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A 56-year-old man who was thrown from his bike after being clotheslined by a hose tied across a road on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast says it was a malicious and criminal act.
Peter Duncan was on a pre-dawn ride from his Sippy Downs home to meet a friend in Mooloolaba when he ran into the hose, which was tied to garden stakes and trees across the street at chest height.
Photo: The hose had been strung up across a street in Mooloolaba, police say. (Supplied: Queensland Police Service)He was taken to the Sunshine Coast University hospital where he was heavily sedated with a broken collarbone and eight broken ribs.
Mr Duncan said it was pitch black and he had “no chance” of seeing the hose, riding at more than 30 kilometres per hour along the bicycle lane on Goonawarra Drive.
“I didn’t see it … all I remember is going up in the air and coming down hard on my back and I was screaming out for help,” Mr Duncan said.
“I didn’t even know, it was just like a flash.
“I didn’t even have time to respond and brake, I was off my bike.”
Mr Duncan said while he had good lights on his bike, he did not stand a chance.
“When you’re riding in the dark you’re looking in front … you’re not expecting a hose to be at a metre high,” he said.
“There was no give in that hose, it was rigid.”
Mr Duncan said he was lying on the road unable to move, when passers-by stopped to help.
“I was in agony, I knew I’d done damage and I couldn’t breathe very well,” he said.
Mr Duncan has been a cyclist for more than 30 years and said he had never encountered anything like this.
“We do take calculated risks but you don’t expect to have someone sabotaging [you],” he said through tears.
“This is not by any means a prank, it’s malice, it’s criminal.
Photo: The hose was set up along Goonawarra Drive near Quondong Street. (ABC News: Nicole Hegarty)“I mean, I’m someone’s child and I’m a parent.
“That could’ve killed someone.”
As he lay in the hospital bed in pain, Mr Duncan said he was at a loss as to how a person would do this to another.
“It’s sad that a human would even contemplate doing that, there’s just no common sense,” he said.
‘Every action has a consequence’, says cyclist’s wife
Mr Duncan’s wife Tanya said her husband would usually take his mobile phone on a ride, but noticed he had left it behind.
She said a short time later, two police officers knocked at her door.
Photo: Peter Duncan said the incident has not put him off his bike. (Supplied: Peter Duncan)“I just knew it would’ve had to have been him [Peter]. Of all the days that he hasn’t taken a phone for something to happen,” Ms Duncan said.
She had a clear message for those responsible for the “prank”.
“Every action has a consequence and this is the consequence of your actions so perhaps you should think about other people rather than yourself in future,” she said.
Mr Duncan is yet to find out if he will need surgery for his injuries, which will mean time off work and a loss of income for the self-employed natural therapist.
“If I don’t work I don’t get paid and by the looks of things I’m going to be out for a couple of months and they [the perpertator/s], they don’t think like that,” Mr Duncan said.
But he said the incident has not put him off riding his bike.
“I love my cycling, we’ve got a great bunch of guys we ride with and we enjoy it,” he said.
“It’s not put me off at all.”
Sunshine Coast police are appealing for anyone with information or CCTV footage to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Photo: Peter Duncan, with his wife Tanya Duncan standing alongside his hospital bed. (ABC News: Kylie Bartholomew)Topics: people, human-interest, law-crime-and-justice, crime, mooloolaba-4557, maroochydore-4558, birtinya-4575, brisbane-4000, australia, qld
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