Cyclists, horse riders and other vulnerable road users, we have to look out for each other.

mike the bike wrote:

 

The original news report mentioned the possibility of the driver suffering a stroke, so perhaps it's best not to leap onto the attack too quickly?

"East of England Ambulance Service has confirmed it did not treat the driver for a suspected stroke or any other medical concern"

BBC

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

Amazed that the coloured horse got away with its life. 

It wouldn't surprise me if either of them had to be put down at a later date. Horses are funny things - they may appear fine and then run up lame days later, or during the next ride. Their legs are very fragile, and they take a lot of weight. There's a chance of mental problems too.

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

The Daily Mail article on this was interesting in terms of the comments. Seems that DM readers are less anti-horsist than they are anti-cyclist, but the 'motorists can do no wrong and it's always someone else's fault' contingent still put up a strong showing.

It's an interesting hierarchy... I think aspiration nudges in between the obvious Little England and fascist influences, and they all want a pony, or something, and see bikes as kids' toys. If the car had been a Land Rover, Range Rover or Aston Martin it would probably have been enough to swing the debate.

If you drove Hitler's Tourenwagen into a schoolyard full of kids singing 'Jerusalem' - I reckon that'd be a 50/50 split and the internet would need rebooting.

ktache wrote:

BBC that was no accident.

Driver seemingly going far to fast for the corner and conditions.

Why is it never an HGV coming when the driver is driving this badly?

I suspect the driver was somehow distracted as they weren't actually going very fast. I think I'd be checking the drivers phone records.

DrG82 wrote:

I suspect the driver was somehow distracted as they weren't actually going very fast. I think I'd be checking the drivers phone records.

I agree about checking the phone records. The fact they don't get out makes me suspicious - maybe deleting texts? Giving the benefit of the doubt, I hope they were dialling 999.

However I'm puzzled by your assessment that they weren't going very fast. They were clearly going far too fast for the conditions as they were unable to slow down even slightly before losing control. The road is obviously wet and it's quite a sharp bend. I trust it is just a matter of perception from the video, but if not, and you think this isn't too fast, and you drive, you might want to have a long hard think about safe driving speeds...

Why the idiot didn't steer into the side turning once they realised they were on the wrong side of the road I've no idea. Total failure to deal with loss of traction. Fixated on the horses and riders I suppose?

Ironically if it had been an HGV instead they might have got away with such poor judgement - I imagine they tried to slow down when they saw horses, but were unable to both corner and slow down because of excessive speed on a wet corner. If they'd carried on around the corner without braking they may have managed to stay on the right side of the road, albeit far too fast to be passing horses.