A recently elected councillor will undergo surgery this week after sustaining multiple injuries, including a nasty facial wound, when a hit-and-run driver allegedly knocked her off her bike as she cycled on a “safe cycle path” to a road safety meeting.

Oxfordshire County Councillor Trish Elphinstone says she was riding on a designated bike path that runs alongside the A4142 Eastern By-Pass Road in Cowley, Oxford, at around 1.30pm on Friday 21 April when a motorist driving a black saloon car cut across her and clipped her wheel.

According to the Labour councillor, the driver sped off following the collision, which left her head “matted with blood”. She also sustained swelling on her shoulder and knees, as well as a cut to her eyebrow which will require plastic surgery on Tuesday.

The 59-year-old was elected last month to represent Rose Hill and Littlemore on Oxfordshire County Council, following a narrow victory over independent candidate Michael Anthony Evans, who based his campaign on a staunchly held opposition to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and traffic-calming schemes in Oxford, which he described as a “blunt instrument that divides communities”.

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Speaking to the Oxford Mail, Elphinstone noted that it was “ironic” that she was hit by a driver on her way to a meeting called to discuss the potential for road safety improvements in Oxfordshire.

“I was on my way to a road safety improvement meeting for Newman Road and Littlemore and I was due to meet officers to discuss road safety. Obviously, I didn’t make it,” she said.

“I have only just been elected and part of what I want to do is improve road safety and it’s ironic that I was due to meet these officers when the incident happened.”

Describing the alleged hit-and-run collision, which took place at the junction of Fern Hill Road, as the bike path briefly enters a residential area, the councillor said: “I wasn’t going fast because I am a cautious cyclist, and I was going downhill and had my hands on the brakes. I must have been going at about 10 miles per hour.

“He came right into my blind spot. I was just thinking ‘he’s not going to stop’, and within a second of thinking that, he hit my back wheel. I rolled over the wing of the car and hit the pavement with my head and my knees.

“You don’t expect it as a cyclist when you are on a safe cycle path for someone to come into the side of you.”

As the driver quickly left the scene, witnesses rushed to help the stricken cyclist, while some managed to take photos of the fleeing motorist’s number plate.

The councillor suffered two abrasions to her face, “tennis ball” sized swelling on her knees, soft tissue damage in her shoulder, and a cut to her eyebrow for which she will undergo surgery on Tuesday. She was taken to hospital, where she was treated for seven hours for her injuries.

“I want to get back on the bike but at the moment I am a bit shaken up and physically I’m just stiff,” she added.

“Just by chance I had put extra layers on that morning because it was cold and I was wearing a heavy scarf around my neck which took the brunt.

“I was slowing down anyway, and if I had not been wearing that protective gear I would have been in a much worse situation.”

Mrs Elphinstone told the Oxford Mail that the incident is currently being investigated by police.

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Unfortunately, the Labour councillor isn’t the only politician to have been struck by a motorist while riding their bike this year.

In February, Lilian Greenwood, the Labour MP for Nottingham South, was knocked off her bike by a driver making what she described as “an illegal u-turn” across a protected cycle lane in central London.

The MP, who sustained a minor knee injury in the collision, tweeted following the incident: “I’m a pretty careful cyclist. This evening I was cycling home, paying attention because it was busy on the roads with pedestrians, cyclists, and cars. I was wearing hi-vis and my helmet. The traffic light was on green. Didn’t stop a driver making an illegal turn and hitting me.”

That time, however, the driver stopped at the scene, and Greenwood said that she hoped her experience “isn’t going to stop me riding a bike but it has frightened me”.