Unmaintained road costs cyclist
The 60-year-old did not notice the hole on the shoulder of the R23 and fell in, resulting in a broken nose, several stitches and many bruises.
Ian Said (60), who hails from Sandton, cycles a vast distance every Sunday morning with his cycling club.
What he did not expect to happen during a recent cycle was taking a tumble into a hole on the R23 (Heidelberg Road) near Mall@Carnival.
This unexpected fall caused a broken nose, some stitches and “quite a lot of bruises”, according to Ian, along with costly medical bills he had to pay.
The group was cycling past the mall on March 17 when Ian suffered the accident. The hole appears to have been carved – likely due to repairs or maintenance – and was angled so that the morning light made it almost invisible.
“Fortunately, I feel a lot better than I look, and I didn’t get any brain damage,” Ian said.
The club usually cycles routes between 90km and 110km, and that Sunday, they rode the Lever Bros route over Sylvia’s Pass along the M33 and then passed through Brakpan.
The cycling club, Capri Wheelers, has 160 members older than 50 and about 20 routes they cycle each Sunday.
A security company sponsors and accompanies them.
The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport, responsible for maintaining the R23, assured the Brakpan Herald it would attend to the hole but provided no further comment on the origin or reason for it not being timeously repaired.
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