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Reading cyclist dies following collision with pedestrian

Police appeal for witnesses

A cyclist involved in a collision with a pedestrian in Earley earlier this week has died from his injuries. Police are appealing for witnesses to the incident, which took place at the Three Tuns crossroads on Monday, March 20 at around 7.30pm.

The 29-year-old cyclist turned onto Church Road from Wokingham Road at the same time as a pedestrian was crossing the road.

Following a collision, the pedestrian was taken to hospital with minor injuries, while the cyclist was airlifted to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford with serious head injuries. Get Reading reports that he died there on Wednesday, March 22.

A bystander who spoke with police at the scene said: "A cyclist with no helmet came around the corner at high speed and hit a pedestrian who was crossing the road."

Investigating officer PC Wayne Reece of the joint operations unit for roads policing said: "This incident has very sadly resulted in a man losing his life and I am appealing for information from anyone who saw this happen or who has any information relating to it.

"If anyone has any details which they think could help our investigation, please call the Thames Valley Police non-emergency number on 101."

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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22 comments

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alansmurphy | 6 years ago
0 likes

So every fatality involving a car is the fault of the driver?

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Miller | 6 years ago
2 likes

I live close to this junction. As a pedestrian, crossing Church Road outside the Co-op is a nervous business. As noted, there is no pedestrian crossing here, although many pedestrians do cross here, and you have to watch traffic from multiple directions and take your chance when it comes.

The cyclist was extremely unlucky. Quite some parallels with the Charlie Alliston case here. What an absolute travesty of justice that has been. Wtf is wrong with this country, public life seems so stupid now.

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HLaB replied to Miller | 6 years ago
0 likes

Miller wrote:

The cyclist was extremely unlucky. Quite some parallels with the Charlie Alliston case here. What an absolute travesty of justice that has been. Wtf is wrong with this country, public life seems so stupid now.

Jst what I was thinking  2

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dottigirl | 6 years ago
5 likes

"Helmet would not have saved life of cyclist who died after colliding with a pedestrian in Earley"

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/helmet-would-not...

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CygnusX1 replied to dottigirl | 6 years ago
3 likes
dottigirl wrote:

"Helmet would not have saved life of cyclist who died after colliding with a pedestrian in Earley"

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/helmet-would-not...

Thanks for posting an update on this, Dotti. Depressing to see similar language "ploughed into" as in the Charlie Anniston case.

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brooksby | 6 years ago
2 likes

So what are the figures for "pedestrians KSIs by cyclists" and "cyclists KSIs by pedestrians"? Remember, now, cyclists are an eeevil menace which need to be controlled.

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EddyBerckx | 6 years ago
7 likes

It annoys me when they describe cyclists as 'going too fast'.

 

Another way of putting it is they were traveling at half the speed of the average car (or much less) but that doesn't apportion blame as well. Not saying anyone was or wasn't at fault here, it's just a terrible shame that someone has died. RIP

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JeevesBath replied to EddyBerckx | 6 years ago
0 likes

StoopidUserName wrote:

It annoys me when they describe cyclists as 'going too fast'.

 

Another way of putting it is they were traveling at half the speed of the average car (or much less) but that doesn't apportion blame as well.

It doesn't matter what the actual speed was, if he was unable to stop in time because he didn't have a clear view of the road ahead he was going 'too fast'.

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RedfishUK | 6 years ago
1 like

According to the report the accident happended between Parkers and the CoOp in the picture above,

And the cyclist would have been coming from the dual carraige way  around the traffic island.

On streetview it doen't look like there are crossing lights on the traffic lights on Church road, but the traffic lights for traffic would have been red.

Assuming the cyclist was given a green light or filter light, they would have expected the road to be clear

Seems like a badly designed junction

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LastBoyScout replied to RedfishUK | 6 years ago
1 like

RedfishUK wrote:

According to the report the accident happended between Parkers and the CoOp in the picture above,

And the cyclist would have been coming from the dual carraige way  around the traffic island.

On streetview it doen't look like there are crossing lights on the traffic lights on Church road, but the traffic lights for traffic would have been red.

Assuming the cyclist was given a green light or filter light, they would have expected the road to be clear

Seems like a badly designed junction

I've yet to see anything that says whether the cyclist had turned left or right into Church Road - both are possible.

There aren't any crossing lights on Church Road.

I've been going through that junction or way or another for years and it hasn't changed much.

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dottigirl replied to LastBoyScout | 6 years ago
4 likes

LastBoyScout wrote:

There aren't any crossing lights on Church Road.

As we discussed in the earlier thread ( http://road.cc/content/news/219639-cyclist-life-threatening-condition-fo... for those who missed it), this appears to be the crux of it.

If he were coming from either way, if you have a green light, you wouldn't reasonably expect pedestrians to be just there - you'd think they had a crossing.

And on Street View, you can see them crossing. Look at the woman in the middle of the road here, about to step into the path of a car:

https://goo.gl/maps/Gp3BhnYUScz

 

That one image sums it up. It's a stupidly flawed road layout which leaves all road users vulnerable. 

 

This one has really upset me. Something like this could happen to any of us here, to anyone. RIP to the lad.  2

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Internet Pawn replied to dottigirl | 6 years ago
0 likes

dottigirl]</p>

<p>[quote=LastBoyScout wrote:

And on Street View, you can see them crossing. Look at the woman in the middle of the road here, about to step into the path of a car:

https://goo.gl/maps/Gp3BhnYUScz

Look at the car, failing to yield to the pedestrian who has priority.  [Highway Code: 170]

 

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LastBoyScout replied to Internet Pawn | 6 years ago
1 like

Internet Pawn]</p>

<p>[quote=dottigirl wrote:

LastBoyScout wrote:

And on Street View, you can see them crossing. Look at the woman in the middle of the road here, about to step into the path of a car:

https://goo.gl/maps/Gp3BhnYUScz

Look at the car, failing to yield to the pedestrian who has priority.  [Highway Code: 170]

Regardless of who had the priority, it was unwise of the pedestrian to have started crossing when the cars were already moving, although it's hard to tell exactly which point of the phasing the lights are at and whether she thought she was crossing between phases.

Those lights have slightly odd phasing - Wilderness Road and Church Road both go green at the same time, but Church Road turns red before Wilderness road to allow right turn from Wilderness Road (there's a greed right turn arrow on the lights). Once Wilderness Road turns red, the Westbound Wokingham Road lights (coming from the left in that pic) turn green. There are 2 lanes at the lights and many people turn right without bothering to indicate, so maybe she got caught out starting to cross.

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Beatnik69 replied to Internet Pawn | 6 years ago
0 likes

Internet Pawn]</p>

<p>[quote=dottigirl wrote:

LastBoyScout wrote:

And on Street View, you can see them crossing. Look at the woman in the middle of the road here, about to step into the path of a car:

https://goo.gl/maps/Gp3BhnYUScz

Look at the car, failing to yield to the pedestrian who has priority.  [Highway Code: 170]

 

How do you know that the driver hasn't stopped?

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Internet Pawn replied to Beatnik69 | 6 years ago
0 likes

Beatnik69 wrote:

How do you know that the driver hasn't stopped?

True.  It's also possible that the car was going straight across, in which case the car would have had priority.

LastBoyScout wrote:

Regardless of who had the priority, it was unwise of the pedestrian to have started crossing when the cars were already moving, although it's hard to tell exactly which point of the phasing the lights are at and whether she thought she was crossing between phases.

Agreed, it may have been unwise, because we can't rely on drivers to observe the Highway Code.  But criticising the pedestrian here in this way is a lot like blaming cyclists for all left hooks.  They shouldn't, after all, expect drivers to drive responsibly in accordance with the rules.

 

 

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ktache | 6 years ago
2 likes

My sympathies to the family and friends of the cyclist.

I worked at the uni for many years, occasionally used this junction to get towards Wokingham.  It is not a nice junction.  As with most light controlled junctions in Reading, you have to give it some as chances are you have some inpatient arse right up yours.

Wholeheartedly agree with P3t3.

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tritecommentbot | 6 years ago
1 like

Two things:

 

1. If he was going round a junction corner, how quickly could he realistically have been going?

2. There are pedestrian crossings on two of the 4 sides, and a clear line of sight on the corner that faces Parkers. Lets say the ped is crossing the road and going straight to Parkers. They'd have had to look right, then doddle slowly across for a cyclist to come round that corner and go left and run into them. 

 

Just trying to imagine a scenario where a pedestrian would be on the road in a compromising situation. Don't actually know which corner he went round.

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P3t3 | 6 years ago
6 likes

Sad news.  

 

I know that junction, there is clearly more to the story that we have heard here, its not worth speculating what happened.  I hope the investigation gets to the bottom of what happend.  

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Jimmy Ray Will | 6 years ago
5 likes

At least it was his own fault... One less lout to worry about when driving my chelsea tractor about town on a sunday morning...

etc. etc. etc.

Please feel free to add your own offensive, motoring centric comment below.

 

 

My deepest sympathy for the family and friends of the deceased. 

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hsiaolc | 6 years ago
2 likes

To die from just hitting someone you either must be run over buy traffic or you suffered some serious head injury.  

I would think that not wearing helmet is his downfall.  Same as the lady that died this year from falling off from her bike riding home drunk and suffered head injuries that caused her life.  

Sad. 

 

 

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Christopher TR1 | 6 years ago
0 likes

Nice how they mention that the cyclist had no helmet on and was going at "high speed". Another witness might have seen it totally differently: Pedestrian steps out in front of cyclist.

Very sad.

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ts437 replied to Christopher TR1 | 6 years ago
4 likes

Christopher TR1 wrote:

Nice how they mention that the cyclist had no helmet on and was going at "high speed". Another witness might have seen it totally differently: Pedestrian steps out in front of cyclist.

Very sad.

 

You literally have no idea if that's the case. Maybe the pedestrian was already in the road quite properly, and the cyclist came round too fast? Again, you don't know, so i'd say it's unwise to make the assertions that you do above.

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