I really enjoyed your Rogers Rabbits article on road safety (The Weekend Sun 19 November) vehicles and cycles etc.
My memory went back to the 1940's when I was employed on a sheep and dairy farm in Taranaki. I had bought a push bike with racing handlebars; fixed gear wheel; wooden wheel rims and no brakes!
One morning (my day off), I gathered my trout fishing gear, slung the bag over the handlebars and woke up next day in my bedroom – parent's house, from concussion! I knew, when conscious, that my fishing bag had jammed into the spokes of the front wheels as I began to peddle.
My next incident (six months later) was with the same bike. I was biking with my brother to a dance; pitch dark, mo lights and slightly downhill. Another cyclist, coming uphill, we collided, and I ended up in my parents houses again with another concussion! Those were the days of WWII (1939-45), when all buildings were blacked out, and food, with many other items were rationed.
Today – 65 years later, all has changed. Cyclists do not pay to use the roadways, so that they must give ways to all vehicles, and be ever so careful when riding along with those heavy hard vehicles; they always come off second best, as the horrible statistics of week 12 – 19 November 2010 showed.
EM Izett, Tauranga.