This group of cyclists were on a road descent near Sonora in California when they encountered a minivan coming in the opposite direction. The van had cut the apex of a blind corner and with little time to react the van directly hits two of the cyclist who in turn brought down the other riders.

The driver did remain at the scene and the video footage was given to the California Highway Patrol. Thankfully there were no fatalities and although there were some serious injuries all cyclists involved made a full recovery.

67 COMMENTS

  1. Bikes did have the right of way and legally did nothing wrong although hauling balls. Motorist was rallying that corner like a idiot, I just assume a Nascar wannabe is right around every corner.

  2. Bikes did have the right of way and legally did nothing wrong although hauling balls. Motorist was rallying that corner like a idiot, I just assume a Nascar wannabe is right around every corner.

    • Hauling balls? They weren’t going that fast. Probably 40 mph tops. Most likely less 35 mph. Many can pedal at 35 mph for a few minutes and sprint at 40 mph.

    • 20mph is cooking it on a blind corner. I have been there,done that, pushed it and had close calls more than once. The guy in second position had to think fast and ran out of options in microseconds. He was right where I would have been in a pack ride but not expecting a lead missile speeding at him. Scary stuff.

  3. WTF, pure stupidity on behalf of the idiot driving the car/van. What the hell was he or she thinking, well they weren’t thinking or they’d be on the proper side of the road.

    • The lad in yellow held his line all the way through, he is just on the outta of his lane, which gives him better line of sight into the corner, exactly where I would be on either my bike or motorbike if I was taking that bend. Also allows people oncoming to see you more. Although clearly not in this case. Cyclists all had right of way, what if it was a low sports car in place of theses guys, there would have been a head on and no one would be saying, oh the sports car was all over his own lane and going 35mph into a corner for which he had right of way and was not expecting a mini van to be on the wrong side of the road!

    • Look at it again closely and you will see the lad in yellow moving to the left to take the bend and he looks to be too far over past the middle of the road. He then spots the car and tries to go right before left again hitting the car. The driver is clearly at fault but your missing the point I made that both parties need to take more care on the road.

      • I don’t really think you needed to make the point that both parties need to take more care on the road as it’s glaringly obvious.
        The fact is that, had the car not been so far on the wrong side of the road, yellow would have only needed to veer to his right and, chances are, nobody would have crashed.

    • Kieran Kelly No. If he were preparing to make the right turn, he would have his right knee out and left pedal down, which is what he did. Meaning, he was turning right. Once he saw the car, he switched knees and angle to turn left as the best option to avoid hitting the car.

      You can see he switches knees. at the 17 and 18 second mark in slow motion.

    • Kieran Kelly no, not at all, he stays on the inside of the white lines all the way in, then as he turns in, he sees the car and takes action to try and avoid, perfectly good control.Kieran Kelly

    • Kieran Kelly you do know they drive on the right over there right? His knee comes out to take the corner, at the right time, shifting his weight over the inside of the bend as he should…

  4. Disagree with most of the above comments, the rider with the yellow top was way over the centre of the road and not in control. In the first bit of the clip look at the centre line and look how close/even over the line the riders are. The cyclists in a pack (peleton) like this are all over the road and no doubt changing leader and competitive middle aged men trying to be first down or get their top speed on their bike computers. I am a motorcyclist myself and live in the mountains and often see drivers in the middle of an Apex on my regular descents but I control my speed at all times, drive defensively and plan ahead and predict what idiotic drivers will do. Uphill traffic has priority in many countries. Maybe some cyclists should be a bit more cautious when descending at speed and not think they are invincible, or a professional rider in a grand tour!!!

    • You have clearly never ridden a road bike in your life and know very little about cornering. The motorist was too far over to the left on his approach into the corner and the cyclist in yellow had to over compensate for that.

    • Jonathan I have ridden a road bike many times but for me prefer motorbikes and mountain bikes. It’s vital to know about cornering when riding ! The motorist is clearly way too far over but so is the yellow rider, in fact it looks like he may have been initially heading straight on and then looked at the car and steered into it in panic and lost control, why would he go further left to avoid the car?

    • You can see the yellow cyclist is too far over as well as the car driver, yes the rider wanted to get good line of sight, and he wanted to continue his speed round the corner, but the sign prior to the corner is telling him it is a tight corner, the road conditions are not great with the road slightly cracked, and he was going too fast. It’s not a closed track so all road users must respect each other. The pile up also occurred as the other riders were far too close to each other descending.

    • What a total crock of sh*t. You need a check up from the neck up. Typical car driving twat. At no point when there was approaching traffic was a cyclist over the central line. They are entitled to be anywhere on their side of the road. When one corners you take the safest widest line possible. Our tyres are slick and thin… your simply a dick head

  5. Thoughts with all involved, I’m sure they’ll never fully recover. No laws broken by the cyclists, the rider in the yellow jersey would have seen the car earlier therefore moving out of the way, the car is quite clearly in the wrong. I am not saying every driver is stupid; this one is. Save your ridiculous comments for somewhere else.

  6. Driver at fault. Guy in yellow looks in control but by going left he wasn’t going to help the overall group outcome. Had he instead sharpened his right to get inside, the car might have been better able to veer right to avoid the other cyclists.

  7. There’s too many questions here. From the video, you can’t tell how fast either the car or the cyclists are going. The speed limit on the road is unknown and you don’t know why the driver was in the wrong lane. Obviously the van driver is charged for crossing the center line, but I highly doubt the cyclists were cited for excessive speed (it appears so from the video at least) and contributory negligence (if they were speeding). I’d also like to know why the driver crossed the center line. Was he/she avoiding something in the road? I’d like to know why the cyclists were taking the corner so fast? If they had slowed to a safe speed to take the curve, they would have had plenty of time to avoid the van. They may have had the right of way, but the road to hell is paved with people who had the right of way.

  8. Been there, more or less, in my case it was an SUV making a left hand turn, have the scars to prove it. Driver’s view was obscured by an incoming vehicle. Saving for a new bike, thankfully

  9. Please, people in cars, get off your f#!*ing phone and pay attention to what you are doing. Driving is a previlage and I wish police would do a better job policing these people and take away that previlage.

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