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Listening to music on iPhone may have led to cyclist's death, says coroner

Emily Norton's death "an entirely avoidable incident," says coroner who ruled that cause lay "entirely with the cyclist"...

A coroner has said that a woman who died after falling from her bike as she tried to avoid a collision with a lorry on a roundabout may not have been aware of the vehicle until it was too late because she might have been distracted by music being played through her iPhone.

Keen cyclist Emily Norton, 38, entered a roundabout without looking right at the same time as a DAF HGV lorry was exiting the roundabout and may have panicked trying to avoid a collision, Hull Coroners’ Court heard.

Ms Norton, who had a 16-year-old daughter, had her earphones in and was “riding purposefully” before she wobbled at the nearside of the lorry and fell fracturing her skull and spinal cord. She fell on the verge and died instantly without hitting the lorry. She was not wearing a helmet at the time.

Despite resuscitation being given immediately her eyes were dilated and she never showed signs of a pulse. The lorry driver did not stop and said he had never “felt, heard or saw” the cyclist.

East Riding of Yorkshire Coroner Paul Marks ruled listening to music could have been a distraction and contributed to her misjudgment. He also said her injuries may have been lessened if she had worn a helmet.

Rule 148 of the Highway Code, which falls within the General Advice section which “should be read by all drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders” advises road users to “avoid distractions when driving or riding such as ... loud music (this may mask other sounds.”

Use of a cycle helmet, while recommended in the Highway Code, is not compulsory for cyclists in the United Kingdom, unlike in certain other jurisdictions including Ms Norton’s native New Zealand.

Ms Norton, a hairdresser, who took up cycling two years ago, cycled regularly before work and knew the road around her home well. She normally wore a helmet and had earphones in playing music and was cycling along Flatgate in Howden, part of the A63 which becomes Hull Road.

Initially she was on a cycle path and then on the road. She was seen to enter the roundabout at speed as she rode at the side of the lorry and the wobble as the road began to narrow.

Her brother Hans Hargroves confirmed in a written statement to the inquest that his sister had normally listened to music and used a cycling app on her phone.

He said she had bought the bike around two years ago and, as far as he was aware, kept it maintained.

“She would cycle most days before work and was competent and knew the local area,” he said. “She has lived in Howden all her life and knew the junction. She would listen to music and have a cycle app.

“I am told at the time she was not wearing a helmet,” he added. “I cannot understand why she did not wear it that day. We later found it in the house. She was a stickler for safety.”

The incident happened around 7.40am on June 23 as Ms Norton was on her way home from an early morning ride. 

Turners lorry driver Alexander Lamb of Featherstone told the inquest he was only using the road because the Selby bypass was closed. He said: “As I approached the roundabout, I paused to look for traffic to the right. As I went I saw nothing. I checked my mirrors.

“The first I knew about it was when the police called me and asked me to stop. A motorcycle policemen told me what happened. I couldn’t believe it happened. I didn’t hear anything, feel anything or see anything. If I had seen anything I would have stopped and tried to help.”

Eyewitness Martin Ward, of Howden said: “From what I saw she did not appear to look left or right as she entered the roundabout.

“The cyclist kept in a straight line. The wagon kept in a straight line. I saw the cyclist lift in the air and go on to the verge. The way the road is they were converging. In my opinion the wagon driver did not do anything wrong.”

PC Sally Acomb said a full accident investigation had taken place and the lorry driver was not facing any charges. A police accident investigator found the cycle had a defective from brake which touch the handlebar – which could have been a manufacturing fault – as the cable outer was cut short. The cycle also had no front reflector and a loose bell on the handlebars which was missing a bolt.

The 18 speed Carrera racing cycle was found in its lowest gear with the chain still in place. Ms Norton’s headphones were picked up at the scene.

Coroner Paul Marks told the inquest he found that Ms Norton went on to the roundabout without looking right and was seemingly unaware of the HGV. He said “It seems likely when she realised she would come into conflict with the lorry she made some input to the steering and activated the brakes.”

He said because of a fitting defect in the front brake caused by the cable being too short, she may have applied the rear brake causing a skid, adding that at no point did witnesses see the two vehicles make contact.

He continued: “I cannot determine if she was on her iPhone listening with earphone at the time, but if she had been, it could have caused a distraction and could have contributed to the cause of the accident.”

He said the fact she was not wearing a helmet may have meant she had suffered worse injuries, but made no criticism of her decision.

Professor Marks concluded: “I accept this was an entirely avoidable incident and the cause of the events that lead-up to the accident rest entirely with the cyclist. No charges have been brought against the HGV driver and he has been totally exonerated.”

He recorded a verdict of accidental death.

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49 comments

Avatar
drosco | 7 years ago
0 likes

Having had a big accident with a car in recent weeks, resulting with a helmet with a big dent in it and my head being practically the only bit of me un-injured, I couldn't be more thankful to have been wearing one. Quote all the statistics and hypothetical scenarios you like.  

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Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
2 likes

If she had a fractured skull, surely a helmet may of been of some use in this particular accident?

I get people may not want to wear helmets, I can't say I wear one 'all' the time, tbh I think I've only come off twice on a road bike, one of those times being a blow-out and the other a comedy can't unclip to fall off. In general though I do wear one but it's a bit like insurance, a waste of money most years.

If you're not wearing on because you somehow think cyclists just don't suffer head injuries you're a bit daft though. Even an ultra-hard bastard like BMXer Mat Hoffman rode full kitted up most times. There's no shame in it. Maybe it's all about not flattening your hair or something?

 

 

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Stumps | 7 years ago
0 likes

The simple answer is "we just don't know" it may have helped, it may not.
My personal take on what the coroner said about helmets was in relation to the skull fracture.
Just been listening to radio 5 and they have been discussing this case re headphones. It was quite interesting to hear other people's views.

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gunswick | 7 years ago
1 like

A helmet would clearly have helped, stop being silly guys.

Very sad that a fall caused such injuries. Condolences to the family, it is very sad.

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hawkinspeter replied to gunswick | 7 years ago
4 likes

gunswick wrote:

A helmet would clearly have helped, stop being silly guys. Very sad that a fall caused such injuries. Condolences to the family, it is very sad.

Clearly? Would she be wearing it around her neck?

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brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 7 years ago
3 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

gunswick wrote:

A helmet would clearly have helped, stop being silly guys. Very sad that a fall caused such injuries. Condolences to the family, it is very sad.

Clearly? Would she be wearing it around her neck?

Avon & Somerset police are having one of their regular pop-up shops in Bristol city centre.  There's a poster in the window of a stylised figure wearing a cycle helmet and with their arm in a sling, saying something about wear a helmet to protect you from injury. Part of me wants to go in and ask them how a helmet protects from a broken arm... yes

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davel replied to hawkinspeter | 7 years ago
1 like
hawkinspeter wrote:

gunswick wrote:

A helmet would clearly have helped, stop being silly guys. Very sad that a fall caused such injuries. Condolences to the family, it is very sad.

Clearly? Would she be wearing it around her neck?

Behave yourself, you nasty cynic. Gunswick said 'clearly' in a road.cc webpage comment. That does it for me; how much evidence do you need?

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CygnusX1 replied to gunswick | 7 years ago
3 likes

gunswick wrote:

A helmet would clearly have helped, stop being silly guys. Very sad that a fall caused such injuries. Condolences to the family, it is very sad.

Its not being silly - its based on engineering principles and an understanding of physics.

A helmet may have prevented the fractured skull (although I doubt it, an impact of sufficient force to break heads is outside of the design parameters of cycle helmets), but the wearer would probably still suffer life threatening head injuries in the form of brain haemorrage and/or concussion. But lets for now just accept any head injury would have been survivable.

As for the severed spinal cord, a helmet would only increase the amount of rotational force applied to the pivot point (I'm taking an educated guess from the reports that this would be about where the neck meets the shoulder). Now if we assume the average head is about 6 inches diameter just above the ears (where a helmet would sit,and the most likely point of contact with the ground), and that point is about 8 inches vertically above the shoulder, then you have a two sides of a right angled triangle (a=3 -i.e. half the head diameter, b=8) which means the your head would have to rotate 20 degrees for the outer edge to be in line with your spine. Make your head effectively another inch wider on either side by a helmet (a=4, b=8, angle A= 26.6 deg) so thats an additional 7 degrees of rotation on top of whatever the angle of impact was.

PS Handy angle calculator in case you want to check my working out:

http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/calrtri.htm

Since the angle and force of impact was already enough to sever the spinal cord, the additional rotation in this case is academic. Whatever the circumstances leading up to the incident were, the outcome in this particular scenario would likely be the same with or without a helmet.

So I'm calling a score draw on the helmet debate and hoping that's the end of it. Lets not forget a family has lost a loved one.

 

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drosco | 7 years ago
1 like

Everyone has heard the anti helmet rant a million times already. Considering the poor woman was killed, are people really arguing that wearing a helmet would somehow have made things worse?

I'll continue to be one of the 'utterly stupid and easily led' thanks.

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Jimmy Ray Will | 7 years ago
3 likes

Why do these people feel the need to stick the knife in....

What has been confirmed...

 - There was no evidence the lorry hit the cyclist

 - the lorry had right of way and from all accounts was driving within acceptable speeds and awareness

- For whatever reason, the cyclist failed to give way to the lorry until already on the roundabout, and in an attempt to stop, fell from the bike. 

Everything else is just guess work. Its not needed. 

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FluffyKittenofT... | 7 years ago
5 likes
downesdesign wrote:

Tragic, of course, but this just underscores how foolish it is to be wearing headphones whilst cycling. All senses need to be fully engaged with the immediate environment, which should be bloody obvious to anyone who's ever ridden a bike in any kind of traffic.

I am all for agitating for the rights of cyclists, but some among us are still out there doing fundamentally stupid things  (just like car drivers) for which there can be no defence.

Except that when car drivers do stupid things they usually don't die as a consequence (often someone else does, though).

To me it rather underscores how foolish it is to design roads this way. Where a small error leads to death.

Personally I don't use headphones on the bike because of the potential distraction/loss of concentration (rather than the need to hear). It pisses me off because I really _want_ to (to the degree that I sometimes walk just so I can), and drivers have no such compunction about their extensive in-car (audio and visual) entertainment systems.

The fact that the roads as they are require such a level of concentration just in order to not die, is kind of the problem with them.

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ianrobo | 7 years ago
2 likes

I listen to Podcasts using basic apple earphones and can easily hear a Lorry or car behind me ... sounds like someone trying to justify an idea never proved.

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hawkinspeter | 7 years ago
1 like

Surely the problem is that she didn't look before entering the roundabout? Hearing is very much a secondary sense when cycling/driving and plenty of people manage to do either activity safely whilst  being hearing impaired. Is the coroner implying that deaf people shouldn't be able to get a driving license or be allowed to ride a bike?

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Altimis | 7 years ago
0 likes

I don't listen to surrounding when I riding, its pointless

I use 6th sense to detecting surrounding, like an animal instinct

Its hard to explains, 90% of time, I able to detect "what" is behind me or from side way and that enough for me to avoid it

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psling | 7 years ago
1 like

Professor Marks concluded: 'I accept this was an entirely avoidable incident and the cause of the events that lead up to the accident rest entirely with the cyclist.

Having now read other reporting of the coroner's report it would appear that the lorry and the cyclist were entering the roundabout from the same direction. The coroner's comment above would suggest that the lorry arrived at the roundabout first and the cyclist passed up the nearside of it; if the cyclist was in front of the lorry approaching the roundabout, even if they arrived at the same time then surely the coroner's comment above is incorrect and the driver of the lorry must be expected to have seen her. I'm struggling to get my head around the lack of consideration given to the position of both the lorry and the cyclist approaching the roundabout prior to the incident.

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700c | 7 years ago
3 likes

Agree with the comments, the coroner is speculating quite unhelpfully about helmets and headphones contributing here. Yes it sounds like the cyclist made a tragic mistake but there doesn't seem to be enough detail about the build up to the accident or physical interaction with the street funiture or lorry itself to understand the sequence of events.

Anyone who's riden 'at speed' knows the wind noise can blot out noise more than headphones can anyway.

Without the evidence to show that headphones and (lack of) helmet contributed, the conjecture about helmets and headphones do seem add further 'victim blaming ' which may not be warranted.

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Must be Mad | 7 years ago
2 likes

The corner seems very sure in his assumptions doesn't he...

 

Sounds as though the poor woman took a 'silly tumble' at low speed, and just landed awkwardly and twister her neck.

RIP

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psling | 7 years ago
2 likes

The article above suggests that the coroner makes a lot of assumptions about the actions of the cyclist which may have contributed towards her death. The report does not make any mention of similar assumptions to be made about the driver of the other vehicle involved e.g. was the driver looking at sat. nav.? or maybe a map? distracted by something in the cab? looking out for other road users?

Never mind all the red herrings - bell, reflector, assembly fault on a bicycle regularly used for two years - where was the lorry in it's approach before the incident and why didn't the driver see the cyclist? The lorry was either already on the roundabout or was approaching alongside the cyclist  - but that information appears to have been omitted from the article above. Surely this information was available to the coroner and surely the question must be asked - why did the driver not see the cyclist in his approach to the roundabout? This seems relevant to me.

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Judge dreadful | 7 years ago
5 likes

I know it's not a popular viewpoint, but guess what, sometimes even cyclists can make poor decisions. In my opinion, riding on a busy road, with no lid, wearing headphones, on a poorly set up / maintained bike,  is a poor decision or three.

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fixit | 7 years ago
0 likes

classic victim blaming... how far they can go to praise the petrol consuming vehicles?

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Yorkshire wallet replied to fixit | 7 years ago
2 likes

tsarouxaz wrote:

classic victim blaming... how far they can go to praise the petrol consuming vehicles?

So if I go out now and ride across a junction without looking,  get hit,  I'm blameless?

Cyclists can't have this attitude either. Yes, you can be a 'victim' in an accident but you can also be a victim of yourself. Everyone has a lapse of attention, probably multiple throughout the day, but the timing of them results in nothing in the vast, vast majority of cases. I was messing about with my cycle computer the other day and nearly rode into the back of a parked car. I'd hardly be in the right to start claiming the car shouldn't have been parked there.

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FatBoyW | 7 years ago
1 like

Tragic, can't understand why there is so much emphasis on the run up to the fall and so little about why a fall of this type should end up being fatal. Was the street furniture involved in anyway, tall kerbs? Etc etc 

awful and tragic to die just falling off RIP

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Critchio | 7 years ago
3 likes

Earbuds do not block out all noise as has been mentioned. Extremely loud volume may mask vehicle noise but then that's down to a lack of sensibility of the user.

If I don't use my Bluetooth ear buds when out on a ride then as soon as I hit 12mph+ all I hear is feckin wind noise that's so loud it masks approaching vehicle sounds. That's probably due to living in a flat, windy county and having large ears that stick out a bit.

When I put my earbuds in and have low to moderate background music I actually hear more around me as the earbuds eliminate the wind noise almost entirely and I pick up approaching vehicle noise earlier.

Used sensibly and carefully earbuds can be ok but you have to be disciplined regarding their use.

RIP cyclist.

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brooksby | 7 years ago
3 likes

I don't entirely understand what happened.

Cyclist rides onto roundabout without looking. Doesn't see a lorry "exiting" the roundabout (by which I presume is meant that it was already on the roundabout coming from her right).

Cyclist panics, "something" happens (brakes lock up?), she comes off with enough force to kill her but didn't come into contact with the lorry.

Is that about right? 

(I'll pass over what possible relevance there is of her having a loose bell and no front reflector).

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davel replied to brooksby | 7 years ago
2 likes
brooksby wrote:

I don't entirely understand what happened.

Cyclist rides onto roundabout without looking. Doesn't see a lorry "exiting" the roundabout (by which I presume is meant that it was already on the roundabout coming from her right).

Cyclist panics, "something" happens (brakes lock up?), she comes off with enough force to kill her but didn't come into contact with the lorry.

Is that about right? 

(I'll pass over what possible relevance there is of her having a loose bell and no front reflector).

Yeah: cue loads of guesswork and predictable headlines from the likes of the Daily Heil.

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Bluebug replied to brooksby | 7 years ago
0 likes

brooksby wrote:

I don't entirely understand what happened.

Cyclist rides onto roundabout without looking. Doesn't see a lorry "exiting" the roundabout (by which I presume is meant that it was already on the roundabout coming from her right).

Cyclist panics, "something" happens (brakes lock up?), she comes off with enough force to kill her but didn't come into contact with the lorry.

Is that about right? 

(I'll pass over what possible relevance there is of her having a loose bell and no front reflector).

Yep.

She got killed because she didn't look.  A lorry is not exactly hard to see.

What some people - car drivers, small van drivers, cyclists and pedestrians -  forget is that lorries often take up two lanes when turning including exiting.   Good HGV drivers delibrately take the centre of the two lanes to help prevent other road users undertaking them.

The thing about the earbuds is because some people - pedestrians, runners and cyclists turn up their music to tune out some of their environment and don't react quickly when someone comes behind them it is automatically assumed everyone who uses them does the same. 

 

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downesdesign | 7 years ago
1 like

Tragic, of course, but this just underscores how foolish it is to be wearing headphones whilst cycling. All senses need to be fully engaged with the immediate environment, which should be bloody obvious to anyone who's ever ridden a bike in any kind of traffic.

I am all for agitating for the rights of cyclists, but some among us are still out there doing fundamentally stupid things  (just like car drivers) for which there can be no defence.

Avatar
Ush replied to downesdesign | 7 years ago
6 likes

downesdesign wrote:

Tragic, of course, but this just underscores how foolish it is to be wearing headphones whilst cycling. All senses need to be fully engaged with the immediate environment, which should be bloody obvious to anyone who's ever ridden a bike in any kind of traffic.

I am all for agitating for the rights of cyclists, but some among us are still out there doing fundamentally stupid things  (just like car drivers) for which there can be no defence.

 

Your comment is distinguished from the routine, usual, ignorant commentary by a confident, implied assumption that you have anything on which to base your condemnation of the dead woman.  Please, if you are capable of it,  try to disprove and prove your ideas before you implicitly attack someone that died.

 

 

 

 

Avatar
davel replied to Ush | 7 years ago
3 likes
Ush wrote:

downesdesign wrote:

Tragic, of course, but this just underscores how foolish it is to be wearing headphones whilst cycling. All senses need to be fully engaged with the immediate environment, which should be bloody obvious to anyone who's ever ridden a bike in any kind of traffic.

I am all for agitating for the rights of cyclists, but some among us are still out there doing fundamentally stupid things  (just like car drivers) for which there can be no defence.

 

Your comment is distinguished from the routine, usual, ignorant commentary by a confident, implied assumption that you have anything on which to base your condemnation of the dead woman.  Please, if you are capable of it,  try to disprove and prove your ideas before you implicitly attack someone that died.

 

 

 

 

Too right: @downesdesign - where's the bit about the earphones causing the accident again?

Maybe my reading comprehension isn't as sharp as yours, but all I made out of what I read is a coroner hasn't got a scooby what went on, and some earphones were found.

Avatar
Bikebikebike replied to downesdesign | 7 years ago
4 likes

downesdesign wrote:

Tragic, of course, but this just underscores how foolish it is to be wearing headphones whilst cycling. All senses need to be fully engaged with the immediate environment, which should be bloody obvious to anyone who's ever ridden a bike in any kind of traffic.

I am all for agitating for the rights of cyclists, but some among us are still out there doing fundamentally stupid things  (just like car drivers) for which there can be no defence.

Presumably you ride naked so you can detect the wind and air pressure on your body, and feel the spray of rain, to give you a real sense of road conditions?  You sanctimonious twat. 

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