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Mile End death cyclist named; another critical after coach crash

Police appeal for witnesses after grim day on London roads
by John Stevenson
Wed, Nov 06, 2013 13:04
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The bike rider killed when he was hit by a tipper lorry on London's Cycling Superhighway 2 in Mile End yesterday has been named as Brian Holt, a porter at Mile End Hospital.

Mr Holt, a married father, was described by colleagues as a “wonderful man who would be sadly missed”.

The collision happened at the junction of Mile End Road and Bancroft Road at aboyut 4:50 on Tuesday afternoon. Witnesses said the lorry struck Mr Holt after pulling away from traffic lights at the junction.

The Metropolitan police believe that the lorry was not turning at the time of the collision.

Motiur Khan, 22, told the Evening Standard: “The lorry was behind the cyclist and sort of went into the back of him. He hit the cyclist who went under the lorry which just ran over and crushed him.”

Will Hutton, 41 said: “It was a horrible scene. A motorcyclist was shouting at a tipper truck, which I assume was involved in the collision, to stop. The traffic had been moving slowly, so I do not think the truck can have been going very fast.”

Police interviewed the driver under caution, but he was not arrested.

Brian Holt is the third cyclist to die on Cycle Superhighway 2, which was described in the inquest into the death of Brian Dorling at its Bow roundabout eastern end as “just a piece of blue paint” by a crash investigator and as “confusing” and “an accident waiting to happen” by the coroner.

Just hours after Brian Holt was killed another cyclist sustained serious head injuries when he was struck by a coach in Holborn at a junction where two other cyclists have died since 2007.

He was taken to St Mary’s hospital where a Met police spokeswoman said this morning: “He is still in a critical condition.”

The coach and the cyclist are believed to have both been turning left toward Euston at the junction of  Vernon Place and Southampton Row.

Sainsbury’s security officer Omar Sillah said: “I heard a bang and I rushed out to see what was happening. I saw the man on the floor bleeding. His body wasn’t moving.”

Anyone with information about the two collisions is asked to help police investigate by calling 0208 597 4747.

Francis Golding
tipper lorry
Cycle superhighway 2
Brian Holt
John Stevenson

Acknowledged by the Telegraph as a leading cycling journalist, John Stevenson 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 editor Tony Farelly, 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 and these days he lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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