- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
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.
Latest Comments
- mark1a 11 sec ago
I tried something similar with some timber and a pair of Delta hitches, with limited success, and so for people like myself with minimal (zero)...
- Quiddle 8 hours 28 min ago
In defence of Aldi, my local store posted notices inviting cycle owners to bring their bikes with them whilst shopping after a spate of bike thefts...
- chrisonabike 9 hours 24 min ago
If you haven't been it's recommended! An epicentre of beer diversity - there's probably nothing they haven't tried in the beer from spices to...
- David9694 10 hours 4 min ago
You and a friend have won first prize, a day out at Diddly Squat Farm.
- matthewn5 10 hours 11 min ago
Does not compute! If you ride a lot you're going to be boiling your chain every week or every fortnight.
- AidanR 10 hours 12 min ago
Let's hope it's another 4 years until she tweets again
- Andrewbanshee 10 hours 40 min ago
Tbf where I live 2 way roads look exactly like the one pictured.
- Rendel Harris 10 hours 39 min ago
Unless your formative cycling years were in the '80s and you grew up copying the hand either side of the stem position of greats like Lemond and...
- john_smith 11 hours 37 min ago
You're right--that was the other one. The relevance is that people keep complaining about how damaging the platform is, yet they carry on using it.
Add new comment
94 comments
Short answer - No
Try misquoting this
"Ultimately, if you get knocked off and you don’t have a helmet on, then you can’t argue. You can get killed if you don’t have a helmet on.
"You shouldn’t be riding along with iPods and phones and things on. You have lights on. Once there are laws passed for cyclists then you are protected and you can say, ‘well, I have done everything to be safe."
http://road.cc/content/news/62783-cyclist-killed-olympic-bus-witness-acc...
I'm not sure what 'context' could change the meaning of what he said - he *did* try back-pedalling, but what he SAID was pretty damn clear
Now on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2. Await the 'Road Tax' paying idiots saying how cyclist shouldn't be on the roads.
Spread the word and get calling in.
Bloody hell - didn't take long
From the Evening Standard
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/no-arrests-to-be-made-after-bradley-wi...
As ever, Stumps is being Mr Sensible again and spoiling the mouth-frother's fun.
I have to agree, too much conclusion jumping at this point. We don't know FOR CERTAIN what happened so it's hard to crucify the driver.
The vast majority of drivers don't actively seek to cause cause these things, through errors of judgement or slips of concentration these things occur and there's not much we can do about these things happening (without massive overhaul of driver training) but what we can concentrate on is making sure the post-'accident' process is improved. Assuming fault is not good for anyone as it demonises motorists. Assuming liability (which is different) is great for cyclists as the driver then has to actively prove they weren't responsible or be liable for costs etc.
Vilifying someone for a momentary lapse of judgement is just entrenching the cyclist v motorist view held by many people, accepting that this was an accident (def: An unexpected and undesirable event, especially one resulting in damage or harm) and probably hugely regretable on the part of the driver helps us move past the fact that it happened and onto what can be done to help those involved and stop it happening again.
Hope that this doesn't harm is preparation for next year's Giro.
GWS sir!
This is a good point, but I think at the moment these incidents are too easily waved away as just one of those things. I agree there will always be accidents when humans are behind the wheel, even with much higher driving standards than we seem to have now. But the fact is that people in control of a couple of tons of metal need to look what they're doing, and far too many drivers seem to be totally desensitized to that responsibility.
drheaton, very well put
The slip in concentration though can be brought on by the simplest of things, "what shall i do for tea", "must remember to phone "whovever" when i get in" etc etc. The list is endless and all of these can cause the lapse and ultimately an accident.
Driver training will never remove these however you ARE right though in that driver training needs to be made better. The roads are getting busier all the time and this will only lead to more accidents occuring.
I like the Mr Sensible, thank you
I would argue this is the very core of the problem - drivers of motor vehicles do not always take the responsibility and risks involved seriously enough
The question becomes one of how can they be made to?
Social stigma is one method - as per the successful anti drink-driving campaigns both in the UK & Eire
However I would contend that in the short term only a more forceful application of the law can make a difference by providing a deterrent
Just to clarify - i quoted the Mcr Evening News not to highlight daft drivers but to highlight daft reporting.
I would be very interested to know how many vehicle drivers *have* been injured when they have run a cyclist off the road. That was *my* point.
In other news - i love the reports that Mrs Wiggins turned up and was rather keen to "discuss" the incident with the driver. Mrs Wiggins sounds like a wonderful woman.
This section of road links Parbold (hill) with Standish yes it is mainly strait yes it is fast and in generally good condition but it is a busy section of road with a number of significant junctions including a Hospital and a motorway. In the past I cycled it a lot and early evening would not be a time to do time trial training here and I would think Wiggo was cycling it to get somewhere not per say to train. The potential for a SMIDSY at 6pm is too great as it is an area where a driver is very likely to both underestimate a cyclists speed and be distracted by other road users. I stress this does do exonerate the driver who should have been aware of the presence of another road user especially when they were rejoining the road from the garage.
This part of the UK has some really great cycling terrain mixing exposed flat roads with undulating areas and some short stiff climbs, unfortunately you sometimes have to do sections like this one to get to these areas.
I wish Wiggo a speedy recovery and hope the heavy reporting of this incident encourages drivers to pay greater attention to all road users and pedestrians
Cycle Streets is reporting that they have an accident logged at the same location back in 2007:
http://www.cyclestreets.net/collisions/reports/2007/06l082760/
I think you're wrong there. I don't drive along safely avoiding cyclists because I'm scared of going to prison, I drive safely because it's how you're supposed to drive.
Implementing harsher sentences as a deterent only works where there is a thought process involved such as with shop lifting, assault and other considered crimes. You think about stealing something and a prison sentence may persaude you against it. You don't think about hitting a cyclist so the punishment is really irrelevant when it comes to ways of preventing accidents like these.
I can certainly see your point on that - hence my argument about Social Attitudes being the *correct* way to fix this - but sadly those inevitably take a long time to change
What I struggle to see is any way other than fear of a deterrent making a quick impact
Agreed, this isn't something that can be fixed quickly, driver attitudes and ability need to be improved over a couple of decades (yes, decades) before we'll see significant change. Implementing a tougher, or more comprehensive, driving test now would start the change but would only kick in once there were enough people on the roads who'd taken it.
I might also suggest (to the ire of many motorists) having to take refresher courses every 10-20 years after passing your test to re-learn all the things you forget. This would improve the standard of driving across the age range and allow instructors to teach older drivers as well as the young rather than relying on the slow trickle effect of 18yr olds improving the overall quality of drivers over time. I wouldn't go as far as forcing people to re-take their test every few years but having compulsory courses could help.
Likewise, starting to change opinions now and social attitudes would still take years to come into effect but in the long run it's the best option. Knee-jerk reactions might satisfy the public's desire to see something 'done' to fix the problem but short term measures won't solve the problems cyclists face.
My other bug bear is new drivers driving around in big engined cars. In your first year of driving you should be limited to a 1l car, 1.2l cars for years 2 and 3 then 1.4l for those up to 5 years experience. That would reduce a large number of accidents and reduce the severity of many more.
Shane Sutton, head coach of Team GB cycling team is in hospital after an 'incident' on the A6:
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/gbcyclingteam/article/gbr20121108-News-...
Personally, I think periodic retesting would be a great idea. One way to do it would be to make it voluntary, but then incentivise insurance companies to offer lower premiums to those who have taken it. It would quickly become popular. The after a few years of that, look at the data - if it works, make it compulsory.
I don't hold this only as a complaint regarding new drivers - I seriously struggle to understand the need for a vehicle which can achieve 0-60 in less that 7 seconds and has a top speed of over 140 mph where both of those activities would almost always be illegal
I find little more pathetic than middle-aged men who define themselves by the powerful car they drive
Nice suggestion
Excellent idea. When people feel that doing something will save them money they're more inclined to take to it than if they're being forced to.
This, in conjunction with a better driving test, would be a great start.
See? We should be the ones setting policy - robust debate followed by workable suggestions
Hear hear. Most of the comments on here show the cycling community as ignorant and judgemental, all too eager to blame and condemn the van driver despite the fact that no specifics of the accident have been published. I wasn't at the scene so I'm not going to make any assumptions about who was right or wrong, regardless of fame or mode of transport. Sounding off with such biased views is hardly the way we are going to raise the status of cycling.
Don't suppose Brad and family will be feeling like visiting Wrightington Hospital Open Day on Nov 22 but if they do there will be a warm welcome! Get well soon Brad and get back out on the bike!
I can see where you're coming from, but the reports indicate that the car/van was pulling out onto a main road from a garage forecourt, while Wiggins was riding along that main road. Therefore the onus was on the driver to give way, so I don't think it's in anyway unreasonable or biased to assume the driver was at fault.
If the incident had been the other way round, and Wiggins had pulled out into the path of the car, I'm sure the tone of the comments on here would be very different and much more along the lines of "he should have known better than to do that".
The Manchester Evening News article isn't well-written, but:
"A lady had been coming out of the forecourt and she’s hit him and he’s gone flying – knocking the wing mirror off her van.
"She stopped because she realised he was on the floor."
She added: "I think he was on the phone to his wife.
"A gentleman was shouting at the woman driver. The next thing, about eight police cars arrived.
Not sure if she's saying he was on the phone at the time, or called his wife afterwards.
I blame the French. Who's going to be next - Jason Kenny?
Re - my previous post about bad/ biased reporting
The Shane Sutton story carried something similar
"A Greater Manchester Police spokesman added: 'The driver of the Peugeot was not injured.'
Thats a huge relief because the figures regarding cyclists injuring occupants of vehicles are truly shocking.
Why did they let him turn blue?
He's skinnier than me - and people just stand around pointing, "oo it's wiggo?". Put a coat or 3 on him while you wait for the ambulance, at least.
They "let him"? They may not have had much choice in the matter.
Shock can set it regardless of layers and any other precautionary measure you might deem appropriate. Perhaps now is a good time for everyone to read up on the subject:
http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/First-aid/First-aid-campaigns/Road...
And 15 minutes is not a long time to wait for an ambulance with a conscious patient. Not desirable, yes. But not that long.
It's likely that the Ambulance Service may have called back to ask what Brad's state was (apart from livid). Certainly at an accident I witnessed & called in, LAS dispatcher/triage phoned me back in order to prioritise the need for the ambulance. Victim was conscious but with likely broken wrist, no apparent head impact but was possibly woozy from, er, other substances... so after the blood wagon didn't turn up after 30 minutes stuck him in a taxi. Similar temperatures, we were turning blue!
Pages