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news
Police tape (CC licensed by freefotouk on Flickr)New Year’s Day hit-and-run driver leaves cyclist seriously injured
A cyclist and local councillor has been left seriously injured after a hit-and-run incident near Milton Keynes on New Year’s Day.
Nigel Richards, who is in his 60s, was hit by a motorist in a black Nissan when riding on the Cranfield Road towards Salford last week. He was dragged along the road for several seconds, before the driver fled the scene without stopping.
Richards was later taken to hospital by ambulance, and his injuries have been reported by Bedfordshire police as “serious but not life changing.”
The Moulsoe man, who is deputy chair of the local parish council, is said to be a keen cyclist, and through his role in the council has promoted different cycle routes around Milton Keynes. These include the road on which he was hit, a clearly marked National Cycle Network route popular with local cyclists.
> Cyclist seriously injured by hit-and-run lorry driver was riding 3,000 miles in memory of niece
Bedfordshire Police, along with Richards’ family, have launched an online appeal for witnesses to the incident, which occurred around 11.50am on 1 January near Hulcotmoors Farm.
“The driver failed to stop at the scene, leaving the victim badly injured, alone and very shaken by this incident", said PC Emily Ingle. "The victim described the vehicle involved to be a black Nissan Qashqai or X-Trail type vehicle.
“If anyone has any information about this incident or was in the area at the time and has dashcam footage, please let us know.”
Bedfordshire Police asks that anyone with information about the incident should call 101 or use their online reporting tool, quoting reference 273 of 1 January.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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21 comments
https://lancashire.police.uk/news/2022/january/woman-seriously-injured-i...
Hit and Run is now the routine response, because of the probability of getting away with it, and the likelihood of some trivial penalty if you're caught. This elderly lady was hit on the main road which leads to my favourite A6 traffic lights, and the offender just drove off. This is in quiet Garstang, where the police don't like to trouble people over trivial matters like crashing through red lights at 50 mph.
Oh, if only cars were required to have some sort of alphanumeric identifier, so that their drivers couldn't break the law with impunity...
Presumably worried that he was still over the limit from the night before. It's a pretty straight road with a wide verge so no excuses on that front. It's also worth noting that the lower stretch towards Salford forms part of NCR51, not that it makes any fucking difference to Drivers. I've had plenty of close passes on that road. If drivers find cyclists annoying on normal roads they probably shouldn't act like dicks on dedicated cycle routes.
From a drivist point of view it's a bit of a rat run through to jn 13 of the M1. From a cyclist's route there's a lovely loop that brings you back through the beautiful Woburn Park.
Highly likely that I've waved or said hello to Nigel in passing and I wish him a speedy recovery and I hope he gets out on our local roads again soon.
I will lay odds on that.
Unfortunately the driver will either get clean away, will claim they hit a deer, or might get a slap on the wrist for failure to stop. The actual collision would be the councillors word against the driver so no definite Careless / Dangerous unless the Police could show speed and braking from any investigation.
Agree - many times cycled/driven along that road wondering how many drivers actually realise it's a NCR!
It forms part of the old 'Codebreaker' Sportive that starts near me at Tattenhoe Pavillion and is still my 'go to' 100k ride.
I've ridden down it a few times and also agree that traffic travels way too fast, despite the obvious signs that there are likely to be cyclists.
I've also driven down it a number of times and it's a road that's easy to get your speed up on. It's like a race track, wide and straight with sweeping bends that you can carry speed through. Needs to be 40mph limit with average cameras.
Perhaps road.cc could get a statement from Sustrans? I wonder how many cyclists are injured on NCRs? Do they have any input on speed limits on their routes?
Another incident on an NCN route was the headline article on the local BBC Look East tv news this morning. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59930609
Sustrans are aware of the issue. Unfortunately they don't have much say in the speed limit. There was a call a few years ago to get rural on-road routes reduced to 40mph and 20mph for urban routes.
The latest I heard is they're just going to remove the routes that are on faster roads.
But the problem there isnt the speed limit of the road, its inappropriate speed for the conditions, you could set it to 20mph if you wanted, but that road is so in the back of beyond, no one is ever going to stop someone driving along it at a ridiculous speed still.
And I dont think Sustrans solution to just ignore fast roads is the right way to go about it either.
I'm not an expert on NCRs but I would say that it's quite well signed. Certainly better than NCR6 south of Northampton, that I use regularly. There's really no reason that a driver would know about that one.
A well signed NCR? That would be a first for me. I've never used one that doesnt require the route on a GPS unit as a contigency. Sometimes you get a decent set of signage to lull you into a false sense of security - then whammo! Magical mystery tour time!
Agreed, I'm commenting only on one relatively short stretch of road.
How many would really care, or drive differently, if they did know it was an NCR?
Everyday I ride my bike I am cut up ,close passed and I use my bike to commute to my job .
I'm 62 have already lost time off work with a broken wrist because they said they never saw me.
I wear high viz have decent lights and I'm scared to ride on the road.
I fill that I am going to die one day on it.
Why should I have to feel that way.
Unfortunately it is because of an ever growing number of motorists who believe that cyclists should not be allowed on their road or that a few seconds of their time is more valuable than a cyclists life.... it has become normalised that cyclists get subjected to close passes and road rage.... because as soon as you set out on your bike you cease to be a person and become an obstacle to motorists.
With cases like that, you'd have to be pretty tough-minded not to make some sort of report, wouldn't you? What else is going on in these peoples's clearly very scuzzy lives, I often wonder.
Unfortunately it is because of an ever growing number of motorists who believe that cyclists should not be allowed on their road
No, it's because of an ever growing number of police officers who believe that. The single most important factor in the worsening of the road environment for cyclists is the determined inaction of the b*****d police.
All the best Nigel, get well soon.
Nice report Ryan, but struck by the driver of a black Nissan. Car not driving itself.
Spotted and edited, cheers. Simple oversight (probably a subconscious attempt to avoid repetition). Definitely not deliberate, as one Twitter user has claimed.
Ouch, that's harsh!
All the best and hopes for an effective and quick recovery Nigel.