Remco Evenepoel joins forces with the same van that caused his crash: "We hope that this initiative will help prevent further accidents"
Cycling
Just a week ago Remco Evenepoel suffered a freak crash in a training ride, after he hit swinging door of a bpost van. The Belgian suffered fractures to his rib, right hand, and right shoulder blade, putting his off season training plans with Soudal - Quick-Step into jeopardy.
Incredibly, the double Olympic champion has now entered into a partnership with the very van that caused his injury, to release a sticker called the ‘Remco Reflex,’ aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of swinging car doors and cyclists.
The idea is that the Remco Reflex sticker can be stuck on the driver’s side window of the car, helping drivers to remember to check for cyclists before opening their car door.
“Although all bpost drivers are extensively trained to use the Dutch Reach, a permanent visual reminder is useful,” bpost said in a press release. “We will therefore install the 'Remco Reflex' in all of its vehicles.
“At bpost, we believe that a simple gesture can save lives. With the ‘Remco Reflex’, we want to remind everyone that it is important to stay alert when you are on the road. We regret what happened to Remco and wish him a speedy recovery. We hope that this initiative will help prevent further accidents.”
Evenepoel himself said, “When the people at bpost made me this proposal, I immediately jumped at the chance. All road users must take each other into account. The bpost initiative will undoubtedly help raise awareness of the dangers on the road. I would therefore like to thank bpost for introducing the Remco Reflex. This will undoubtedly prevent many accidents.”
So, some good could still come of Evenepoel’s end of season crash. Let’s hope that this is a successful method that can be adopted in more countries, in order to help riders both professional and amateur stay safe on the roads.
Yeah, that’s like banning straws to fight plastic pollution. We are 2024, car safety has retrograded the last 10-15 years and seems more focused on the occupant than road users and this bubble gives drivers a fake sense of safety for all as they are now almost completely isolated from their surroundings. Delivery vehicles are the worst, lacking glass to notice occupants (or they their surroundings), often even at the back so the windscreen mirror is either obsolete or missing, Tech already exists to warn of traffic movements in rearview mirrors, unfortunately, when present, this switches off as the engine stops (why when built-in delays already allow windows to close, lights to switch off, doors to lock, fans to turn, radios to switch off only when considered forgotten?) So many solutions exist that could make such vehicles safer, obligatory sliding doors instead (already done by some) how about an audible alarm tone outside as soon as an occupant touches the door lever? What’s more, there’s no good reason why door edge designs can’t be changed to lessen injury if someone runs into them, they are often criminally sharp. Truth is car manufacturers have no natural desire to render their products safe unless forced by regulations which are always lagging knowledge of dangers.
I understand your sentiment (and I ride every day so I am acutely aware of the dangers of dooring), but the reality is that there are many vehicles on the road and we can't force old vehicles with outdated technology off the road. This Remco Reflex initiative makes the best of a pretty horrible situation. It's not like bpost can do anything about the design of their existing vehicles.
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