The deputy leader of Brighton & Hove City Council was left-hooked by the driver of a white van as she rode on a segregated bike lane on Old Shoreham Road in Hove.
Green Party politician Hannah Clare said she fell on her side as a result of the incident which happened at around 10.30 yesterday morning by a Shell petrol station (pictured above), reports The Argus.
She said: “I am still alive after a white van driver decided that a cycle lane was actually a white van man lane and I am a silly cyclist who didn’t realise that.
“The car turned into the lane going into the petrol station and hit me – I fell on my side, but did not fall to the floor.
“They did not shout to see if I was OK,” she added.
“However, another driver did when I reached the traffic lights.”
Councillor Clare wasn’t the only local politician to have encountered an aggressive motorist while out on a bike ride this week.
On Tuesday, we reported how Labour councillor Jo Rigby, who has consistently called on Tory-controlled Wandsworth Council, said she was “done with cycling” after she was driven at by a motorist near Wandsworth Common railway station and had a drink thrown at her.
It’s the second time I’ve had aggression on this road. It runs off Ravenslea and is used to avoid the traffic lights. So drivers get particularly annoyed at having another car or cyclist coming the other way. It’s where the car ended up on its roof on NYE.
— Jo Rigby (@Jo_Earlsfield) January 19, 2021
28 thoughts on “Council deputy leader left-hooked by white van man – while riding in emergency cycle lane”
“Am I really the first
“Am I really the first commenter in this thread to ask if she was wearing hi-vis? I don’t wear a helmet either, but always put a hi-vis vest on. On Brighton’s roads I’d rather look a tw4t than not be seen at all for precisely this reason.”
Argus comments (of which most have been deleted !)
Cue flaming replies in 5..4.
Cue flaming replies in 5..4..3..2..1.
Was the van driver wearing
Was the van driver wearing glasses?
Van driver or car driver? Who
Van driver or car driver? Who knows?
Another one that made me laff
Another one that made me laff:-
Them bastard invisible cyclists who only turn visible to be disrespectful to a funeral cortege.
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
OSR cult cyclist – wtf’s that?
One Sided Rule
One Sided Rule
Oh Shit Run
Old School Rules
(I think they mean Old Shoreham Road – maybe the cult is naked photography and semi naked sunbathing)
Captain Badger wrote:
The first few pages of google results are all D&D campaigns…
brooksby wrote:
Just don’t look too closely
Just don’t look too closely at the fork…..
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
one more of the acceptable reasons to slow traffic down, unlike avoiding the risk of turning living cyclists into dead ones.
hirsute wrote:
Where n earth do these people get their ideas? Drivers apparently aren’t able to see normal people, they can only see tw4ts…..
hirsute wrote:
Daily Mail comment, “This is what happens when you introduce cycle scheme without consultation” – ‘cos if the van driver had been consulted he would have obeyed the Highway Code?
I don’t wear a helmet either
I don’t wear a helmet either
I hesitate to start this one again, but this stance is incomprehensible to at least some of us. Despite being aware of the risk, and taking care, I went down hard on my right side due to ice up on Beacon Fell, Lancashire, on Christmas Eve. Straight down onto hip and shoulder, which must have taken almost all the hit, but I must have bashed my head a bit because the first thing I remember afterwards was saying to someone who must have come up to me: I’ll just walk down this bit. I don’t remember actually getting up- that’s Traumatic Brain Injury. Other injuries pretty painful, and it took me over 3 weeks to recover fully.
wtjs wrote:
It’s not their fault that you don’t comprehend something.
Or mine, that you don’t.
Or mine, that you don’t.
wtjs wrote:
Nonsense.
People don’t remember all sorts mundane and immemorable tasks.
I’ve had two TBIs from cars colliding with me. The latter I was totally unconscious for a while. I remember getting up very clearly and the immediate aftermath of both clear as day.
Not remembering something doesn’t mean you’ve suffered a brain injury.
I’ve had two TBIs from cars
I’ve had two TBIs from cars colliding with me.
Unfortunately, it appears they have affected your critical faculties and your insight. It’s your ‘nonsense’, sadly, that is nonsense. In the bad old days of crappy Bond books, and other tripe fiction, people would be hit over the head, be unconscious for a while and then get back into action saying it ‘was only a bit of concussion’. Now we know better- bashes to the brain don’t do it any good; people don’t lose consciousness or fail to remember things immediately after heading footballs, but do it a lot and trouble is heading your way. There are degrees of TBI. Wise people take reasonable steps to reduce their chances.
ChrisB200SX wrote:
…….., but I must have bashed my head a bit because the first thing I remember afterwards was saying to someone who must have come up to me: I’ll just walk down this bit. I don’t remember actually getting up- — ChrisB200SX
Nonsense. …..— wtjs
Not sure what the nonsense here is, sounds like pretty textbook concussion, which is about all I’d expect a helmet to protect me from, maybe also a grazed ear.
[/quote] Nonsense. People don
[/quote] Nonsense. People don’t remember all sorts mundane and immemorable tasks. I’ve had two TBIs from cars colliding with me. The latter I was totally unconscious for a while. I remember getting up very clearly and the immediate aftermath of both clear as day. Not remembering something doesn’t mean you’ve suffered a brain injury.[/quote]
Somewhat solipsistic, just because it’s your experience doesn’t mean it’s everybody’s. I was knocked out in a rugby game once and the next thing I remember was being in an ambulance; subsequent enquiry revealed I got up almost straight away, insisted I was OK, played the last twenty minutes and then keeled over in the changing room. Can’t remember a thing about it.
If you are of the opinion
If you are of the opinion that your brain would not have been affected by your skull hitting the ground unprotected, rather than this helmet taking the hit, you may be more right than you think.
wtjs wrote:
Are you sure you ever recovered?
I mean, by your own admission you can’t comprehend a very simple personal choice that someone has made.
It appears that you could still be suffering that brain injury you seem to have self-diagnosed.
It appears that you could
It appears that you could still be suffering that brain injury you seem to have self-diagnosed.
You mean the one you say I didn’t have?
wtjs wrote:
This particular rider wasn’t mountainbiking, and didn’t fall off. They were hit and knocked off by an inattentive driver. This could also happen to pedestrians – in fact extrapolating from casualty figures many more people get hit when walking than riding. And of course, many more people still are injured in cars.
Any rational view of wearing lids would review the environment in association with the activity, and therefore if you are engaging any activity around cars, you “should” wear a lid.
Personally I always do wear a lid whilst riding – even when riding up and down my drive to check brakes/gears, but that’s merely habit, and I’m not about to pretend that I’m always taking a rational/moral/considered decision in doing so.
Last of all, my understanding is that lids do not provide protection against concussive brain injury. I’m not going to plant my flag on this per se, but this might be worth a read
Quote:
“The car turned into the lane going into the petrol station and hit me – I fell on my side, but did not fall to the floor.
I’m confused. Was the white van driver driving a car, or what? And she fell on her side but her side (apparently) didn’t hit the floor?
Strange.
FrankH wrote:
I was hit from behind when sitting on my motorcycle at a red light by a driver whose explanation was “I thought the light was going to turn green” (!) – I went down on my left knee and hip but managed to get the bike back up without sprawling across the road, didn’t make it any less scary.
The incident happned in Hove,
The incident happned in Hove, which is not in West Sussex. There are 2 separate cycle schemes on the same road (which do not join up!). The West Sussex section is being scrapped for no good reason.
No plans to scrap the section which is in Brighton & Hove, as far as I am aware.
Apologies for this, story
Apologies for this, story amended.