Two teenage girls have been arrested on suspicion of assault and “depositing a thing on a highway causing injury or danger to a user” after a 23-year-old teaching assistant was knocked from her bike when she hit a rope strung across a path.
Siobhan Delamare was riding home on Monday evening at about 7pm when she hit a rope that had been strung across Egremont Promenade.
The rope caught her across the throat, violently yanking her from her bike. She landed on the back of her head sustaining a concussion that kept her in hospital until this morning.
After being checked out of Arrowe Park hospital, Siobhan told the Liverpool Echo what had happened.
She said: “I was cycling along the promenade heading towards Seacombe, I do the same route five times a week.
“I didn't see anyone around, but heard laughter from somewhere and then saw something moving – that was when the rope was right on top of me.
“I felt myself being knocked to the floor, but don't remember anything after that until the paramedics arrived. It was all quite a blur, I must’ve been knocked unconscious.
“If I was going any faster I could’ve been killed.
“I usually do go quite fast because it’s a straight run and you can pick up a lot of speed.
“Luckily I wasn’t because it was dark. The guy who witnessed it said the impact was incredible, that I was flung backwards onto the top and then back of my head.”
Siobhan also sustained multiple cuts and bruises, especially on her throat.
Her mother Lynnette Cooper said: “Witnesses said the impact was horrific, the way she turned and fell. Of all the times, she didn’t have her helmet on.
“By the time we got there she was all strapped up, the ambulance crews treated her at the scene for more than half an hour.”
Siobhan was also treated for 40 minutes in an ambulance. She was discharged from hospital Tuesday morning, but readmitted after complaining of severe headaches and vomiting.
A CT scan revealed swelling on her brain at the point of impact but X-rays showed no bones were broken.
Siobhan said: “I feel disgusted. I was told the people involved videoed it as well. I’m there on the promenade all the time, I feel like it could’ve happened any time.
“It will take a lot to get back on a bike, and to do that route again.
“I’m worried in case it happens again.
“People need to think about the consequences, what could’ve happened and think before they do it. It was at head-height and it’s just so dangerous.
“I want to thank all those who were there on the night who helped me.
“The support from family and friends has been incredible, even people I don’t know have been in contact to send well-wishes.
“I’ve just got to count my lucky stars it wasn’t worse than it was.
“I’m aiming to bounce back but at the moment it’s very hard, and it will be for a while.”
Wallasey Neighbourhood Inspector Pete Kolokotroni said: “I’d like to reassure people that we take incidents such as this extremely seriously.
“It would appear that a rope from a life-ring was placed across the prom and it’s lucky the woman on her bicycle wasn’t more seriously injured.
“People who do things like this can't think about the possible consequences and such behaviour has no place in our community.”
Our official grumpy Northerner, John has been riding bikes for over 30 years since discovering as an uncoordinated teen that a sport could be fun if it didn't require you to catch a ball or get in the way of a hulking prop forward.
Road touring was followed by mountain biking and a career racing in the mud that was as brief as it was unsuccessful.
Somewhere along the line came the discovery that he could string a few words together, followed by the even more remarkable discovery that people were mug enough to pay for this rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work. He's pretty certain he's worked for even more bike publications than Mat Brett.
The inevitable 30-something MAMIL transition saw him shift to skinny tyres and these days he lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.