The mother of a talented young cyclist killed in a collision with a driver earlier this year has urged motorists to “be very aware and slow down” around people on bikes, after a coroner’s inquest revealed that the teenager’s back wheel had “kicked up”, forcing him across the road, just before the fatal crash.
Aidan Worden, who won the national junior 25-mile time trial championship last year, was on a training ride with his clubmates when he collided with an oncoming car being driven on Blacksnape Road, between Hoddlesden and Darwen, Lancashire at around 10.30am on Saturday 1 February.
Emergency services were called to the scene, where Aidan was treated by paramedics before being taken to hospital, where the 18-year-old rider was pronounced dead, after suffering multiple injuries.
This week, Preston Coroners Court heard that the teenager’s back wheel had “kicked up” moments before the collision, causing him to cross into the other lane and into the path of the oncoming BMW driver, the Lancashire Post reports.
During the inquest, PC Rachel Carbery said that Aidan was riding with three of his 360cycling clubmates on a downhill, predominantly straight section of the Blacksnape Road, past a row of houses with cars parked outside along the road.
The officer noted that there was enough room for the riders to safely pass the parked cars on the 5.4m-wide carriageway, and that it was a clear day.
Analysis of nearby CCTV showed that the group was travelling at around 39mph on the downhill stretch, before slowing to 30mph just before the collision.
The collision occurred after the 18-year-old’s back wheel jerked, for reasons that were not determined, forcing him across the white line. PC Carberry said the female motorist, driving a BMW, was travelling at 30mph at the time of the collision.
According to the officer, she reacted within a second and braked, stopping within a short distance, but was unable to avoid the collision, later telling police she had no explanation for what happened.
Aidan’s coach at the 360cycling club, Joseph Cadwallader, told the inquest that the group ride involved around 18 to 20 riders, who were all given a safety briefing in the morning, with the presence of parked cars along the road noted.
Assistant coroner Richard Taylor described the 18-year-old as a very experienced cyclist who was riding a route he had covered before.
He said that something had happened to Aidan’s wheel, and that the teenager was trying to correct his position on the road when the fatal crash occurred, the coroner apologising to the teenager’s family for failing to provide them with the answers to all their questions.
Tayloe recorded a conclusion of death as a result of a road traffic collision, while a police investigation found no fault on the part of the motorist involved, and no further action was taken.
The assistant coroner read a eulogy from Adian’s parents Helen and Jason, who described him as a “loving son and brother”.
“He achieved so much in his 18 years. We are deeply saddened that we will never know what he would have achieved,” they said.
Following the hearing, Helen said that the family will never know exactly what caused the incident that led to her son’s death, and appealed to motorists to exercise caution when driving near vulnerable road users.
“It happened in a split second. That’s why it’s so important for drivers to be very aware and slow down,” she said.
Aidan, who competed in BMX before switching to road and cyclocross racing, had enjoyed a hugely successful 2024 season, winning the British junior 25-mile time trial championships as well as finishing as the first junior at the prestigious Eddie Soens Memorial Race at Aintree Racecourse.
At the time of his death, his 360cycling club paid tribute to the New Longton rider, describing how during his three years with the team he had “developed as a person, man, and rider to a level few of us ever achieve”.
“He never judged anyone and always supported others, especially when it came to fixing our bikes,” the post on social media said.
“2024 saw some amazing rides from the boy that set out a clear example of what a young person can achieve with the right determination.
“He is the current national 25-mile TT junior champion and also enjoyed very much being 1st junior in last year’s Eddie Soens. As his coach and as teammates for the last three years, watching him grow, train, and mentor others, we are absolutely heartbroken. Our thoughts are very much with his beloved family that he leaves behind. RIP Aidan, you will be very much missed and always in our hearts!”
Earlier in his life, Aidan also rode for Red Rose Olympic cycling club “so he could add to the cycling experience he had already gained as a BMX rider with Preston Pirates”.
“He was such a pleasure to have in our club, he was committed to learning and developing and always gave his all,” Red Rose Olympic said. “We were delighted that we could be a part of his journey and his move to 360cycling saw him develop into a very well-respected athlete with such a lot of potential to develop further.
“It speaks volumes about him that he sent us this card when he was still only 11 to say thank you for getting him into cyclocross. We were incredibly touched at the time and re-reading it today just reminds us of why everyone thought so highly of him.”
Aidan worked at Paul Hewitt Cycles, a Leyland-based bike shop, starting off by helping out during his summer holidays. The shop added to the tributes, stating that it was a “privilege to have known and worked with” him and that he will be “greatly missed by so many”.
20 thoughts on ““It’s so important for drivers to slow down”: Mum of junior time trial champion killed in “split second” collision urges motorists to “be very aware” of cyclists on roads”
Seems like a tragic accident.
Seems like a tragic accident. Whilst the mothers request is valid, it has nothing to do with the incident in this case.
I’m not sure you can say for
I don’t think you can say for sure it’s nothing to do with the incident.
I tend to find there are some drivers who do not slow down when a cyclist is oncoming at a narrow section of road; because there’s just enough room to squeeze past. Yet that same driver would have to come to an almost complete halt if the oncoming cyclist had been another car.
They were passing parked cars
They were passing parked cars in a narrow space by the opposite lane, so it was them who should have slowed down, if anything, to avoid getting doored. But looking at that photograph, there is 0 chance I would be going 30mph through that gap between the car parked by that scaffolding with another car coming from the opposite direction. It look like some 1m space to the broken line. It would be chancing it big time. At that speed either of the tyres hit a tiny piece of road debris and the rider is in big trouble almost certainly loosing control over the bike and ending up colliding whichever way they get chucked in. And if the oncoming cyclist had been a car, he would have pulled over into a gap between the parked cars to let the BMW drive past.
Not that it necessarily
Not that it necessarily negates anything else you say, but the picture is just a random Streetview grab – we’ve no idea if it’s actually representative of the conditions where and when the incident happened.
It’s extremely confusing and
It’s extremely confusing and I don’t think the image can be the crash site because it says the riders were heading downhill with cars parked outside the houses, if that picture is the scene the riders would have been in the empty traffic lane, i.e. coming towards the camera, and there would be no reason for the police officer to say that in his assessment there was enough room for them to get by safely.
I wonder how many times that
I wonder how many times that police officer has been on a racing bike, perhaps also going 30mph, on a public road, to know there was enough room. In my assessment, unless he has been, and lived through the experience of being close passed a few times both from the rear and with a car coming at him head on at full speed and dealt with a whole array of other hair-rising abuse I get pretty much daily, he can stuff his assessment up his… I am pretty sure if you asked any one driver who got challenged following a close pass of a cyclist would say that in their assessment there was enough room.
The scene was described in
The scene was described in the article in detail being a 5.4m wide road with cars parked in one lane and another car coming towars the cyclists. They left themselves no room for error riding 30mph through a gap of just over a meter wide.
That assumes that the cars
That assumes that the cars were parked fully on the carriageway, which we don’t know that they were.
Nonetheless, as I said, your points may still be valid – my reply was merely in relation to the ‘looking at the photo’ part of your comment, which is irrelevant, since it’s just an arbitrary illustration.
I think that is just a
I think that is just a general photo, not one of the actual scene.
It’s also a misconception that vehicles must give way to oncoming traffic if there are parked cars on their side of the road. It’s actually only an advisory to give way prior to passing parked cars. If you are already passing parked cars when an oncoming vehicle appears, they have no more right to the roadspace than you.
Again, nothing can be known for certain here.
The article says that the
The article says that the road at the exact spot where the accident happened is 5.4m wide and there were cars parked on the cyclists side, so very similar to what is shown in that photograph. This minus 2x 2.1m for a car (width including wing mirrors) on either side of the road leaves 1.2m. Don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t dare to be doing 30mph in such tight space seeing there is a car coming towards me on the opposite lane regardless of how great my skills and experience were and if I had the priority over the oncoming vehicle or not.
whosatthewheel wrote:
It can’t be similar to what is shown in the photograph because it’s clearly stated that the cyclists were on a downhill; if they were coming down the hill in the picture they would be in the empty traffic lane with no cars on their side. Worth noting also that the police investigator stated that in his opinion it was safe for the cyclists to be going through. I think the only explanation can be that the picture is not of the exact site of the incident.
So – car driver is doing 30
So – car driver is doing 30 mph past a row of houses with parked cars outside.
If a cat ran out from between the cars, or a dog or a chicken, or a child – the driver would have no chance of seeing the hazard, nor reacting to it in any useful time nor manner. (30mph is about 44 feet per second ).
20mph (about 30 feet per second) allows: better observation, longer reaction time, shorter braking distance, less impact energy (bruised rather than spatch-cocked). Those houses look as though they span 12-14 feet so two houses in one second rather than 3-4 at 30 mph.
However, in this case there were a number of cyclists approaching in the opposite direction – the driver should have seen them and reacted by slowing down from 30 mph to say – 20 mph.
This might have afforded a margin of time for the late lad to have recovered from his wobble, even allowed the driver to slow down even more; perhaps even allowed the cyclist to bounce off with bad bruising, rather than being mashed and killed.
Yet another example of poor roadcraft
We don’t know the full facts.
We don’t know the full facts. The report states that some of the incident was captured on CCTV and the cyclists were doing 39mph
whilst passing parked vehicles on their side of the roadprior to the incident, that occurred whilst passing parked vehicles on their side of the road.I can’t be sure, but the location that seems to fit is here, as just beside the red car there is a house with a good number of CCTV cameras.
If it were here, then you can see there’s a kink in the road and a hedge on the right side that could obscure an oncoming vehicle.
HoarseMann wrote:
Not quite. It says they’d been doing 39mph and had slowed to 30mph ‘just before’ the incident. We don’t know whether that was all before they started passing the cars, or even if they might have slowed further before they got to them (‘just before’ could be a few seconds).
Yes, that’s true. I was
Yes, that’s true. I was looking at the speed as an indication of the steepness of the hill. Even with a group of fit riders, it would need to be fairly steep to reach those speeds (which it seems to be at this location). Paragraph reworded.
I don’t think fitness is a
I don’t think fitness is a major factor in speed downhill, in tha range. Steepness, position RTC.
I don’t think you can say for sure it’s nothing to do with the incident.
I tend to find there are some drivers who do not slow down when a cyclist is oncoming at a narrow section of road; because there’s just enough room to squeeze past. Yet that same driver would have to come to an almost complete halt if the oncoming cyclist had been another car.
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I tihnk I can, its a matter of legal fact. That you want to quibble is neither here nor there. Neither my or you opinion matters.
Secret_squirrel wrote:
Those facts being ‘something happened’ and ‘failing to provide the answers’.
All I’m saying is you can’t say the mothers concern is not valid as a possible contributing factor in this case. Not even the coroner has committed to that.
I agree that drivers ought to
I agree that drivers ought to slow down when sharing the road with a cyclist. The highway code says the following for passing horses and I can see no reason why horses and their riders should be treated any differently to cyclists especially given the state of our roads at the present time.
rule 215
Horse riders and horse-drawn vehicles. Be particularly careful of horse riders and horse-drawn vehicles especially when approaching, overtaking, passing or moving away. Always pass wide and slowly. When you see a horse on a road, you should slow down to a maximum of 10 mph. Be patient, do not sound your horn or rev your engine. When safe to do so, pass wide and slow, allowing at least 2 metres of space.
Most, not all unfortunately, drivers will slow to a crawl and procede with the utmost caution when they are around horses. Why they can’t show the same consideration for cyclists who have simialr levels of protection, ie none, is a mystery to me.
But you don’t get to see
But you don’t get to see horse riders make horsers gallop on public roads. They walk slowly. Same with cyclists and cars, both should exercise caution, distrust towards other road users and slow down when the space gets tight or the conditions otherwise require so.