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Almost 900 cyclists were victims of hit-and-runs in London last year

Greens call for action over "lawless roads"...

New figures from the Metropolitan Police show that 896 cyclists were victims of hit-and-run collisions in London last year.

The total number of people injured in hit-and-run collisions went up in 2013, the fourth consecutive year of increases since 2009. While fatalities and serious injuries declined in line with the general decline in London KSIs last year, road danger reduction campaigners have cautioned it's too early to tell if that reduction is the beginning of a downturn or just a blip.

Pedestrian hit-and-runs have also increased, with 1,043 people on foot falling victim to what Green Party member of the London Assembly Jenny Jones describes as London's "lawless roads".

Jones pointed out that hit-and-run collisions are linked to other driving offences such as drunk driving, speeding, being disqualified or simply having no insurance.

Almost a fifth of collisions leading to injuries in London now involve a driver leaving the scene. The proportion has risen every year since 2009, when it was 13 percent.

Jenny Jones said: “This is a worrying trend which the Met Police need to treat as a priority. Hit and runs are associated with other illegal activities such as drunk driving, speeding, being disqualified or simply having no insurance. When a city has almost a fifth of its injuries from road collisions being linked to hit and runs, then the Mayor ought to be demanding that the police enforce the rules of the road.

"I am particularly shocked that over a thousand pedestrians could be victims of hit and runs in London last year and it isn’t regarded as a major scandal by the Mayor and senior officers in the Met Police. I hope that the Met’s Transport and Traffic teams are given the resources and political backing to get on top of our lawless roads.”

London traffic collisions

Year

Fatal

Serious

Slight

Total

Total collisions

Hit and runs as % collisions

2009

11

297

2782

3090

23,239

13.30%

2010

15

307

3085

3407

24,105

14.10%

2011

14

306

3215

3535

24,443

14.70%

2012

15

360

3501

3876

24,059

16.11%

2013

8

306

3840

4154

23,066

18.00%

 

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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