In May Brett Wallace suffered a life-altering spinal cord injury which has left him paralysed from the waist down.
Cycling advocates say the accident was entirely preventable, having come just 15 months after the preventable death of a cyclist at another intersection affected by the Victorian government's West Gate Tunnel Project.
Mr Wallace was cycling to work on the morning of May 8 along the Dynon Road bike path from Melbourne's western suburbs to the city. As he crossed the intersection at the Dynon Road and CityLink on-ramp, the light was green for cyclists.
It was also green for the truck driver turning right onto the CityLink entrance.
Brett Wallace was left paralysed after a hit and run incident. (ABC News: Daniel Fermer)
"I was approaching the intersection to cross the road briefly, I looked over my left shoulder because there was a road coming up onto a highway, so I looked over and I could see the truck out the corner of my eye," Mr Wallace told 7.30, in his first interview since his accident.
"I chucked myself off the other side of the bike to try and get away from [the truck]. But it was very last second, so I probably saved maybe the top portion of my body."
The 29-year-old was hit by a semi-trailer in what was a hit-and-run. The driver has never been found by police.
"The first initial reaction was I couldn't feel my legs. So it's just like I can't feel my legs, and then, I can just remember lying there, and then wee bits of blurriness, and then I passed out again," he said.
The scene of Brett Wallace's crash. (Supplied)
Mr Wallace had only been in Australia for seven months after moving to Melbourne from Northern Ireland to work as a renewable energy engineer.
"I wasn't aware of the light sequence. I just was aware that my light was green. I assumed that the other lights were red because it's a bicycle lane," Mr Wallace said.
"I wouldn't imagine there was going to be other green lights interfering with a cyclist lane."
Concerns about the intersection had been raised on multiple occasions with authorities.
If not for bystanders who rushed to Mr Wallace's aid and a woman who gave him CPR and called an ambulance, he may not be here today.
"She saved my life. She attended to me and looked after me," he told 7.30.
Cyclist advocacy group BikeWest first sounded the alarm about the Dynon Road and CityLink intersection, 15 months before the hit and run.
"Brett, him being paraplegic, it was entirely predictable, and we predicted 'this will happen', and it did," BikeWest president John Symons told 7.30.
Timeline of calls for change
The intersection where the hit and run accident occurred is jointly managed by the Department of Transport and the West Gate Tunnel Project.
Multiple warnings about the risks to cyclists passing through the Dynon Road and City Link crossing were ignored by authorities.
In August 2023, Premier Jacinta Allan, who was Transport and Infrastructure Minister at the time, replied to a member of BikeWest who had written to her about the dangerous intersection.
Ms Allan acknowledged the cyclist's safety concerns and told him the intersection was under review.
"The arrangement and sequencing of the signals for pedestrians and drivers is being reviewed with the DTP [Department of Transport] to reduce potential conflicts," Ms Allan said at the time.
There was no action, so on November 30, 2023, the group sent this video of a near miss at the opposite side of the intersection to where Mr Wallave's accident occurred to the then Roads Minister Melissa Horne.
"In the past month there have been a number of near misses and at least one accident that we are aware of at the intersection of Dynon Road and the CityLink Southbound on-ramp," BikeWest wrote.
Construction on Dynon Road as part of the West Gate Tunnel project. (Facebook: West Gate Tunnel Project)
Ms Horne referred BikeWest's email to the Active Transport Minister Gabrielle Wiliams — who did not respond.
Emails released under FOI laws and obtained by 7.30 show the Department of Transport and the West Gate Tunnel Project were warned about the intersection by a Road Safety Victoria staff member six months before the crash.
"The CityLink on-ramp, both left and rights have significant issues," the Road Safety Victoria employee wrote on December 1 2023.
"We have cyclists arriving mid-cycle at high speeds with a green phase, with vehicles trying to pick gaps in oncoming traffic.
"Even my wife who knows nothing about road safety is horrified at this setup and witnessed a near miss there Wednesday."
In January, the West Gate Tunnel Authority made changes to improve the safety of the left-hand turn of the intersection.
But no changes were made to the right-hand turn for traffic at the crossing where Mr Wallace's accident would occur just months later.
On January 31 2024, BikeWest emailed the authority to ask why changes had not been made but says it did not get a response.
"Cars turning right onto the on-ramp are focused entirely on finding a gap in the two westbound lanes and have zero idea that there's a bi-directional bike lane that they should also be paying attention to," BikeWest wrote.
After Mr Wallace's accident in May this year, authorities finally acted.
A week later work began to establish a safer bike route that diverted cyclists and pedestrians behind the CityLink on-ramp. The bypass was opened to cyclists on May 21 this year.
The design for the bypass was submitted to the West Gate Tunnel Project by Bicycle Network Victoria years earlier in 2019.
BikeWest president John Symons. (ABC News: Daniel Fermer)
"Our warnings and calls for change were completely ignored, completely ignored for years, until Brett got hit, and there was some sort of political embarrassment, and then within a week, it had changed, and it is horrible," Mr Symons told 7.30.
"The only time you ever get new change is when somebody's either killed or seriously injured."
On February 8 this year, concerns about the site of Mr Wallace's accident were recorded in the minutes of a West Gate Tunnel Project community liaison meeting:
"Trucks and traffic are getting the same green light at the Dynon Road and CityLink on ramp intersection, it is a safety risk and bears similarity to the incident seen on Footscray Road last year," the minutes state.
"It is an issue we are aware of and meeting with DTP [Department of Transport and Planning] regularly on."
Warnings ignored prior to fatality
It's not the first time authorities were warned of safety concerns about intersections affected by the West Gate Tunnel Project.
The fatality referred to in the West Gate Tunnel Project's community liaison meeting occurred in February 2023.
22-year-old university student Angus Collins was killed when he was run over by a cement truck turning left at this Footscray Road intersection.
Angus Collins, 22, was killed while riding his bike next to Footscray Road in February 2023. (Supplied: Brunswick Cycling Club)
The truck driver was turning right and Angus was travelling straight, both had green lights.
"We at BikeWest had reports about people almost being hit by car drivers or truck drivers on numerous occasions at that particular intersection," Mr Symons told 7.30.
"You had to essentially almost stop, even if you had the green signal because of repeated occurrences.
"In Angus's case, where he was struck and killed by a truck driver, he did nothing wrong. He was going through the intersection on a green signal.
"The truck driver did nothing wrong. He was turning when he also had the green signal.
"However, due to the design of that, that collision was almost inevitably going to happen, due to a series of things which they haven't built in terms of safe and forgiving infrastructure."
In August a Victorian coroner found the state government and its subcontractors for the West Gate Tunnel Project, CPB Contractors and John Holland, ignored multiple safety warnings about the intersection before Angus Collins was killed due to its blind spot and green on green signals.
The coroner made adverse findings against the subcontractors.
Ian Collins will never forget the day he found out his son Angus had been killed.
Ian Collins is calling for regular independent safety audits of known dangerous intersections and traffic lights. (ABC News: Daniel Fermer)
"I sort of just knew as soon as I saw them, what the scenario was likely to be," Mr Collins told 7.30.
Coroner David Ryan described Angus Collins's death as a preventable tragedy.
He cited a warning in November 2021 from a transport company manager who wrote to the Victorian government's Major Transport Infrastructure Authority about a near miss at the intersection.
"The blind spot of the trucks and the closeness of the [pillar] to the crossing is a recipe for disaster and death, and we are all very lucky that this did not eventuate last night. Thousands of trucks use this road daily and the risk of recurrence is extremely high," the transport company manager warned.
"The left-hand side is a blind spot for trucks. The lady jumped off her bike and the bike ended up underneath the trailers – seconds either side of this she would have been killed."
Angus Collins' death was described as a preventable tragedy. (Supplied)
For Mr Collins, who has to live with the coroner's findings that the death of his son could have been avoided, the pain is immense.
"It's really devastating to know that there were people that definitely were raising this, but it was probably, for whatever reason, put in the 'too hard' basket," he said.
Angus not just a 'random number'
At the Brunswick cycling club which Angus joined as a 12-year-old, his absence is acutely felt.
Club members struggled to hold back tears when 7.30 visited earlier this month as they remembered a talented cyclist, caring friend and mentor to younger cyclists.
"Governments and government departments, you've got to actually think that the changes you make, the decisions you make actually affect real people, not just some random numbers or comments on a piece of paper, they can actually affect real people's lives," Brunswick Cycling Club vice president David Morgan told 7.30.
Club member Lucas Moore described Angus' bubbly and infectious personality.
Lucas Moore avoids riding his bike on Footscray Road. (ABC News: Rhiana Whitson)
"He was a very fun person to be around, who was always keen for some big adventures on the bike and also off the bike," Mr Moore recalls.
"I never ride on the road that Angus was hit on, because I just can't think about that."
Who will be held accountable?
BikeWest president John Symons is unforgiving when it comes to the failures of those who did not act on cyclists' concerns about the Footscray and Dynon Road intersections.
"I would describe those as completely preventable tragedies, unfortunately, and that has devastated people's lives," Mr Symons said.
Mr Symons says too often cycling fatalities and injuries are seen as the fault of the victim, rather than a reflection of the unsafe design of roads.
Floral tributes left at the intersection where cyclist Angus Collins was killed. (ABC News: Matilda Marozzi)
"In both of these cases, they were state-owned roads ... so in their case, it was the Department of Transport and Planning — they should be held accountable, but no one ever is," he said.
Brett Wallace and Angus Collins have paid the price of the authorities' reluctance to act on the concerns of cyclists.
After five months of learning how to exist with his new condition Brett is looking forward to being discharged from the Royal Talbot Hospital after receiving the care he needs from medical professionals.
"Before the accident, I was fit. That shows how one incident can completely, no matter how strong and fit you are, can just change your life," Brett said.
He's speaking publicly about his accident for the first time in the hope of affecting change.
"In terms of the roads and stuff that would be the biggest message. It would be like just making them as safe as possible."
It's a sentiment shared by Ian Collins. He wants guaranteed regular independent safety audits at infrastructure projects and other dangerous intersections, including a review of traffic lights that give green signals to both cyclists and of turning vehicles.
"There's not a lot else I can do, having lost Gus [Angus], it can't give him back, but you can represent his spirit in trying to be an advocate for change and improvement to save a lot of people's lives," Ian said.
In a statement, The West Gate Tunnel Project said it would continue to review and make safety improvements to its road networks.
“Our thoughts remain with Angus Collins' family and friends following this devastating incident," a spokesman said.
Transport Minister Danny Pearson also said his thoughts were with the Collins' family. No comment was made about Brett Wallace.
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