Fed: Injured cyclist hasn't forgiven driver of car

AAP General News (Australia)
04-17-2006
Fed: Injured cyclist hasn't forgiven driver of car

EDS: Embargoed until 0001 AEST Monday April 17, 2006



SYDNEY, April 17 AAP - One of six Australian cyclists hit by a car during a training
ride in Germany in July says she hasn't forgiven the car's driver for causing the accident
that killed squad mate Amy Gillett.

Louise Yaxley, 24, told ABC's Enough Rope program she is "struggling" with the fact
that the driver of the car has never apologised.

The 19-year-old driver ploughed into the cyclists near the town of Zeulenroda, 80km
south of Leipzig, in July last year.

She was fined 1,440 Euro ($A2,320) and had her driving licence revoked for eight months
for causing the accident, in which Gillett was killed.

Yaxley, from Launceston in Tasmania, and Alexis Rhodes, 20, from Kersbrook in South
Australia, were last to return home after spending a month at the University Clinic in
Jena.

Rhodes' injuries included seven broken bones in her back and chest trauma but she recovered
sufficiently to compete in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games last month.

Yaxley sustained a puncture wound to her abdomen, chest trauma, a dislocated elbow
and severe abrasions to her arms and legs.

She says she is hopeful, but not convinced, that she will one day get back on a road bike.

Yaxley said when she was in hospital in Germany she remembers reading a letter in broken
English from the driver which "sort of attempted to apologise but it went around apologising".

"The only thing I am struggling with is the fact that ... she's never apologised to
us," Yaxley told Enough Rope.

"It (the letter) never actually said I am sorry for what had happened."

Asked whether she had been able to confront her lack of forgiveness, Yaxley said: "No,
I haven't".

"But I know that every day she ... has to wake up to the realisation of what she's
done ... every day she's reminded of it."

Yaxley said she was disappointed the driver only lost her licence for eight months.

"I find (it) hard ... that she lost her licence for eight months and it's now eight
months and I still can't drive, if you know what I'm saying," she said.

Yaxley says deep down she doesn't really believe she'll be able to get over her injuries
and get back on a bike, although it remains her major aim.

"I don't think I will make it," she said.

"(But) I hope to prove myself wrong.

"The other day I dreamt that I actually rode for the first time and that was pretty
pretty inspiring.

"My dream (is) ... to get back on the bike. That's pretty simple but yeah."

Rhodes says she remembers the day of the accident and has clear memories of Gillett.

"I was riding next to her, she was just so happy and so excited to be there and I mean
it sounds weird but she was, she was just different," she told the program.

"Amy was quite an intense person and she just seemed to be so relaxed and so calm."

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KEYWORD: YAXLEY (EMBARGOED)

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