Revealed: Why pampered NRL stars are being bussed just a few hundred metres to training for their own safety
E-bikes are a safety concern for many Aussies – and now a leading NRL team has issued a new set of rules for their stars and tried to discourage them from using the cycles by offering them a bus to training.
It follows an injury to Sydney Roosters centre Billy Smith, which saw him miss the last-start victory against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Allianz Stadium.
Chairman Nick Politis and coach Trent Robinson were seething after the injury-plagued star fell off his e-bike and was concussed late last week.
Smith could also miss his team’s next NRL game versus the Panthers – and to avoid any potential repeat incidents, club officials have introduced a series of fresh rules for their stars to follow.
They include: always wearing a helmet on e-bikes or scooters, sticking to an assigned speed limit and never ‘doubling’ a teammate.
Additionally, a courtesy bus will now run along Driver Ave in Moore Park, to save the pampered stars from walking between the car park and the club’s centre of excellence, which is just a few hundred metres away.
E-bikes are a safety concern for many Aussies – and now a leading NRL team have issued a new set of rules for players who use them (pictured, Roosters chairman Nick Politis)
It follows an injury to Sydney Roosters centre Billy Smith, which saw him miss the last-start victory against the Rabbitohs at Allianz Stadium due to concussion
The new rules Roosters stars must follow include: always wearing a helmet on e-bikes or scooters, sticking to an assigned speed limit and never ‘doubling’ a teammate (Billy Smith is pictured main, with teammate Egan Butcher)
Daily Mail understands it is a 1.6km walk from Roosters HQ to the car park.
‘We were disappointed (about Smith) but it was a lesson well learned by everybody,’ Politis told News Corp.
‘I’m sure it will be OK going into the future. They are all pretty responsible people.’
In December, leading trauma doctors urged Sydney parents to stop buying illegal e-bikes for their children following a rapid rise in hospital visits for head injuries and facial fractures.
Some high-powered e-bikes can travel as fast as 70kmh.
‘Injuries can be life-altering or life-threatening for the patient and their families,’ Royal North Shore Hospital emergency trauma physician Dr Brian Burns said.
‘Superficial friction burns are often, believe it or not, more painful than full-thickness burns.
‘For young adolescents, if they get a friction burn or laceration to the face, that can have a serious cosmetic effect.’
A male pedestrian, 65, died when he was struck by an e-bike at Toongabbie in Sydney’s west last October.
In July, a 14-year-old boy was also killed when he fell off his e-bike at Arncliffe in Sydney’s south.
