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.
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6 comments
Oh, well at least The Met are stepping up and investigating this. 5 months after and only since a person has sadly passed away as a result...
RIP to the old boy.
This just goes to show how the police are simply not addressing matters as they should.
As there was an incident (and quite serious at that) why did the police not gather evidence/witnesses at the time? this all rather seems like after the horse has bolted and my concern is that what was not considered to be an offence by the person riding a bike (otherwise they'd have being done already) is going to turn into a witch-hunt because an elderly person has died.
The person involved is now not only going to be feeling horrendous about the person dying but going to be shitting themselves that someone 5 months later state he was at fault when at the time and according to the police he wasn't.
Are cyclists able to say "He just came out of nowhere" or "The sun was in my eyes", or is that just motorists?
I get your point, but it seems a bit harsh in the context. I recognize that the usual callous, motorists would be making such points on a cyclist's death, but it would be nice to rise above that. If I've learnt anything from such b.t.l. comments it is that I don't want to be such a person.
Also, in this case, unlike many of the motoring cases it's worth noting that the cyclist stopped voluntarily instead of fleeing the scene and lying about it. I hope s/he was not seriously hurt during the collision, which is always a serious consideration for us, again unlike motorists.
R.I.P.
I know, and no offence was intended. It just seems like if this had been a motorist, those would almost certainly have been the first words out of their mouth (Helen Measures, Gail Purcell, etc, etc) or the defence offered by the press.
I wonder what happened, noting that the cyclist stopped at the scene, the pedestrian went to hospital but that they only died nearly six months later.
Awful (and very rare) incident.
Very sad to hear, RIP.
Out of interest, is it normal for the police to only ask for witnesses after somebody dies? I would have expected that if they suspected the cyclist to be in the wrong, they would have asked for witnesses as soon as possible after the incident. Or maybe they did and this is just a follow-up.