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news
04 Bradley Wiggins at the TDF 2013 launch © Simon MacMichaelUpdated: Bradley Wiggins in hospital after collision, injuries "not thought to be serious" says Sky
Bradley Wiggins was taken to hospital after being involved in a collision with a van in Wrightington in Lancashire. Lancashire Police later confirmed that the Olympic time trial champion and yellow jersey holder suffered a number of broken ribs and further injuries to his hands and wrist.
The Lancashire Evening Post reports that The incident occurred at 6pm when a white Astra van pulled off a filling station forecourt and collided with the cyclist, although the Sun have the vehicle as a car and say that the woman driver was being questioned by police.
The incident took place about five kilometres south of the village of Eccleston, where the 32-year-old lives with wife Cath and their two children.
In a brief statement issued shortly before 1130pm this evening, Team Sky said: "We can confirm that Bradley Wiggins was involved in a road traffic accident whilst riding his bike near his home in Lancashire on Wednesday evening.
"He is being kept in hospital overnight for observation but the injuries he has sustained are not thought to be serious and he is expected to make a full and speedy recovery.
"We will announce more details in due course."
Earlier, a spokesman for Lancashire Police said: "A cyclist has been involved in a collision with a white Vauxhall Astra car.
"The rider of the bike, a 32-year-old local man, was taken to hospital by ambulance with injuries not thought to be life-threatening. His family have been told."
The attendant at the garage, Yasmin Smith, reportedly said of Wiggins, "He said he thought he had broken his ribs and while a lot of police cars arrived it was about 15 minutes before the ambulance got there by which time he was blue."
Crow Orchard Road filling station is the reported scene of the incident (Google Maps)
The Sun, which notes that Wiggins had recently shaved off the 'lucky' sideburns he sported on his way to Tour and Olympic glory, aid that he was being followed by a support vehicle when the incident happened, and quoted a source as saying: Wiggo was on a ride followed by his support team.
He was sent flying by the impact and his pals raced to his aid. A source said: “They were following him in a van and they helped him out after the crash. We think he’s going to be fine, but I don’t know how quickly he’ll be back on his bike. His family have been told.”
A lorry driver, Barry Blacklidge, aged 46, who arrived at the scene immediately after the incident, told the Sun: “There were about four police cars there. All the roads were coned off.
“I could see a pushbike, like a mountain bike, and the front wheel was all buckled. I went into the garage and asked what was going on.
"She said ‘Bradley Wiggins has just been knocked off his bike’. The ambulance turned up and they treated him for a while.
“He was up and walking around, but apparently he wasn’t too good. Drivers were stuck in the service station as the emergency vehicles blocked the exits.”
He continued: “I couldn’t get out of the service station in my truck because there were that many police vehicles there. I had to wait until they had moved. The police were examining his bike.”
Wiggins found himelf at the centre of a controversy over road safety during the Olympic Games when he suggested at a press conference that cyclists had a responsibility to wear a helmet.
He made his comments after being put on the spot with a question related to the death of 28-year-old Dan Harris from Wanstead, who was struck by a bus ferrying media between London 2012 venues immediately outside the Olympic Park.
He later took to Twitter to clarify his comments, saying that he had not been calling for helmets to be made compulsory.
Three years ago, Wiggins' wife Cath, who is herself an age group national champion on the track, vowed to stay off the road bike after being hit by a car while out riding.
A separate incident today in Leyland, less than 10 kilometres from Wiggins' home and 15 kilometres from where he was hit, left an male cyclist aged in his 80s seriously injured whe he was hit by a Citroen car on a roundabout at around 2pm. Lancashire Police have issued an appeal for information, with further details on their website.
Responding to news of Olympic cyclist Bradley Wiggins’ road incident last night, Sustrans Policy Advisor Joe Williams said:
"This collision shines a light on the increasing number of cyclists being killed or serious injured on Britain’s roads.
“Making cycling safer for everyone would cut congestion and pollution and help us to lead healthy lives. The government must create more safe space for cycling on and off roads and look at changing the law to follow the lead of many European neighbours, where a driver is also presumed at fault in a collision with a cyclist.
“We wish Wiggo a speedy recovery and a quick return to cycling.”
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
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94 comments
Doesn't stop collisions but wearing a camera on your helmet means hard evidence against careless drivers and a more realistic chance of claiming back some money for the mangled metal that used to be your pride and joy ...... if you survive
If drivers were as easily injured in collisions as cyclists, there'd be a lot fewer collisions. The 70% caused by drivers may not even happen.
And I quote:
"The incident occurred at 6pm when a white Astra van pulled off a filling station forecourt and collided with the cyclist"
Classic SMIDSY.
And if drivers were hurt when they drove into cyclists, they'd drive into fewer cyclists.
...I was going to say that maybe Lancashire Evening Post is better than most local newspapers in this regard, but it appears not...
http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/man-due-in-court-over-tragic-cyclist-acc...
http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/cyclist-killed-in-accident-1-4241802
http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/cyclist-rushed-to-hospital-after-acciden...
proves it can happen to any of us of course. I just hope he can use his status to do change something, anything to make it safer for us all ....
Should never have shaved them bad boy burners off...thats what this is really about...
A driver pulled off a garage forecourt and hit a cyclist. You don't need any more information that that to know the driver was at fault. Either they pulled out purposefully, which I doubt, or they were careless and didn't look properly before pulling out.
When it's cyclists' lives at risks and drivers walk away with just a dent in their bonnet "driver-bashing" is perfectly reasonable. Not all drivers are morons but this one certainly was and there are plenty more guilty of SMIDSY out there. Until these sorts of things are treated less as an innocent mistake and more as recklessly endangering the lives of others then nothing will change.
Looking at the location I suspect it won't be long before someone blames him for cycling on a dual carriageway and pushes for cyclists to be banned from them. I'd agree that cyclists shouldn't be on roads like that but the solution is less stick and more carrot. If there were good quality, segregated cycle routes running alongside, there'd never be any need for cyclists to ride on dual carriageways!
Note that no arrest has been made. Another one getting away scot-free.
I would have thought a wide, straight road was an ideal training ground for one of the world's greatest time-triallists.
And not only do you have a right to cycle on any road except a motorway, when I commuted to work, there were parts of the route where the dual carriageway was the only road available.
If Bradley was being followed by a support car as reported the van pulling out, even if not seeing the bike, must have been taking a chance to get out in front of the support car.
Trust he gets well soon
In other commuter related news just seen this:
http://www.magnatom.net/2012/11/giving-up-cycling.html
I read in one report that he was on a mountain bike, heading to meet up with others. [see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/nov/07/bradley-wiggins-hospital-acc... ]
As bad as this sounds, this is the best thing that could have happened, especially if its shown that the driver didnt look.
I really dont want the driver to face unduly harsh punishment just because its Bradley Wiggins as other drivers that have committed worse crimes have received lenient punishment, if any at all.
What needs to come from this is the groundswell that people say 'enough is enough' and actually do something about how car-centric our society is, not just more empty platitudes from guff filled politicians (especially the scraggy haired kind).
Unfortunately, it took a series of child deaths on Dutch roads before the will was there for real changes to take place.
I feel that after the weekend, this will be forgotten and it will be business as usual on Monday.
Get well soon Bradley!
Driving bashing? Are you having a laugh? Is that part of 'the war on motorists'? I drive and I cycle. No, not every driver is a moron. Drivers who pull out from garages and knock people off their bikes are morons.
Glee? Anger and frustration perhaps but not glee.
"It's getting a bit boring now, all the same anti-driving comments following every story of accident involving vehicles and cycles."
The comments are not anti-driving, they're anti dangerous/ careless/ selfish driving. If it's getting boring then push off to the Daily Mail comments pages.
So you're saying not every cyclist is a saint and you'd be surprised if Wiggins was cycling like a moron. Great, thanks for adding that to the discussion. What can we take from that?
Did anyone hear the R2 news at 7am, bearing in mind BW was supposed to be on the show, Moira Stewart said "the cyclist was in collision with a car" or words to that effect.
Probably not how i would phrase it to BW!!!
P.S. Did he go on the show? I was in the pool after that and my radio doesn't work so well in water!
+ 1 for that;
I got knocked off my bike last month (t-boned a car that pulled across traffic without looking); driver was ok until I mentioned insurance, when he turned round and said 'Sure you're not insured on your bike'.
It turned out it wasn't his car, had to phone police to get insurance details, and luckily, a local shop had caught it on camera. Insurance claim sorted, but absolutely no remorse from the driver. We exchanged phone numbers, but not even a 'are you alright' text.
This has started a right ding-dong in the office. I've just gotten a bit worked up having run the whole gamut of it probably being Wiggo's fault, "I pay road tax", "damn cyclists riding two abreast", you name it. A 4x4 driver even told me that we should ride single file because then there was room for him to overtake us aginst oncoming traffic. I have pointed out that this is *precisely* why we ride two abreast, so that a 'proper' overtake is necessary. I wouldn't mind but he rides a mountain bike and a motorbike as well.
massive spike in the steering wheel of all cars...I can guarantee that'll reduce accidents of all kinds.
GWS mr wiggest
Sometimes it takes something of a high profile to get things to actually change. Too much apathy otherwise. Drink driving used to be perfectly acceptable, nowadays most people would consider it abhorrent.
Not caring about cyclists IS seen as acceptable, that needs to change. And maybe it takes Brad Wiggins getting run over for people to take notice. Thank god he's okay a few years ago a young up and coming cyclist was killed in similar circumstances not a million miles away from there, it seems maybe things haven't changes much since then.
If a pro like Wiggins with a support car can't stay safe then there is just no hope for cyclists out there. Presumed liability needs to come into effect and I am certain motorists will think twice about the way they drive especially around cyclists although I like mrchrispy's idea, remove airbag and all other safety features and replace with ones that can also give drivers lasting injuries.
It's always the drivers fault ?
Well no actually it isnt always their fault and until people realise this then the forum will be full of "stick a spike in the steering wheel" and "remove all safety features" comments which serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever and make as just as bad as the bad drivers out there.
Accidents happen and careless driving which is a "momentary lapse of concentration" will continue to happen. No-one can say they have never been in this situation before, even the safest of drivers and cyclists.
Untill the facts are announced by either Wiggins / Sky or the Police no-one will know what exactly happened.
I wonder if the first thing they asked *him* was whether he was wearing his helmet!
Given his ill-advised and insensitive comments on the subject after a cyclist died during the Olympic Games I'd be horrified if his helmet hadn't protected him as a 4 ton van tried to go through him
I suppose it is lucky for the driver that they hit someone who has the money to pay for the damage to their van. No doubt there will be a hard luck story interview with the driver over the coming days about how they are now frightened to drive which is affecting their livelihood or walk down the street for fear of reprisals.
Roads and cars are designed so that people can drive like tw@ts and survive while mowing down pedestrians and cyclists.
It is when the driver drives into the road without first checking properly that there's no other vehicle approaching.
Wasn't he massively misquoted? I could be wrong but I thought he was actually talking about protection in terms of protection from the law in the event of an accident e.g. assuming the driver was at fault, but someone took it to mean the law should require cyclist to use protection i.e. helmets and the media ran with it?
Anyone catch BBC Breakfast this morning where the sports reporter (whose name I cannot remember) claimed that Wiggo was pro helmet compulsion laws?
Now, is it me, or did he not specifically clarify his comment to say that he did NOT support complusion?
And what on EARTH do helmets have to do with an accident involving broken ribs?
Well, if drivers were more likely to be injured in such cases they wouldn't risk-compensate so furiously and might pay a bit more attention. The old "curare-tipped spike in the middle of the steering wheel" principle. Obviously no mileage in wishing injury on her once the crash has happened though.
This is a good point, and while it might sound a bit trivial it's a bit like the continued use of 'road tax'- this sort of language constantly implies or props up an idea or perception, in this case that drivers aren't to be thought of as responsible for things that happen with their vehicles.
I suppose some of it is to do with trying to report the facts neutrally when what happened isn't clear, but it often seems to suggest that cyclists have just driven into a car while the poor old driver sat there inside, helpless and frightened.
It's quite clear who was at fault in this situation. He obviously wasn't wearing the high-vis jersey or reflective pendant he won in those cycling competitions over the summer, so what does he expect to happen
Is there nothing this man won't do to raise the profile of cycling issues? He's a hero!
Hoski - YES! I actually shouted "NO HE ISN'T!" at the TV when the silly mare said that!
I too hope that Wiggo recovers quickly and focuses his post-crash emotions that we're all too familiar with into galvanising a real cultural movement (maybe along side the Times' campaign) that is long, long overdue in this country.
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