SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: Forty-eight cyclists died on our roads last year, the death toll rising as other categories of road fatalities have dropped.

But riders have accused police of not taking cycling accidents seriously enough.

A month ago a group of cyclists on a morning ride in Sydney were ploughed into by a car, resulting in serious injuries to three of them. The riders are still waiting for any action to be taken against the driver.

Conor Duffy reports.

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: Before the sun was even up this morning the riders of the Sydney eastern suburbs cycle up had lifted their heart rates with a brisk ride.

Many come every day.

IAN GARDINER, EASTERN SUBURBS CYCLING CLUB: Oh look it's fun, it's sociable, it's good for you, assuming you don't crash.

CONOR DUFFY: It's safe in the early morning light of the park, but elsewhere it can be deadly.

These hardened cyclists know the dangers of the road better than most. Some of their regular riders are absent this morning.

NEWS REPORTER: A group of cyclists from Sydney's eastern suburbs cycling club have suffered serious injuries after being struck by a car.

IAN GARDINER: I was actually in a taxi that went passed the accident about five minutes after it happened and it was horrific, it looked like a war zone, there were people on the ground, bikes everywhere in pieces.

CONOR DUFFY: Last month three cyclists were left with serious spinal injuries and four others were injured as they were about to finish their regular 80 kilometre Sunday morning ride.

Paul Haber, pictured here on a stretcher, doesn't remember much of the accident.

DR PAUL HABER, EASTERN SUBURBS CYCLING CLUB: I felt this little bump against the back of my bike and then bang, just don't...I just remember everything was all up in the air, and I'm on the ground and my back is sore.

I remember seeing bits of bicycles all over the place, and I mean bits, they were broken into small fragments. I remember seeing one of my friends lying on the road. Quite a distance away and right in the right hand lane, right in the middle of the lane. Drivers had stopped, they'd blocked of the freeway and several people were rendering assistance and one of the drivers held my head. So he's a bit of a hero in my opinion.

(Looking at x-rays) It's amazing how all of this happened and actually I'm not paraplegic.

CONOR DUFFY: Paul Haber is an emergency room doctor, now he's a patient, his wife Michelle is also a doctor and they're adept at reading his x-rays.

MICHELLE HABER: There, you can see it there, it's a vertical crack, down there, that's the side view there and it's really sort of shattered.

CONOR DUFFY: Even without medical knowledge the titanium screws in his back are impossible to miss.

DR PAUL HABER: I had spinal fractures. There was at least one fragment that got rammed into the spinal canal and was within - I'm told - millimetre or so of making me a paraplegic.

CONOR DUFFY: Paul Haber's memory of the crash is limited but neither he nor the other riders remember any sign of the driver slowing down before the collision.

DR PAUL HABER: I'm pretty clear that I didn't hear the sound of a horn and I didn't hear any brake, or any screeching of any tyres at all, nobody else did either.

I don't understand how we weren't killed. I'm pretty sure that three of us were knocked right up on to the front of the car, the window is smashed in several places and so is the bonnet.

CONOR DUFFY: Paul Haber is working hard to heal the five fused vertebrae in his spine.

He's not just waiting for the all clear to get back to his hospital rounds, but for action against the driver who has marked him for life.

CONOR DUFFY: Have any charges been laid?

DR PAUL HABER: No.

CONOR DUFFY: Should there be?

DR PAUL HABER: In my opinion yes, in my opinion driving a car and knocking seven cyclists off the road, if that's not illegal I don't know what is. And if that's not dangerous driving, then the term has no meaning.

CONOR DUFFY: Police documents show the man behind the wheel when the cyclists were knocked down on the road below is a 28-year-old from Sydney's south who was driving his mother's car at the time of the collision. 7:30 understands he's told police he blacked out behind the wheel. Officers are continuing to investigate.

DR PAUL HABER: I find it hard to see how a blackout would account for that incident because he was seen to deviate from the right hand to the left hand lane. He stayed in that lane, he went through the cyclists. He then steadily came to a stop and got out of his car. So yeah, maybe a black out is possible.

CONOR DUFFY: Brisbane based cyclist Craig Cowled also has good reason to be wary on the road.

He's been filming his rides for years after a close call with a truck.

CRAIG COWLED: It scared the living daylights out of me and I went down to the local police station shortly after. It became a case of my word against the drivers and they said there's nothing that the police could do about that. And the police officer said to me that the best thing I could do would be to wear a camera.

CONOR DUFFY: On the morning of Tuesday July 30 Craig Cowled was on his normal ride to work when a white jeep rushed passed close to his right shoulder.

CRAIG COWLED: It was rather unnecessary I thought and I felt a little bit threatened because it was quite close.

CONOR DUFFY: A few hundred metres up the road the white jeep caught up to him again and knocked him down.

(Sound of accident from camera)

CRAIG COWLED: I remember feeling the side of the vehicle down my body and then hitting the road and I just remember the pain.

(Sound of accident from camera)

I think the first shock of pain I didn't feel but it just erupted out of me in sound. And I was just lying there, just not wanting to move because that made it worse.

(With his x-ray) So that's where the break occurred.

CONOR DUFFY: Craig Cowled was in surgery for seven hours to have a titanium plate bolt his broken hip back together.

CRAIG COWLED: And this is how they access the break [showing scar on his leg], so that they could clamp the bone together.

CONOR DUFFY: While Craig was in hospital, Queensland police wrote his statement without even interviewing him.

The driver was docked two demerit points and the case closed while he was still in surgery.

It's a penalty Craig Cowled feels is far too trivial given the extent of his injuries.

CRAIG COWLED: I now have one leg that is about an inch shorter than it used to be and that's going to leave me with lifelong ramifications.

CONOR DUFFY: 7:30 can reveal that in February this year police wrote to Mr. Cowled admitting his statement had been fabricated and saying the officers had undergone further training.

CRAIG COWLED: I feel vindicated in some sense in the sense that I have now had the opportunity to make a statement to police, which is the proper process that should have been taken in the first place.

CONOR DUFFY: Last year was one of the deadliest for cyclists around the country with 48 deaths.

Ten years ago it was just 26, and the increasing death rate comes as all other road fatalities have fallen to record lows.

TRACY GAUDRY, AMY GILLETT FOUNDATION: Last year was a disastrous year. Last year was a year where we need to learn from what has happened as an outcome.

CONOR DUFFY: Queensland recently introduced tough laws requiring motorists to give a metre of space when passing cyclists.

Tracy Gaudry from lobby group the Amy Gillett Foundation wants it rolled out nationwide, along with more a little more respect on the roads.

TRACY GAUDRY: It might be your 14-year-old son cycling, it might be your mother, it might be your colleague. What changes the way you consider someone when you're sharing the road, whether they're on a bicycle or in a car.

SARAH FERGUSON: Conor Duffy reporting.

You can read the Queensland Police Service statement to Craig Cowled.