Eric Bartkow suffered serious injuries including a spinal fracture, road rash and cuts and bruises as seen on his face here. Pic: Toby Watson
GARDAI ARE appealing for any witnesses to a hit-and-run road traffic collision which left a father-of-two in hospital with a serious back injury.
Polish national Ireneusz Bartkow, or Eric as he is better known, had travelled from Ballymena, Antrim to Wexford for work and, as a club cyclist with VC Glendale for the past two years, had decided to cycle from Wexford town to Rosslare, and back on Monday of last week (January 23).
Shortly before 8 p.m., at Churchtown, Kilrane, Mr. Bartkow was stuck by a vehicle from behind and was thrown from bike. The offending vehicle failed to stop at the scene and Mr. Bartkow was left trying to flag oncoming traffic for help before making his way to a nearby house and asking for help.
He was brought to hospital where he remained for two nights. He suffered bad road rash, cuts and bruises and, most seriously, a compound fracture to his spine which for which he will have to wear a body brace for six to 12 weeks.
Toby Watson, a friend and work colleague of Mr. Bartkow’s told this newspaper that he had travelled to Wexford to visit his friend in hospital, and had subsequently brought him home to Ballymena, where his wife and two children were extremely worried about him.
Mr. Watson said that his friend had decided to cycle the road as it had a hard shoulder thus making it a safer route to cycle on. However, the collision occurred on a part of the road where the hard shoulder had been cut off due to road works.
“It was unfortunate that the road narrowed and cut off the hard shoulder. It’s a very dangerous set-up for cyclists or pedestrians. But at the same time, why did the driver not stop? Eric was well lit-up with two lights on front and back of his bike. How could you leave someone on the side of the road like that?
“Incidents like this would put people off the sport but that shouldn’t be the case – it should be a safe sport.”
Mr. Watson added that his friend’s bike was with the guards and had been “mangled”, while his cycling helmet was split in two.
Cllr. Ger Carthy, who is a paramedic, was on duty on the night and said that Mr. Bartkow was “lucky to be alive”, adding that the outcome could have been very different if he had not been wearing a helmet.
The councillor remarked: “It’s very disappointing that the person driving the vehicle saw fit to drive on after this incident. Much credit has to be given to the local people who came to his assistance.”
Mr. Watson explained that both he and Mr. Bartkow work for a boiler company, Industrial Steam, and his friend had been carrying out work in Danone. He said that some of those he worked with in that company had come to visit him in hospital.
He added that Mr. Bartkow had been cycling for two years with the club and 2017 was to be his first racing season.
Local cyclist Philip Skelton is the driving force behind the ‘Stayin’ Alive at 1.5’ campaign which is urging politicians to bring in laws to protect cyclists on the roads. He said that, unfortunately, hit-and-runs were becoming more common and he felt that more awareness of cyclists was needed on drivers’ parts.
“There is a road out there and we need to learn how to share it properly. 11 cyclists were killed last year so there is work to be done around the subject of safety.”
He added that as a cyclist himself he had experienced a large number of ‘near misses’ and pointed out that there was a very fine line between injury and death.
Anyone with information relating to the incident, which occurred before 8 p.m. on Monday, January 23, is asked to contact Wexford Gardai on 053 91 65200.
