Nitin left for work riding a new e-bike. He never made it home
His wife watched as the skilled cyclist pedalled into the distance.
'He was looking so good that day, he was looking radiant,' his wife, who asked for her name to be withheld for privacy concerns, told The Age. 'I was standing out and looking at him, and I saw him riding on the road. That's the last I saw.'
About 6.30pm that day while cycling home, Prabhu and another rider – described in findings by coroner Audrey Jamieson as riding 'aggressively' – collided. Prabhu's family strongly believes the other rider's behaviour caused the crash, though no charges have been laid.
Prabhu was thrown to the ground and his head struck the bitumen. He was two minutes away from home.
Instead, the 41-year-old was rushed to hospital and became one of a growing number of Australians injured or killed in an e-bike accident.
Over the past five years, Victoria has recorded a 627 per cent increase in e-bike injuries, according to data from Monash University's Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit. Last year, there were 400 emergency department visits for e-bike-related injuries.
'I kept begging the doctors to save the life of the most important person in our lives,' Prabhu's wife said.
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