I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the cost of closing roads has gone up enormously as governments and councils prioritise cars more and more, and as they increase requirements of how much security & police you need to pay to manage closed road events.

The mayor is apparently a keen cyclist himself, so I think it’s quite possible that there’s a genuine belief that this may have been some other cause…it’s unlikely for a driver to end up hitting a tree if they’ve attempted a dangerously close pass and misjudged how close they can get, for example. Possibly a medical episode or dodging a roo. I’d wait for the coroner’s report or some other evidence before passing that kind of judgment.

But there’s no need to wait for that kind of thing to point out that no crash could have occurred if the driver were never near the cyclists to begin with, which is why I wanted to concentrate on that.