi Vis isn't going to change that.

From another source:

"Senior Constable Potts of the AFP created a video using a reconstruction of Mike Hall’s bike to examine how visible Mike Hall would have been.

This reconstruction placed the bike off the road to the left, substituted the Dynamo hub with a 6-volt battery, excluded the rear bag and its reflective strip, excluded any person or clothing, excluded any front white light shining on the road, and excluded any human movement of the bike. There was also a Police light stationed near the bike and an oncoming car in the simulation that was admitted into evidence by the AFP. In the submitted video, the reconstructed bike was difficult to see."

If this wasn't completely and utterly tragic, I'd laugh. Are you serious? So the Police's reconstruction was essentially nothing like what actually happened.

The significance of this article cannot be understated. It frustrates me so much because this is an injustice to Mike and his family. His death, rather than being used as an opportunity to learn from, and ensure this never happens again, or at least reduce the chances, feels as though it is in vain. The authorities and the journalists have failed Mike Hall. Shame on them.