Emergency services rushed a cyclist to hospital on Sunday afternoon after the rider crashed over a low wall, plummeting into the river below.
The incident unfolded near Heywood, in Greater Manchester, on a narrow bridge that crosses Cheesden Brook, and saw fire crews called to rescue the man from the water as he was inaccessible to paramedics.
Manchester Evening News reports that the rider was taken to hospital from the scene to be treated further on unknown injuries, but the North West Ambulance Service is yet to comment on the severity or condition.
Pictures from the scene showed numerous ambulances parked along the cordoned off road, fire crews and paramedics liaised with police while another member of the rescue party wore a harness and safety helmet.
Paramedics had called for help due to the injured man’s location, the fire service saying it performed a “complex rope rescue” to get the man out of the water and back up onto the bridge.
“Earlier today paramedics asked for firefighters to help them at an incident where a man riding a bicycle has fallen from a bridge and landed in a river, inaccessible to the paramedics,” a spokesperson for the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue service explained.
“Firefighters from across Greater Manchester rushed to the scene off Ashworth Road in Heywood, where they performed a complex rope rescue of the injured man so he could be taken to hospital for further treatment.”
In 2021, a Scottish cyclist thanked the “guardian angel” who rescued him after he plunged 30ft from a remote bridge near Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, a few hours into a 186-mile ride.
Duncan Brown was caught out by the conditions, the road wetter than he had expected as he lost control and was hurled through the air and over the bridge.
“I was absolutely terrified, just petrified,” he said. “I thought no one would have had any idea what happened to me and that I was done for. The bike went over with me and there wasn’t a mark on the road. There was no one else around.”
Thankfully, he escaped without breaking any bones and the fall just so happened to be witnessed by an RAF medical officer, Nell Kerr, who saw it unfold from her home nearby and scrambled down the bank to rescue the rider.
“He is pretty lucky,” she said. “If it happened about three minutes sooner or later I wouldn’t have seen him. He wouldn’t have had a chance. I heard the click, click, click of him trying to brake then I saw him go over. My training just kicked in.”
Elsewhere in the UK, three cyclists have been killed in falls at a notorious North Yorkshire Dales bridge since 2014.
Dibbles Bridge, between Grassington and Pateley Bridge was also the scene of one of Britain’s worst-ever road incidents, in 1975, when the brakes of a coach carrying a group of pensioners overheated, causing it to run down the hill, crash through a steel safety barrier and hit the bridge, killing 33 people.
In August 2014, James Nelson from Skipton died at the same spot after a fall during an evening training ride. A year later, George Ballard also lost his life at the bridge, hitting the wall, beyond which there is a 15-metre drop.
Then, in August 2020, an inquest heard that Craig Barnhart had suffered fatal injuries after hitting the same wall and being thrown over the parapet. Following the two deaths in 2014 and 2015, safety barriers had been installed by the council.
10 thoughts on ““Complex rope rescue” after cyclist crashes from bridge into river”
One of the best climbing
One of the best climbing roads in Greater Manchester, ruined by way of its access being from Bury and Rochdale Old Road. And also because Edenfield Road at the top has the occasional bellend driving on it.
Easy to see how anyone can crash into that bridge though, it’s at a strange angle with low walls after a long steep descent, and you can be easily distracted by light coming through the trees and parked cars. I hope the rider is ok.
Peowpeowpeowlasers wrote:
If some light causes a big enough distraction that you crash into a large stone bridge that has been in place for hundreds of years you shouldn’t be on the roads.
I’m sure you’d offer the same leniency to a car driver who crashed because of a bit of light through some trees too.
ITK2012 wrote:
A trifle harsh? For all we know the cyclist could never have ridden that road before, in which case the fact that the bridge has been there hundreds of years is scarcely relevant. Dappled light on the roads can be difficult to deal with, admittedly it shouldn’t be sufficient on its own to make you ride into a balustrade but perhaps the light conditions disguised a pothole or other obstacle which caused the rider to lose control and then hit the wall.
Yes, dappled bright sunlight
Yes, dappled bright sunlight can be a major problem in disguising potholes and other surface problems. Not sure of that’s an issue here though.
Crazyhorse wrote:
Yep, no indication in the report of what caused the incident, I’m just pointing out that there could be reasons for the rider crashing that might mean he doesn’t deserve to be told he “shouldn’t be on the roads”.
You seem to be conflating a
You seem to be conflating a solo bike rider coming off of their bike due to potential visibility issues and injuring themself, and a driver operating 2 tonnes of metal with potential visibility issues ploughing through two other people and killing them. Is the difference between these two situations visible enough for you?
There is no difference. A
There is no difference. A cyclist who makes excuses about some dappled light has an 80% chance of also being the driver of a car. If you make an excuse for one you are automatically making an excuse for the other whether you like it or not.
ITK2012 wrote:
You appear to be disregarding the fact that a pothole or other small obstacle – tree branches, dumped rubbish et cetera – hidden by difficult light conditions can be more than enough to precipitate an unlucky cyclist off the road and, in this case, over the parapet, whereas it will not do that to a car, so the “excuse” which could apply in the case of a cyclist would not apply to a car driver.
Rendel Harris wrote:
isn’t the argument that both cyclists and drivers should be slowing down in dappled light conditions?
Of course it’s much easier to lose a pothole to dappled shade, than it is to lose two adult cyclists.
wycombewheeler wrote:
Yes indeed, although there’s always a trade-off between maintaining some sort of speed and adjusting to the conditions, obviously if everyone slowed down to 5 mph there would never be any accidents but…
To be clear, I’m not claiming that this cyclist may not have made a mistake or misjudgement of some kind, I was just objecting to the rather aggressively dismissive statement that making such a mistake proves that a cyclist isn’t fit to be on the roads.