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Bow, Nantwich & Croydon crash victims named as Venera Minakhmetova, Stewart Gandy & Roger De Klerk

No details yet of most recent victim

Three of the four cyclists who have recently been recent victims of fatal collisions have been named. Roger De Klerk, 43 died on Tuesday morning after being dragged under the wheels of a bus in Croydon. That afternoon, 65-year-old Stewart Gandy was killed by a hit-and-run lorry driver in Nantwich. The driver has since been arrested. On Wednesday morning 24-year-old Venera Minakhmetova died after being hit by a tipper truck at Bow roundabout

Roger William De Klerk was an IT consultant who had recently left publisher HarperCollins to start his own business. Originally from South Africa, he lived in Forest Hill, London.

A spokesman for HarperCollins told the Evening Standard: “We are very saddened by the terrible news that our former colleague and friend Roger de Klerk was killed on Tuesday in a traffic accident.

“Roger worked on the IT service desk here at HarperCollins for several years and had left only a couple of months ago to start a new business venture of his own.

“Roger was a popular and helpful man and he’ll be much missed by everyone who knew him at HarperCollins. All our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.”

A post-mortem examination found that he died of compression injuries to the head, neck and chest.

Stewart Gandy from Wistaston near Crewe was pronounced dead at the scene after being hit by a lorry on Tuesday afternoon. Police have since arrested a 36-year-old man in Wigan in connection with the crash. No more details have emerged about Mr Gandy.

Venera Minakhmetova was hit by a left-turning lorry at Bow roundabout on Wednesday morning. Originally from Siberia, the technology entrepreneur lived in Bethnal Green and had recently set up her own company, Simple2Connect.

The Evening Standard reports that Ms Minakhmetova’s family said they were desperately searching for answers and said the Russian businesswoman should be “the last victim”.

Writing online, her sister Dinara Minakhmetova, from Moscow, said: “Thank you all for being there with my sister, Venera. If some of you were there or might think of any friends being there around the time of accident, please, try to find out as much as you can... My sister should be the last victim.

“We haven’t found any witnesses yet, and would be grateful if you could help us with spreading further the information with details. Thank you for you kind words and support.”

She added: “Sharing this message is more than welcome.”

As of yesterday afternoon, the rider who died on Wednesday night in Whitechapel had not yet been identified. The Metropolitan Police said he was believed to be in his 30s, and were attempting to locate his next of kin.

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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artfactory | 10 years ago
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This is such sad and heartbreaking news and obviously the Whole Cycling community must come together and sort this out! Im so glad London is showing solidarity and having a demonstration on 29th November outside TfL HQ! with all the millions that Cycle manufacturers are making from Sales of Bikes- I would also ask what is their commitment to Road safety for cyclists and how much would they be (or indeed are they already) willing to put from their profit from sales? I had a really nice conversation with an Old gentleman just turned 70 called John, who ran a Motorbike Shop in Stoke. He said he would always encourage the partners of the Motorcyclist to come into the shop and he would talk about the realities and dangers. He would also show them a video of motorcycle accidents. If, after all this, the person wished to purchase a Motorcycle, at least they were made aware of these risks. I don't see Cycle Shops showing similar due diligence. The photos of these bikes are always taken in some remote, carless! Highland area, not in a real situation of UK's busy A and B roads. Again deep sadness and respect to those who lost their lives to Britain's congested and dangerous streets. RIP and Love and Respect!!!!

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