Sean Nero

For­mer na­tion­al cy­clist and event pro­mot­er Michael Phillips is re­veal­ing a new fear of cy­cling on the na­tion's roads cit­ing the death of fel­low vet­er­an ath­letes Clin­ton Grant and Roger Smart.Grant died on March 29, while con­duct­ing a train­ing ex­er­cise along the Au­drey Jef­fers High­way in Wood­brook.Smart, how­ev­er, was in his car on Aripi­ta Av­enue and Pe­tra Street in Wood­brook, when an­oth­er ve­hi­cle col­lid­ed with his on May 17.

Speak­ing to G-Sports at the fu­ner­al ser­vice for Smart yes­ter­day, held at St Patrick's Church on Mar­aval Road in New­town, Port of Spain, Phillips said, "I, as a cy­clist and a cit­i­zen of this coun­try feel more vul­ner­a­ble than I ever had, when I see my friends be­ing mowed over and the on­ly dif­fer­ence be­tween knock­ing us down and a dog, is that you have to make a re­port. I am re­al­ly dis­heart­ened by that."He added, "We were for­tu­nate that in Roger's case we got sur­veil­lance footage of the crash. Good peo­ple could do stu­pid things some­times, but you have to be ac­count­able. You now should ded­i­cate your life to go­ing and telling peo­ple what its feel like to kill some­body when dri­ving at 135 kilo­me­tres per hour, in a 50 kilo­me­tres per hour zone. There is a price to be paid for do­ing some­thing like that and it should be paid. We don't need an­oth­er is­sue of it wasn't me in the video. We are tired of things like that. We want some ac­count­abil­i­ty."

Phillips who gave the eu­lo­gy re­called the awe­some jour­ney of his friend in the sport. He laud­ed Smart as a trail­blaz­er in road cy­cling and citied that he was nev­er afraid to po­si­tion him­self as a mo­ti­vat­ed and ex­em­plary.

Phillips said this was an ide­al role for the fall­en cy­cling cit­ing his pos­i­tive dis­po­si­tion."Com­ing on the heels of Clin­ton Grant's death, both ve­hic­u­lar ac­ci­dents, I am very dis­heart­ened as a cit­i­zen. I feel like we don't get jus­tice, where­as both of these dri­vers could be in a col­li­sion that killed some­one and lit­er­al­ly walk out of a po­lice sta­tion and jump in a car again. I have a lit­tle bit of an is­sue with some­thing like that," he said.Cy­cling greats Roger Gib­bon, Eli­jah Greene and Ako Kel­lar came out to pay their re­spect to Smart.Rowe­na Williams, pres­i­dent of the Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion of T&T ex­pressed mixed emo­tions. She said it was a joy­ful day, but at the same time, a sad one.The death of Clint Grant and now Roger Smart, she said, was a big blow to the fra­ter­ni­ty."These guys had a lot to share with the fra­ter­ni­ty. They had a lot of ex­pe­ri­ence. They had a lot of love for the sport. They weren't afraid to share and that's what we need in life. Not just in sport,but in every­thing that we do. They al­ways did it from their hearts. I hope peo­ple would re­mem­ber that and take it with them. We have lost a great deal in Clin­ton and Roger, but we will fight the fight and move on," she said.