Brisbane retiree left bloodied after being run down from behind by cyclist

A man recovering from surgery has been injured after being mowed down from behind by a cyclist while walking on a bridge.

A Brisbane retiree has been left bloodied and may require surgery after being hit from behind by a cyclist while walking on a popular pedestrian bridge in the city’s west.

John DeVries, 67, told The Courier-Mail he was walking on Jack Pesch Bridge on Saturday morning when he was struck – and he’s now calling for the establishment of a 10km speed limit.

“As part of recovering from open heart surgery we’re encouraged to go walking every day, so I left home say 6.20am to go for my morning walk and walked over the Indooroopilly pedestrian bridge which is a shared bridge with bikes,” he told the paper.

“I didn’t see the bike coming, I didn’t hear it, I just got hit from behind … there were a lot of bikes whizzing past me, but this one instead of whizzing past just ran straight into me. I remember being hit; I don’t remember hitting the ground.”

RELATED: Woman hit by cyclist left with crippling debt

Retiree John DeVries was walking on Brisbane’s Jack Pesch Bridge when he was hit by a cyclist from behind on Saturday morning.

RELATED: Cyclist fined after claiming to have been illegally overtaken by car

Mr DeVries was treated at the Wesley Hospital for injuries to his face and hands. Ligaments of his upper front teeth have come loose and he may require surgery.

“The guy who hit me said he was doing 22km/h,” Mr DeVries. “It really is very unsafe for pedestrians and bicycles to share it (the bridge), particularly at times when there are lots of bicycles.”

His wife Susan DeVries said there were “no rules – it’s like you take your life into your hands on that bridge”.

Chris Cox from the Brisbane West Bicycle User Group said the problem with speed limits was they were difficult to enforce as many cyclists did not have speedometers on their bikes, and therefore separation was generally more effective.

Mr Cox told The Daily Mail it was the worst crash he had seen on the bridge.

“I can’t recall a collision like this on the Jack Pesch Bridge before, despite hundreds of pedestrian and cyclist movements every day,” he said.

“Generally what has been successful in other areas to improve safety for all users has been what’s called soft model separation, that is using painted lines and stencils to partition the path into cyclist and pedestrian sections,” he said.

Responsibility for setting and enforcing speed limits on pedestrian cyclist bridges lies with the state government, according to the Brisbane City Council.

News.com.au has contacted the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads for comment.

Originally published as Brisbane retiree left bloodied after being run down from behind by cyclist