Cyclist trapped under car walks away!

[Globalti]

Christ almighty. What hope is there for cyclists?

 

[ColinJ]

Christ almighty. What hope is there for cyclists?

My family had to force my dad to stop driving when he got to about 80. It was the only independence that he had but he couldn't drive safely so it had to be done. TBH - we let it go on rather too long before we took action.

I think there should be regular medical tests for elderly drivers and perhaps they should retake a driving test at 75, say, and every few years beyond that.

 

[swansonj]

As Eddy said to David last night, "you've got to stop her driving!"

 

[biggs682]

My family had to force my dad to stop driving when he got to about 80. It was the only independence that he had but he couldn't drive safely so it had to be done. TBH - we let it go on rather too long before we took action.

I think there should be regular medical tests for elderly drivers and perhaps they should retake a driving test at 75, say, and every few years beyond that.

i think both of my parents are getting near to this stage too , not sure how i will tell them , but if it saves a persons life then it is worth it

 

[Shanks]

Not sure if it pulls the pin or buries the grenade but I'm pretty certain he was wearing a helmet at the time. But for whatever that adds to the discussion, two days after the accident the police have decided to take no further action.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Not sure if it pulls the pin or buries the grenade but I'm pretty certain he was wearing a helmet at the time. But for whatever that adds to the discussion, two days after the accident the police have decided to take no further action.

That sounds like the cyclist was at fault then? Unless the driver of the car was their ex Chief Inspector(?!) Only joking!

 

[PaulB]

@PaulB was knocked off his bike when riding out to meet me for a forum ride. The elderly driver not only did not see him, she didn't notice that she had hit him, and when forced to stop by a witness, she denied that it had happened despite the protestations of a battered Paul, the witness, and her worried husband in the passenger seat!

Her husband said that he had been telling her for some time that she was no longer a safe driver and swore that he would stop her driving after that.

If memory serves though, I think it was her brother who was the passenger. But well remembered. They were on their way to church.

 

[asterix]

That sounds like the cyclist was at fault then? Unless the driver of the car was their ex Chief Inspector(?!) Only joking!

Maybe it's just a straight one person's word against another and no witnesses?

 

[andrewpreston]

We'll probably never know who was at fault but we do tend to jump to the conclusion that it must be the driver (I'm as guilty as any). Maybe its because we see so much bad driving but we should remember that there are some atrocious cyclists out there too.

 

[Julia9054]

On here we jump to the conclusion that it must be the driver's fault.
The rest of the world jumps to the conclusion it must be the cyclist's!

 

[theclaud]

On here we jump to the conclusion that it must be the driver's fault.
The rest of the world jumps to the conclusion it must be the cyclist's!

If you manage, in the course of driving along a perfectly ordinary road, to place your car on top of a human being you are, by definition, doing something wrong, whether that is travelling too fast for the conditions, not looking where you are going, or failing to anticipate the movements of a more vulnerable road user. That does not, of course, mean that the cyclist might not have made an unwise or ill-judged manoeuvre. Looking at the location and the information in the news reports, the most likely scenario (an I concede that it might have been otherwise) is that Mr Futers made a right turn out of the side road with the stop line. If this is the case then he was following a designated cycle route. It's also an obvious place for pedestrians to cross (there's a footpath emerging onto it, the entrance to a pub, and what appears to be a bus shelter, and there's even a man crossing in Streetview) and it's also the approach to a level crossing. The presence of the stop line at a junction with perfectly adequate visibility suggests to me a tacit acceptance that traffic will be allowed to move too fast. The lead-in to the level crossing is a straight stretch of road with no speed cameras or calming measures. Whether Mr Futers judged his emergence from the junction poorly or not, the driver should have seen him and anticipated it, and if he couldn't stop in time to avoid hitting Mr Futers, then he was going too fast.

 

[ColinJ]

If memory serves though, I think it was her brother who was the passenger. But well remembered. They were on their way to church.

Ah, ok ... I referred to my notes which had him down as her husband, but that isn't really important. (I suppose it would be in terms of sleeping with him every night for 50 years, but not in terms of driving! )

What really stuck in my mind was the adrenaline-fuelled call from you saying that you wouldn't be able to join us. It was amazing that you were not seriously injured or killed. I think your bike was not happy though?