Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Second incident in New Forest town in two days leaves cyclist seriously injured

Police say rider struck by driver towing caravan - believe motorist may be unaware of collision

A day after three cyclists were seriously injured in the New Forest following a collision with an Aston Martin car, another has been taken to hospital this afternoon, with serious injuries after bing hit by a car towing a caravan.

The incident, which happened a little after noon, took place in the same town, Brockenhurst, as the one yesterday and was confirmed to local newspaper the Daily Echo by Hampshire Constabulary.

However, police have not yet provided further details and there is no witness appeal on their website to the incident at the time of writing.

According to a tweet from Lymington police, the driver of the car towing the caravan may not be aware of what happened.

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

11 comments

Avatar
DaveE128 | 9 years ago
1 like

I don't like the police "car v bike" wording - rather adversarial isn't it?

Avatar
Bez | 9 years ago
0 likes

Yes, that bit is a glaring hole in the network and no doubt puts people off. A cynic might suppose that's why the Verderers have, apparently, objected to a cycle-friendly link at that point for about 14 years.

Avatar
scoop940 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Ok, cheers, deliberately obtuse I suspect.

Nothing to address the gaping hole in the off road trails between Holmsley Tea rooms and Wilverley.. ( Capital spend to improve cycling if ever I saw one) currently you see families with small kids trying to ride down the main road which really isn't suitable.

I'd love to see the abandoned railway line from Ringwood re-instated as a cycle track too, be great to get the kids/people safely into the forest.

None of it Verderer friendly though I suspect.

Avatar
Bez | 9 years ago
0 likes

Yes, quite. As I remarked on the Road.cc article about the proposed spending, the appeal of the road from a cycling point of view is that it's reasonably unappealing from a driving point of view. Upgrading and widening the tarmac undermines that balance, making it a more viable choice as a rat-run to bypass Lyndhurst and increasing vehicle speeds on a road with numerous low-visibility bends.

The suggestion that the proposed changes will improve either appeal or safety to cyclists is naive at best, pure deceit at worst. And I don't believe for one nanosecond that anyone could possibly be that naive.

Avatar
29erKeith | 9 years ago
0 likes

Bez, yes I believe you're correct but even with the stealth widening of the road it will still be a fairly narrow road. I believe all it will do is speed up the existing traffic and even perhaps make it a more attractive option to others avoiding queueing traffic elsewhere. Which will do nothing for improving the safety of cyclist IMHO.

Avatar
Bez | 9 years ago
0 likes

For some reason the site won't let me reply to scoop940's post. Anyhow...

The item at the top of p5 does say "without road widening"; this appears to be a technicality, however. As I understand it, the plan is to remove the concrete hatchings at the road edges and replace them with tarmac. The tarmac surface will widen, though the carriageway will technically not. As it is at the moment, grass, dirt etc shows through the hatchings making the road visually as wide as the tarmac, and cars stick to it; the hatchings provide support when cars need to pass, to reduce damage to the verges.

There is a chance I've misunderstood the proposals, but I believe the above to be the case. It is, to all intents and purposes, road widening.

Avatar
scoop940 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Das, there's no intention to widen the road as part of that 1.25m

http://www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/3393/nfnpa_nffce_pro...

They are making it good for the 139 cyclists a day that use it, not the 1562 cars ...  39

I ride it often, seems fine to me on a bike.

Avatar
CapriciousZephyr | 9 years ago
0 likes

My sympathies to the victim in this case and the others recently reported on.

Shouldn't the police be using the term "collision" instead of "accident"? For some reason, I thought that was the proper official term now.

Avatar
Bez | 9 years ago
0 likes

You may want to mention that this collision occured on the road that the NFNPA is intending to resurface and widen using the majority (over £1.2m) of its cycling funding grant. It will most likely become more heavily trafficked as a result. They have made no attempt to address cyclist safety on this road.

Avatar
Das | 9 years ago
0 likes

Sure the New Forrest NIMBY's will be over the moon at this!!! Sure it will all be the cyclists fault......

Avatar
HalfWheeler | 9 years ago
0 likes

Latest Comments