MattyKo
Active Member
- Location
- The North Bank of the HUMBER
I am new to this site and the first article I encountered was from a partner of a cyclist who was writing concerning their partners unfortunate involvement in a accident on their comute to work resulting in them been in hospital with a punctured lung and broken ribs. It was because of this article that I decided to sign up onto the site, with a particular intention to write this article. This is the second attempt at the article the first I did not wish to post because ! Well telling would defeat the object of having an objection.
It is now four years ago that I had my cycling accident I had up until that time considered myself fortunate never requiring hospital treatment other than for minor cuts or bruising. However on the day in question I had just left my flat, collected my cycle from the rear yard and existed the front door. The first road outside is a now little used road running alongside the replacement flyover road, crossing the train lines. It was immediately upon entering this flyover section of the road that I became aware of the presence of white transit van towing a trailer followed by another white van, belonging to the same company, and I knew that the vehicle was not going to stop in sufficient time to avoid the accident. I recall coming around under the vehicle and after regaining my bearing appreciating that I had just not dreamt the sequence of the events, and that I was indeed laid under a van on the main road and unable to move. I only have a few recollections from this time until my arrival at the local hospital - which fortunately, was only a few minutes journey away from the accident site. My final recollection is an awareness of people coming at me whist on the hospital trolley in the resuscitation room. The next firm memory is been awoken in the Intensive Care Unit some ten days later and been prepared for surgery for at least the second time. In total I remained in hospital for three months and I was taken to surgery at least five times, including the initial time in the Accident & Emergency rooms.
The actions of the vehicle driver was deemed by the police not to be at fault, despite them exceeding the permitted weight for their vehicle combination and it having no horn. Furthermore, the police allowed the proceeding against them in the courts to discontinue despite these been of a "strict liability" nature. It was viewed that I had attempted to cross the road into the path of the vehicle, even though the vehicle driver deciding to swerve into the cycle lane in order to avoid the collision. The evidence against me was the driver of the vehicle, his passenger, the driver of the rear vehicle (all of the same company) and a pedestrian - this person did not wait for the police to arrive but left their name and address on a slip of paper in the front vehicles cab.
You will already be aware that due to me been placed in a medically induced coma for ten days and taken to the operating theatres more than three time, that my injuries were more than consequential in my day to day existence. My injuries and the resulting treatment of them was in a matter of fact published in a medical journal. (The Annals of Thoracic Surgery Year 2011 Vol 92 Pages e7 to e9)
Apart from been annoyed at the accident itself, another major place of annoyance is the manner in which it was investigated. This city just like other major cities has seen its fair share of accidents, The Times newspaper prompted into coming down on the side of the cyclist as a result of one of their former staff members been struck by a lorry outside of their offices. They also reported that the year 2012 saw a five year high for the count of cyclists who have "passed" totalling 122. I shall be on safe ground to suggest that the year 2013 shall see an even higher volume of cycling fatalities. The United Kingdom rank pretty well high up the league table for road fatalities however this says less for the other countries rather than more the UK. Each year over one million people across the world are killed as a consequence of road traffic accidents, and this one million mile stone is reached earlier and earlier in the year.
The government is endeavouring to make us more healthy and attempting to reduce road traffic congestion, they have found that a simple way of achieving these objectives stimultaneously is by promoting cycling. However, with the continual increase in motor vehicles on the road 34 million a five fold increase in 40 years, with approximately one third of these been company vehicles, little incentive to cycle is given, due to consequences for pedestrians or cyclist who are involved in road traffic incidences. A lot of discussion is given about the advances in motor vehicles, and how fast the vehicle is able to achieve 60 mph – ten miles less than the maximum speed limit. I appreciate that vehicles serve there purpose, but it would not been too difficult rather than have continual discussions about speed camera etc, to incorporate within vehicles something not too dissimilar to the tachograph / speed restrictor, where within built up areas vehicles are unable to exceed the speed limit. Although it was not proven it was my genuine belief that the vehicle that struck me was exceeding the 30 mph speed limit.
My annoyance in these events is made further worse due to my interest in the law, which I have held for a considerable period of time. Furthermore, whilst re-sitting a English examination over twenty years ago, I was required to give a oral presentation I decided upon the subject the Road Traffic Act 1971. I concluded that this Act was enacted because of the reduced success of convictions for road fatalities caused by motor vehicle drivers, due to jurors and others involved in the proceedings not willing to convict someone in circumstances they as vehicle drivers could envisage themselves as been brought before the courts.
The only praise from the day of my accident was that no further distance was taken by the vehicle to stop. It is also unfortunate that the police are tasked to find fault in the investigation of accidents, as this does not lay fault in the design or layout of the roads themselves. Our roads are running at capacity and it is only because of the current economic slow down that central government has invested in the infrastructure, however, this has not included the major redesigning of road lay outs to include new cycle lanes and networks.
There is little virtue in writing this, other than to be thankful that I am not only here to recount the episode and that I also have the capacity to do so. Also that I still have the physical attributes to allow me to continue to cycle.
Towards the end of my hospital stay I began to regain my interest in reading not to mention my capacity to concentrate for sufficient length of time to even consider reading a newspaper, however, I was reading the Yorkshire post early November 2009 and learnt with a serious amount of annoyance how a court had only punished a HGV driver two years imprisonment for what in essence was a hit and run incident resulting in a cyclist “passing”. The lorry had missed it turn, and therefore turn about at the first opportunity, after making its scheduled turn it continued down the road, however, became aware of an obstruction underneath their vehicle. He stopped to investigate and found a cycle, which he removed and threw over the hedge, the driver apparently did not realise that the cycle belonged to the cyclist he had driven past earlier.
One year after my accident to the day a female cyclist on her way to work “passed” due to a HGV driver failing to secure the their load, which fell off whilst they where negotiating a roundabout.
Most recently this year over the May day bank holiday two cyclist “passed” in separate incidences. Further into the year two pedestrians “passed” both struck by HGV's whilst crossing at designated crossing points.
It is now four years ago that I had my cycling accident I had up until that time considered myself fortunate never requiring hospital treatment other than for minor cuts or bruising. However on the day in question I had just left my flat, collected my cycle from the rear yard and existed the front door. The first road outside is a now little used road running alongside the replacement flyover road, crossing the train lines. It was immediately upon entering this flyover section of the road that I became aware of the presence of white transit van towing a trailer followed by another white van, belonging to the same company, and I knew that the vehicle was not going to stop in sufficient time to avoid the accident. I recall coming around under the vehicle and after regaining my bearing appreciating that I had just not dreamt the sequence of the events, and that I was indeed laid under a van on the main road and unable to move. I only have a few recollections from this time until my arrival at the local hospital - which fortunately, was only a few minutes journey away from the accident site. My final recollection is an awareness of people coming at me whist on the hospital trolley in the resuscitation room. The next firm memory is been awoken in the Intensive Care Unit some ten days later and been prepared for surgery for at least the second time. In total I remained in hospital for three months and I was taken to surgery at least five times, including the initial time in the Accident & Emergency rooms.
The actions of the vehicle driver was deemed by the police not to be at fault, despite them exceeding the permitted weight for their vehicle combination and it having no horn. Furthermore, the police allowed the proceeding against them in the courts to discontinue despite these been of a "strict liability" nature. It was viewed that I had attempted to cross the road into the path of the vehicle, even though the vehicle driver deciding to swerve into the cycle lane in order to avoid the collision. The evidence against me was the driver of the vehicle, his passenger, the driver of the rear vehicle (all of the same company) and a pedestrian - this person did not wait for the police to arrive but left their name and address on a slip of paper in the front vehicles cab.
You will already be aware that due to me been placed in a medically induced coma for ten days and taken to the operating theatres more than three time, that my injuries were more than consequential in my day to day existence. My injuries and the resulting treatment of them was in a matter of fact published in a medical journal. (The Annals of Thoracic Surgery Year 2011 Vol 92 Pages e7 to e9)
Apart from been annoyed at the accident itself, another major place of annoyance is the manner in which it was investigated. This city just like other major cities has seen its fair share of accidents, The Times newspaper prompted into coming down on the side of the cyclist as a result of one of their former staff members been struck by a lorry outside of their offices. They also reported that the year 2012 saw a five year high for the count of cyclists who have "passed" totalling 122. I shall be on safe ground to suggest that the year 2013 shall see an even higher volume of cycling fatalities. The United Kingdom rank pretty well high up the league table for road fatalities however this says less for the other countries rather than more the UK. Each year over one million people across the world are killed as a consequence of road traffic accidents, and this one million mile stone is reached earlier and earlier in the year.
The government is endeavouring to make us more healthy and attempting to reduce road traffic congestion, they have found that a simple way of achieving these objectives stimultaneously is by promoting cycling. However, with the continual increase in motor vehicles on the road 34 million a five fold increase in 40 years, with approximately one third of these been company vehicles, little incentive to cycle is given, due to consequences for pedestrians or cyclist who are involved in road traffic incidences. A lot of discussion is given about the advances in motor vehicles, and how fast the vehicle is able to achieve 60 mph – ten miles less than the maximum speed limit. I appreciate that vehicles serve there purpose, but it would not been too difficult rather than have continual discussions about speed camera etc, to incorporate within vehicles something not too dissimilar to the tachograph / speed restrictor, where within built up areas vehicles are unable to exceed the speed limit. Although it was not proven it was my genuine belief that the vehicle that struck me was exceeding the 30 mph speed limit.
My annoyance in these events is made further worse due to my interest in the law, which I have held for a considerable period of time. Furthermore, whilst re-sitting a English examination over twenty years ago, I was required to give a oral presentation I decided upon the subject the Road Traffic Act 1971. I concluded that this Act was enacted because of the reduced success of convictions for road fatalities caused by motor vehicle drivers, due to jurors and others involved in the proceedings not willing to convict someone in circumstances they as vehicle drivers could envisage themselves as been brought before the courts.
The only praise from the day of my accident was that no further distance was taken by the vehicle to stop. It is also unfortunate that the police are tasked to find fault in the investigation of accidents, as this does not lay fault in the design or layout of the roads themselves. Our roads are running at capacity and it is only because of the current economic slow down that central government has invested in the infrastructure, however, this has not included the major redesigning of road lay outs to include new cycle lanes and networks.
There is little virtue in writing this, other than to be thankful that I am not only here to recount the episode and that I also have the capacity to do so. Also that I still have the physical attributes to allow me to continue to cycle.
Towards the end of my hospital stay I began to regain my interest in reading not to mention my capacity to concentrate for sufficient length of time to even consider reading a newspaper, however, I was reading the Yorkshire post early November 2009 and learnt with a serious amount of annoyance how a court had only punished a HGV driver two years imprisonment for what in essence was a hit and run incident resulting in a cyclist “passing”. The lorry had missed it turn, and therefore turn about at the first opportunity, after making its scheduled turn it continued down the road, however, became aware of an obstruction underneath their vehicle. He stopped to investigate and found a cycle, which he removed and threw over the hedge, the driver apparently did not realise that the cycle belonged to the cyclist he had driven past earlier.
One year after my accident to the day a female cyclist on her way to work “passed” due to a HGV driver failing to secure the their load, which fell off whilst they where negotiating a roundabout.
Most recently this year over the May day bank holiday two cyclist “passed” in separate incidences. Further into the year two pedestrians “passed” both struck by HGV's whilst crossing at designated crossing points.
