A collision in Mallorca has left six cyclists in hospital, three with serious injuries, after an elderly driver hit the German Cycling national track team yesterday morning.
Local newspaper Crónica Balear reported seven people were injured in the collision involving an 89-year-old driver on the Camí de Can Capó in Palma on Monday morning at around 10.20am local time.
A statement from German Cycling later confirmed their riders were involved, the federation corroborating reports that some of the group had suffered “serious” injuries, but none were life-threatening.
The national team, preparing for the European Track Championships next month in Belgium, included 2024 world championships medallists Benjamin Boos and Bruno Kessler. They were hit after just 2.7km of their training ride, national coach Lucas Schädlich witnessing the collision from a support car.
“As the direct medical care on site and the subsequent treatment in the surrounding hospitals showed, some of the athletes were seriously injured, but fortunately none were life-threateningly injured,” German Cycling said.
“Those affected were Benjamin Boos, Tobias Buck-Gramcko, Bruno Kessler (all REMBE rad-net), Max-David Briese, Moritz Augenstein (RSC Ellmendingen) and Louis Gentzik (SSV Gera).”
[Images: IB3]
While six were taken to two hospitals, Rotger Clinic and Palmapanas Hospital, the group’s bikes were “completely destroyed by the impact”; images published by the news website and publicly funded TV channel IB3 showing the damage left at the scene as numerous paramedics and emergency service personnel worked around several bikes scattered on the roadside.
Un cotxe atropella un pilot de ciclistes al camí de Can Capó, a Palma. Hi ha 7 ferits, i almanco 2 d’ells en estat greu.
El conductor del cotxe ha donat negatiu en la prova d’alcoholèmia.
➡️ Més: https://t.co/TtDELuSvlc pic.twitter.com/PewFxYHgYD
— IB3 Notícies (@IB3noticies) January 27, 2025
The Guardia Civil attended along with a number of ambulances, the traffic department now investigating the collision. It has been reported the driver of the vehicle, a white Citroën, was unharmed and tested negative for alcohol.
The president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, reacted to a video of the scene, posting on social media: “I wish a speedy recovery to all of them and all the warmth to their families in these difficult times.”
Last year a driver who hit nine cyclists in Mallorca, killing one, was jailed for three years. Anais Marco was sentenced for manslaughter having smashed into a group ride of German cyclists back in 2018, killing one and injuring eight.
The latest major collision on Mallorcan roads comes just weeks after new laws were introduced at the start of 2025, requiring drivers in Spain to slow 20km/h below speed limit before overtaking bike riders.
The Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) stated this is because “the speed difference between the two is already large, so the protection of the weaker forces the speed to be reduced and not increased”. There was no change to the existing requirement for drivers give cyclists at least 1.5m of space when overtaking.
The changes to the law came after 90 cyclist deaths in Spain in 2023, a figure that had increased on 2022’s number. The DGT hopes the new measures will improve road safety and better protect cyclists, the authority urging coexistence and mutual respect.
17 thoughts on “German track cycling team hit by driver in major Mallorca collision, three riders seriously injured”
This is terrible news. I hope
This is terrible news. I hope they all recover well.
More
More
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jan/27/germanys-world-track-cyclists-suffer-multiple-fractures-after-being-hit-by-car
This 89 year old driver… it
This 89 year old driver… it goes without saying he/she should never be behind the wheel ever again. But surely it isn’t enough. A compulsory sign on their tombstone about what they did? A road sign calling out their crime at the site? 20 hours a week of community service?
I remember driving through
I remember driving through rural France many years ago and as the road entered a village or town (not all, but some) there was cut out of a child attached to a sign with their first name and words to the effect ‘tué par excès de vitesse’. Killed by speeding. It was quite effective especially when there were two or more cut outs.
89. Eighty nine years old and
89. Eighty nine years old and still allowed behind the wheel of a multi tonne weapon. Absolutely mad. Then again, geriatrics are allowed to make decisions that affect billions of people so what is a number eh.
Whats the betting that even a basic competency test every few years after the age of 70 would remove a large number of dangerous older drivers?
mctrials23 wrote:
That reminds to me to try and find that recent ITV documentary that was on the other evening on that very subject. I presume it’ll be on ITVX?
The ‘driver’ that changed my
The ‘driver’ that changed my life forever was 80.
mctrials23 wrote:
I’d start even younger… (I actually think driving licences should need renewed after a period, whatever age).
However the numbers indicate that the greatest benefit would be in addressing the young folks. (Elderly folks have a high KSI rate but currently lower absolute KSI numbers as they’re covering less distance, I believe). Graduated driving licences – can we get on with this please, government? (They just found time to update the cycling offenses…)
Completely agree. Every 5-10
Completely agree. Every 5-10 years wouldn’t be out of the question IMO. What I found quite funny recently was Americans acting all superior and shocked that we don’t have to renew our licenses in Europe for the most part. As far as I understand it, thats basically a pointless check in the US, their tests and driving tests are comically easy and their don’t have anything like an MOT so their cars are not only far more dangerous than most of ours in every way but there is no check on emissions etc. America and their superiority complex that baffles everyone else eh.
I tend to agree that regular
I tend to agree that regular re-tests is a good idea, although AIUI it’s already very hard to get a test, and so there would need to be massive increase in testing capacity (there are currently over 40 million licence holders in the UK. Even if we only retested every 10 years, that’s an average of >4 million tests per year. Currently <2 million tests per year are carried out, so we would need to more than triple the test capacity).
I would also note that there's a distinction between young people choosing to drive dangerously but being perfectly capable of driving safely in a test, and old people who's frailty means they are incapable of driving safely. More testing might weed out the latter but have relatively little impact on the former. Especially when you consider that the highest risk tends to be people within a few years of first passing, so unlikely to be due a retest anyway (the Gov summary uses the 17-24 age class so that's a maximum of 7 years since first passing).
Graduated driving licences seems like a very good option from a safety perspective, although (assuming the sort of restriction you have in mind is not being able to carry other young people as passengers) then do need to make sure this doesn't just lead to more singularly occupied cars on the road.
I think that’s fair. Just
I think that’s fair. Just noting that as you’ve written that you can see that it’s incredibly hard to get away from any narrative of “we need at least the capacity for cars (tests, vehicles) we have now plus…”
Change has to be possible – again this has been done in other countries (and not just NL or “Copenhagen”).
At some point in the discussion has to address the fact that making things “better” in any dimension is going to be very hard to do if not impossible without reducing our capacity for driving / parking (or numbers who can) or spending large sums of money. Actually – both – but the “reducing driving” is a necessity.
Just don’t see how that can get to be a mainstream notion right now (even if “mainstream and very unpopular”). Currently the idea that we should choose “pain and cost for drivers” seems to be pretty much unsayable. And we’re at the point where it’s hard to lure people positively with a convincing vision of that “better” – we’re so far away. Yet this is the point where we need maximum motivation!
As for “money” – we already know we’re essentially pouring money into holes in the ground (e.g. pot holes) trying to maintain and cope with “natural” growth in existing driving. (Never mind the induced demand we’ll get if/when we do). But to e.g. “make driving safer” – that’s lots of examiners, LOTS on the police, tech (who knows). Or – to provide alternatives – TONS on public transport … and maybe even some for active travel. The latter is apparently both something that we should only ever expect to spend pennies in the transport tenner on, AND something we can’t afford!
I’ve actually found (from
I’ve actually found (from talking to TVP in the past) that the police are actually quite sympathetic towards older drivers. I get it. There are few other options, in the villages around here, other than to drive, but it can’t trump road safety
I had an incident recently with an elderly lady that could barely see over her stearing wheel. https://youtu.be/8PdOt0lj5LU (terrible quality I’m afraid). Northants Police have advised that they will be sent on the course. I’d like to think that the course might also review fitness to drive but I somehow doubt it.
The problem with so many of
The problem with so many of our rules and laws is that they take the view that we can’t take away peoples freedom. You 100% can when their freedom is potentially at the expense of someone elses life. Your right to drive doesn’t trump my right not to be knocked off my bike because you are dangerous and that applies to every age of driver.
Your right to drive doesn’t
Your right to drive doesn’t trump my right not to be knocked off my bike
It does here, and in Gloucestershire (at least). Close passing doesn’t exist as an offence in Lancashire and all such reports are now binned. Bungle has shown us that Gloucestershire will do nothing but send out the joke advice letter no matter how close, how large the vehicle or how fast the driver passed you.
“89. Eighty nine years old
“89. Eighty nine years old and still allowed behind the wheel of a multi tonne weapon. Absolutely mad.”
How about the all the younger appauling drivers on the road? My father is about to turn 89 and is a safe and perfectly competent driver. It’s the driver’s competency and their abiltiy, not their age.
From the following webpage: https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/your-council-and-elections/statistics/population-statistics
Milton Keynes had a younger age profile than England as a whole. 27.4% of the Milton Keynes population were aged 19 and under compared with 23.7% in England.
59.5% of the Milton Keynes population were aged 16-64 compared with 58.4% in England as a whole.
I live in Milton Keynes and it has one of the the highest car insurance rates in the country. I think you’ll find it’s not the older drivers that push this up!
But there is always the hope
But there is always the hope that the inexperienced younger drivers might become more experienced drivers.
Per my other comment – the
Per my other comment – the link here suggests elderly folks have a high KSI rate per distance driven – the over-86s are statistically worse than young men! I’m guessing that is moderated by e.g. lower absolute KSI numbers through e.g. covering less distance?
There are certainly growing numbers of older folks…
(We should deffo also get things like graduated driving licences to help with the younger end of the issue though).
Milton Keynes though … a town “with world-beating cycle infra” back in the day apparently. But you don’t have to be a kerb nerd to see that in fact it’s actually designed for “better than US” levels of driving convenience, and the new town was probably created to cater to aspirant drivers! (Similar story in Stevenage, I believe – per Carlton Reid).