A cyclist completing a charity ride narrowly avoided losing his life as an overtaking, oncoming lorry sped towards him on a major road in Peru.
Bruno Mendoza was riding the 115km Cletea Contra el Cancer (Bikes against Cancer) Challenge of Hope and Solidarity from Moyobamba to Tarapoto on Sunday. The charity ride is held on the edge of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, with the route a straight line largely held along the country’s major road through the jungle, Route 005. It was on this road that the incident occurred.
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As Mendoza sees the delivery lorry in his lane, attempting to overtake another lorry, he stops and moves to the side of the lane. However, the lorry does not decelerate or seek to move back to its own lane, forcing Mendoza to lean into the drain on the side of the road as the driver narrowly avoids him.
In an Instagram post written before the event, Mendoza said he was riding in support of his friend who had been diagnosed with leukaemia, and had died before the government could improve its cancer services in the rural part of the country. He was also motivated by the ill health of his mother.
“The landscape and adventure from Moyobamba to Tarapoto is unmissable, there is no need to compete, the idea is to complete the course at your own pace.
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“The organisation is giving all the care and support en route, logically it is not responsible since it is a free event, but there is coordination and care so that [everyone] moves safely.”
After Mendoza uploaded footage of the incident online, initially as part of a vlog of the event, the Moyobamba cycling association which co-organised the event released a statement.
“[We] publicly expresses our full solidarity and support for our friend and fellow rider, Bruno Mendoza. Fortunately, thank God, the incident did not escalate further. However, what happened causes us deep concern for the safety of all cyclists using our roads. As an organisation committed to cycling in our region, we reject any vehicular manoeuvre that endangers the life and safety of cyclists.”
“Cletea Contra el Cancer was developed through coordinated work with local police, government and health officials, municipal security, highway police, and the fire department, all with the aim of ensuring participant safety.
“We do not seek confrontation with companies or drivers. We seek respect, prevention, and safe coexistence among all road users. Furthermore, we believe it is important for the events shown in the video to be objectively evaluated by the competent authorities and for any liability arising from the incident to be determined as appropriate.”
Several law-enforcement agencies have been tagged in the statement uploaded on Facebook, though it’s unclear if the organisers or Mendoza have filed a formal complaint.
Shalom, the delivery company which owns the lorry, has not publicly responded to the footage. Mendoza meanwhile shared a montage to his Instagram story combining a screenshot of the close pass with his participation medal.
Social media reaction to the near miss was heated, and fuelled in part by a misconception that the road was one-way and the cyclist was deliberately riding into traffic. Some users found other reasons to blame the cyclist:
“It’s crazy to ride a bike at 2 per hour on such a busy route 🤦🏻”, Ariel Romeira commented on Instagram.
“The first rash behaviour is from the cyclist… That road doesn’t have room for training.” Everett Medina added.
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Others, however, demanded legal action.
“Well, that could be classified as attempted homicide or attempted murder, because despite seeing you, he did nothing to reduce the speed and not overtake.” Axel Belcast wrote.
“This truck driver should be suspended from his [driving] license for life and charged with attempted murder by recklessness, you have to report this to the authorities, the truck driver and the company.” Pereira Mireya said.
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17 thoughts on “Worst near miss ever? Shocked cyclist narrowly avoids oncoming, overtaking lorry during charity ride in Peru”
Not gonna lie, I might have been diving into that ditch. Perhaps the camera makes it look worse than it was but I would have been ready!
@mctrials23 Same. Ditch. Crash into it if needed.
I had a similar experience in Morocco. I was descending a pass on a fairly narrow road, coming out of the Atlas Mountains towards Marrakesh when far below me a slow moving bus pulled onto my side of the road to overtake another vehicle. It was immediately clear that a collision would happen if we both carried on. Fortunately I had a bit more time and space to get out of the way. We must be thankful that we live in a country where drivers have respect for cyclists.
Sorry? What country do you live in?
@mdavidford I thought you may have detected a hint of sarcasm there! Seriously though the standard of driving is much higher in London than Marrakesh.
Fair enough – sometimes it’s more obvious to them as is writing than them as is reading.
@mdavidford Yeah, I’m dead suttle.
@Cycloid London eh? Standard of driving there is somewhere between Marrakesh and England.
“…the delivery lorry in his lane, attempting to overtake another lorry…”
“…the lorry does not decelerate or seek to move back to its own lane…”
but
“… as the driver narrowly avoids him.”
Come on @Callum Devereux
Do better.
Whenever I see a near miss like this I can’t stop myself thinking of all the excuses, sorry, reasons the police might give for not taking action if it happened in this country. List so far :
We are not allowed to judge distances so we don’t know how close the lorry was.
At this point the lorry driver is going to have to inconvenience somebody.
Lorry didn’t cross the white line so it was the cyclists fault for not being in the cycle lane.
Lorry was established.
A close pass is not an offence.
Am I getting cynical in my old age?
Well done to the cyclist for staying alive.
@Bungle_52 The truck driver is, of course, making a meaningful journey from A to B, so…
@Bungle_52 And obviously the cyclist was obstructing the lorry’s movement. Do you realize how much CO2 it takes to re-accelerate that lorry?!
Driver was committed to the overtake.
Driver had to urgently deliver a consignment of ferrets to protect their welfare.
That’s terrifying!!
I’m pretty sure I’d have ridden (or perhaps fallen or jumped) into the concrete ditch on the right; I wouldn’t have even tried to stay on the carriageway.
**********
Years ago in Laos I was riding into Vang Vieng at about 15mph when a lorry came straight towards me at full pelt (I was on the correct – right – side of the road). I made the instant decision to ride into the water-filled ditch on my right that ran immediately parallel to the road, having no idea of its depth.
The water was only about 10 inches deep and I slowed down covered in muck but still upright.
I then went back to see why the driver had chosen my side of the road, as he wasn’t overtaking.
Turns out there wasn’t his side of the road – just a massive hole where it had been…
Sounds a bit like some of the roads in Northants.
@Mr Blackbird I read “Netherlands” first. But then I realized a hole in the road eliminated that possibility.
The bastards seem to repair them before they appear!