Italian prince on fixie overtook HGV immediately before fatal collision in London

An Italian prince who was killed near Knightsbridge tube station in October 2016 cut in front of the HGV that hit him immediately after overtaking it. After hearing that the German lorry driver would not have been able to see Filippo Corsini, senior Westminster coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox gave a conclusion of accidental death.

The London Evening Standard reports that Corsini was on his way to Regent's University where he was studying International Business. Approaching Scotch Corner just before 12.40pm he overtook Thomas Dose’s truck.

Brian Morey, a black cab driver, told the hearing: “I noticed he was pedalling extra fast. He was on the outside of the lorry and sort of just got ahead of it.

“All of a sudden he made a left turn across the front of the vehicle that shocked me. Because of the angle, of course the lorry would catch him. It caught the back of his bike, which went up in the air and threw the rider to the road.”

Corsini was pronounced dead at the scene.

Morey added: “The bike disappeared under the front of the lorry but by this time I could not see the rider. It had obviously gone over him. I don’t think the lorry driver had a chance.”

Serious collision investigator PC David Keen found no problems with the lorry and said Dose had rested appropriately before driving through London, having arrived in the UK from Holland the day before.

He said Corsini had been very close to the lorry as he overtook, having moved closer to avoid a pedestrian kerb.

Corsini was riding a fixed gear bike with no front brake.

Keen said: "He could have potentially slowed or stopped, but his ability to do that was down to the bike he was riding.

"His bike had fixed gears, no front brake and in order to slow down he had to use resistance in his legs to slow down. That is the only braking mechanism.

"Bikes should have two means of coming to a stop. One was the resistance through the legs and there should be an additional conventional brake on the front really for it to comply with regulations.

"The nature of the cycle could have been what made it more difficult to slow compared to if he had been on a more conventional cycle."

Wilcox said the driver’s attention would have been on the road in front of him as Corsini passed.

"It was highly unlikely that Mr Dose would have been looking that direction and if he had, he could not have seen him," she said.

She gave the medical cause of death as multiple injuries and gave a conclusion of accidental death.

"As [Corsini] approached [Dose] he would have been very close to him to avoid the raised kerb in the pedestrian area in the middle of the road and was in a position where he would not have been visible to Mr Dose."

She added: "Then Mr Corsini, for reasons only known to him, overtook and accelerated past the HGV and went in front of him."