BC mountain biker escapes serious wire injury

Last week a Vancouver Island mountain biker had a scare and suffered a scrape across his neck when he collided with a thick wire stretched across a trail near Durrance Lake, BC. Twenty-six year old Derek Kidd was riding with a friend when he saw the wire and was able to brake hard before it did any serious damage while warning the friend of the danger.

Though the old, rusty wire was attached to a tree on one end and held fast with a rock on the other, Sergeant Steve Eassie of the Saanich Police said, “It certainly doesn’t appear to be any malicious intent. It’s very much a possibility that it became ensnared on someone’s bicycle or clothing and was inadvertently pulled across the trail. The trail did not appear to be well used.”

There have been incidents of fishing line or piano wire stretched across trails at head height that have seriously injured ATV riders or cyclists in North America, but usually not one involving such a noticeable wire, described as twice the thickness of coat hanger wire. Eassie commented that the wire that threatened Kidd and his pal might have been left over from logging in the area 30 to 40 years ago.

Kidd, who works at Oak Bay Bicycles, sends a message to mountain bikers: “Mountain biking is always a dangerous sport and there are always going to be injuries, but they are not usually inflicted by other people.”