Saw a cyclist knocked down this evening.

[Crankarm]

It was sobering. She bounced like a rag doll as the car drove into her and hit the road hard. It was at the junction of Girton and Huntingdon roads in Cambridge. The car doing the knocking down was a white Seat Cupra FR. The woman driving got out and started shouting several times at the poor young girl as she lay in the road beneath the car front bumper with her bike bent on the road. "Why haven't you got any lights on!". I had been following in my car and saw the car drive into the cyclist, so stopped sharpish to offer assistance and more importantly to act as a witness rather than drive off. I ran across to the aid of the cyclist. I told the stupid driver in no uncertain terms to shut up as she was going on how it was NOT her fault. I don't think so. She didn't care one bit whether the cyclist was ok and yet she had what looked like 4 teenage children in her car. The young woman she knocked down couldn't have been much older than them. Shocking behaviour. But the woman continued to argue with me and the young lady cyclist who was clearing in pain laying on the road. I told the driver to call for an ambulance and police which she was reluctant to do but eventually did as I was trying to establish whether the cyclist was ok, hit her head, any other pain etc. Fortunately she wasn't too badly hurt although one of her arms and hips were hurting her. She was just a slip of thing about 22 years old quite petite, fragile even. By the way she did have lights on her bike just that the stupid b*tch in the car was driving too fast and didn't see the cyclist crossing in front of her. Then ambulance and plod turned up, paramedics took the girl into the ambulance and then plod started asking me and driver what happened. They tried to get me to give my version of events, as the witness, with the stupid driver standing right next to me!!!! First I don't want her knowing my contact details and second how did they hope to get a statement from the driver without the driver knowing what I had said and adapting her story? Unbelievable! So I invited plod to take a walk with me away from her and the scene so he could take the necessary details from me out of the ear shot of the driver but he looked at me with the lights gone out. Unbelievable!

Anyway I left all my details in the cyclists diary so I await to hear from her to tell me she is ok and also whether plod are actually going to take any action against the driver. I can't understand how the driver knocked the cyclist down. They had plenty of time to come to a stop and the car is a high performance car one year old with supposedly high performance brakes as well. I don't suppose plod will do anything. They didn't seem very interested. Don't think they even breathalysed the driver. They were gone when I passed by about 10 minutes later, but the ambulance was still there.

 

[Canrider]

Thanks for sharing that, Crankarm. I've yet to witness any bike RTAs myself but it sounds like you did all you could be expected to in the situation. Might be worth nudging the police in a few days if you don't hear from them or the cyclist?

 

[growingvegetables]

The woman driving got out and started shouting several times at the poor young girl as she lay in the road ...

Horrified.

Good on you, though - I know who I'd rather meet on a dark night. Guessing you're feeling pretty shaken as well - time for a good whisky? Hope the lass is OK - very best wishes to her and yourself.

And hope your premonition about the police proves unfounded.

 

[worst case scenario]

As the UK exits its recession scenario there will be more and more events such as this as people drive too fast to buy a big television down to comet or part of the currys group including pc world.

You mention she was thrown like a ragdoll crankarm. Have you thought about reversing this negative energy by using a voodoo ragdoll on a lego road and trying to make the driver have a bewildering heart attack by the power of thought and voodoo alone?

 

[BigonaBianchi]

From what you say I think Plod were disgraceful in how they dealt with this...they should know better and adopt a more positive approach to nailing the bith in the car to the wall in a public place for all to spit on and stone her to within an inch of her life...

...hopefully th e4 kids in th eback will grow up knowing dear mother committed attempted murder.

 

[downfader]

It was sobering. She bounced like a rag doll as the car drove into her and hit the road hard. It was at the junction of Girton and Huntingdon roads in Cambridge. The car doing the knocking down was a white Seat Cupra FR. The woman driving got out and started shouting several times at the poor young girl as she lay in the road beneath the car front bumper with her bike bent on the road. "Why haven't you got any lights on!". I had been following in my car and saw the car drive into the cyclist, so stopped sharpish to offer assistance and more importantly to act as a witness rather than drive off. I ran across to the aid of the cyclist. I told the stupid driver in no uncertain terms to shut up as she was going on how it was NOT her fault. I don't think so. She didn't care one bit whether the cyclist was ok and yet she had what looked like 4 teenage children in her car. The young woman she knocked down couldn't have been much older than them. Shocking behaviour. But the woman continued to argue with me and the young lady cyclist who was clearing in pain laying on the road. I told the driver to call for an ambulance and police which she was reluctant to do but eventually did as I was trying to establish whether the cyclist was ok, hit her head, any other pain etc. Fortunately she wasn't too badly hurt although one of her arms and hips were hurting her. She was just a slip of thing about 22 years old quite petite, fragile even. By the way she did have lights on her bike just that the stupid b*tch in the car was driving too fast and didn't see the cyclist crossing in front of her. Then ambulance and plod turned up, paramedics took the girl into the ambulance and then plod started asking me and driver what happened. They tried to get me to give my version of events, as the witness, with the stupid driver standing right next to me!!!! First I don't want her knowing my contact details and second how did they hope to get a statement from the driver without the driver knowing what I had said and adapting her story? Unbelievable! So I invited plod to take a walk with me away from her and the scene so he could take the necessary details from me out of the ear shot of the driver but he looked at me with the lights gone out. Unbelievable!

Anyway I left all my details in the cyclists diary so I await to hear from her to tell me she is ok and also whether plod are actually going to take any action against the driver. I can't understand how the driver knocked the cyclist down. They had plenty of time to come to a stop and the car is a high performance car one year old with supposedly high performance brakes as well. I don't suppose plod will do anything. They didn't seem very interested. Don't think they even breathalysed the driver. They were gone when I passed by about 10 minutes later, but the ambulance was still there.

Kudos to you for stopping and attending! Sometimes the Police can appear disinterested but only to quell some of the emotions. They also develop an emotional distance as they see stuff like this more often that most people.

 

[TVC]

Horrid when you see a collision, a few years back I watched a 12 year old girl put into a coma when a car went through a red light at a pedestrian crossing, I didn't sleep well for a few nights after that.

I'm not siding with the driver, Crankarm, but her emotions would have been running very high after the impact, and her reaction was possibly not a considered one. Her view of what happened may have changed this morning after she has calmed down and thought it through. If it hasn't then then she should be nailed to a wall.
When I was hit by a car the driver became hysterical and persuaded herself that I must have been riding on the pavement and then crossed the road and hit her (even though she didn't see me), but once she calmed down and looked at the facts she put her hand up and was first class in her approach to the whole incident.

As for the Police, no breathalyser? I thought that was standard procedure in a collision involving injury. Don't expect charges to follow though. Again, when I was hit, no charges were brought even though it is in Leics Police published procedures that charges must be brought for a collision where a person spends at least one night in hospital, or requires general anaesthetic (three nights and an operation for me). But I don't want to spark a debate about how police treat cyclists as against peds.

 

[PBancroft]

Shocking.

 

[vernon]

If Crankarm wanted a more outraged and universally supportive set of responses then this ought to have been posted in the commuting forum where the predictable responses would have supplied several hours worth of reading.

While I am concerned about the welfare of the victim, the poster's belligerant rants add nothing other than his distorted sense of injustice.

 

[GrasB]

At least there was one responsible & compassionate person about to help the poor victim & thoughts be with her.

The rest of the post... I'll leave no comment.

 

[numbnuts]

Well done there Crankarm you did what you could

 

[Arch]

I'm not siding with the driver, Crankarm, but her emotions would have been running very high after the impact, and her reaction was possibly not a considered one.

Slightly off-topic, but I heard an interesting thing on Radio 4 the other day, with regard to the recent cruise ship sinking and the behaviour of the captain. They spoke to a naval captain, someone who'd served in the Falklands, possibly the captain of HMS Coventry.

He was saying that to be the captain of ship (or high up in any profession), you generally have to be an Alpha male, just to have made your way up with enough determination. And Alpha males do very well, until they make a mistake, when they find it very hard to cope with the idea that they've cocked up. As a result, their behaviour tends to focus entirely on justifying their actions - whether that's by blaming someone else, or by pretending that nothing is wrong until it's far too late.

And of course it seems just as likely to me that the same thing applies to both sexes. For some people, the first reaction on making a mistake is to be horrified and apologetic or simply shocked into incapacity, for some, it's to try and divert the blame, because they can't face the fact that they are fallible.

There's a much wider question I think, about whether the increased aggression we seem to see in society is exacerbated by people being given a greater sense of their own worth and ability than they perhaps have, but that's going way off topic.

I hope the girl recovers quickly, and that the driver gets what she deserves.

 

[G-Zero]

As the UK exits its recession scenario there will be more and more events such as this as people drive too fast to buy a big television down to comet or part of the currys group including pc world.

OK ??

 

[TVC]

OK ??

Bet he's got a hangover now.

 

[Crankarm]

Horrid when you see a collision, a few years back I watched a 12 year old girl put into a coma when a car went through a red light at a pedestrian crossing, I didn't sleep well for a few nights after that.

I'm not siding with the driver, Crankarm, but her emotions would have been running very high after the impact, and her reaction was possibly not a considered one. Her view of what happened may have changed this morning after she has calmed down and thought it through. If it hasn't then then she should be nailed to a wall.
When I was hit by a car the driver became hysterical and persuaded herself that I must have been riding on the pavement and then crossed the road and hit her (even though she didn't see me), but once she calmed down and looked at the facts she put her hand up and was first class in her approach to the whole incident.

As for the Police, no breathalyser? I thought that was standard procedure in a collision involving injury. Don't expect charges to follow though. Again, when I was hit, no charges were brought even though it is in Leics Police published procedures that charges must be brought for a collision where a person spends at least one night in hospital, or requires general anaesthetic (three nights and an operation for me). But I don't want to spark a debate about how police treat cyclists as against peds.

She was very calm. I would say shockingly calm actually. She was measured and frankly very selfish in not considering the welfare of the person who she had just collided with. Her only thoughts seemed to be to keep saying it was the cyclists fault as she had no lights - she did. I told her to shut up as the priority was the welfare of the girl lying in the road not her. It was better for us not to say anything to each other about what we thought happened as the police would be coming and they would deal with working out what happened and which party was to blame. I did not want this woman badgering the young girl making her more even more uncomfortable than she may already have been. I tried to comfort the girl as she looked concussed. fortunately another girl probably student came out of an adjacent house to lend support to help the cyclist and she helped to diffuse the situation. Was I being unreasonable do you think? Irrespective of who was responsible for the collision, the cyclist's welfare was the first consideration. I found the driver's behaviour especially shocking as she was about the right age to be the cyclist's mother, mid forties and all she could think about was saving her own skin. Nice woman indeed.

The first time I was knocked off I had two guardian angels to do this for me, a work colleague who I didn't know had seen it and an RAC patrol guy. The driver was in my face the whole time trying to blame me by saying I reversed my bike into him on the roundabout that he took me out on, I don't think so! Fortunately the RAC guy kept him away and the work colleague, who I didn't know that well, comforted me by the side of the road before the police came and took me to hospital. I was just trying to repay this cyclist the kindness I was shown. The second time I was knocked down there was no one. As I lay in the road another chav car driver blew their car horn as they drove around me shouting "Get out the f*cking road!"

So last night I tried to help this cyclist as best I could, make sure she was comfortable, warm enough and not let her be bullied by the driver. I would have let her sit in my car but I had just returned to it to go home from work so it was still freezing. So I offered her my heavy wax winter coat and also the other girl as she didn't have to much on as she ran out when she hear the crash. The cyclist must have been in shock, concussion, although she told me she didn't hit her head, no wound, but she seemed rather groggy to me. I shall give her a call later to find out if she is ok.