IT will be at least three months before Coolbellup’s Charlotte Ringer is out of hospital, and possibly a year before she is walking again.

Last week the cyclist suffered three spinal fractures and a broken leg when hit by a 4WD at the notorious Little Lefroy Lane and South Terrace intersection (“Cyclist injured at black spot,” Herald, April 2, 2016).

Ms Ringer is now in Royal Perth Hospital waiting for an operation that will insert a metal rod into her leg.

The 29-year-old American works at Kazoomies restaurant at the E-Shed and had commuted by bike for the past month and a half.

“I normally go down Attfield Street or use the sidewalk on South Terrace, because that intersection always feels dangerous, but for some reason that day I decided to go for it,” she says.

“I thoroughly checked both ways and then pulled out: next thing I knew I was on the ground in agony.

“The parking at the side of the intersection means there is a blind spot and you can’t see what’s coming.”

From her hospital bed, Ms Ringer is organising a petition to have the two parking spaces abutting the intersection turned into a parklet and for speed to be reduced to 30kph on the stretch of South Terrace crammed with cafes and parked cars.

Visibility at the intersection—a black spot that locals have been complaining about for years—has been made worse in recent years by an explosion in the number of cafes.

Mayor Brad Pettitt says the council is looking at installing traffic calming, but that is at least a year away.

Ms Ringer, originally from New Jersey, has no access to Medicare, so close friend Andrew Irvine has set up an fundraiser—http://www.gofundme.com/spx4u5mc—to help cover costs.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK