Two fatal accidents on 600 Brevets
The French Community of Randonneurs has been shaken in the last couple of weeks by two accidents that cost the life of two cyclists: one on the BRM 600 of Gap (south of France) and one week later, one on the BRM 600 of Chartres. A lot of us are shocked by this. In both cases, the accident happened at night, the cyclists were riding alone, they had the adequate lighting and reflective gears, and both drivers flew from the crime scene. The one from Gap had been found by the police and it was definitely a case of drunk driving. We don't know much about the second one yet.
This is just aweful.
I'm supposed to ride my 600 this week end and I'm scared... We've been discussing on french forums what we could do to prevent it from happening again but frankly I don't know what to suggest! Riding in a group might not be safer, quite the opposite actually because a drunk driver would just hit the whole group instead of one rider. Maybe one solution might be to use mirrors more often. I have one because I ride a recumbent and it enables me to check how a driver is passing me. Any thoughts on how to increase safety at night?