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news
Richmond ParkRichmond Park cyclist crashes into car’s rear window after driver slows to let geese cross road
A cyclist crashed into the rear window of a car in Richmond Park yesterday after a driver slowed down to let some geese cross the road, according to police.
The incident happened on Boxing Day morning between Kingston and Ham gates, according to a tweet from Royal Parks police, accompanied by a photograph of the broken rear window of the Mercedes car involved.
Officers at #RichmondPark have been dealing with a road traffic collision between Kingston Gate and Ham Gate after the driver of a vehicle slowed to allow some geese to cross the road and a male on a bicycle collided into the rear of her vehicle and through the back window. pic.twitter.com/dNbWJPBDgY
— Royal Parks Police (@MPSRoyal_Parks) December 26, 2021
Officers confirmed that the male cyclist had been taken to hospital, adding that his injuries were not “life threatening or life changing,” and that they are continuing to investigate the incident.
*threatening
— Royal Parks Police (@MPSRoyal_Parks) December 26, 2021
News of the crash has reignited calls for motor vehicles to be banned from the 955-hectrare Royal Park which is hugely popular with cyclists from southwest London and beyond and is a national nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.
Among those responding to the tweet from the police was Rory McCarron, a specialist cycling lawyer at Leigh Day solicitors, who was riding his bike in Richmond Park yesterday and described how he had seen some “awful driving,” including motorists exceeding the 20mph speed limit.
Richmond Park was closed to motor traffic for five months from March last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the decision by The Royal Parks to reopen the roads to rat-running drivers from March was described as a “reckless and drastic” move by London Cycling Campaign. Access to the park for motorists is due to be reviewed in the New Year.
Footage of close passes on cyclists and other instances of irresponsible and intimidating driving is regularly posted to social media, and we have regularly reported on cyclists being injured in road traffic collisions in the park.
Last month cycling instructor and bike mechanic David Williams said he was knocked off his bike on purpose by a driver as he returned home from a training session at a local school.
> Driver deliberately knocks cyclist off bike in Richmond Park
The 53-year-old broke his collarbone and sustained severe bruising as a result of the incident, which is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.
"This one car, a blue BMW, went past me and was really close,” he said. “I slapped the boot to let the driver know how close he had been.
“He immediately braked quite sharply. I wasn’t able to stop but filtered along the road between the car and grass and ended up in front of him.
“Immediately, he then accelerated and came alongside me – about a foot away. I rapped on his roof to make the point he was too close and get him away.
“He accelerated again and swerved in towards me, knocking me off balance and I fell right onto my shoulder into the road. He then sped off down the hill.”
He added: “The people in the other cars behind me were shocked. This was not an accident. They probably thought they wanted to scare me, but the consequences are very serious for me.
“My head hit the floor quite hard and my helmet is now finished as it has a big crack in it.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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104 comments
What a load of old foie gras
Interesting that you call the rider a victim here, when it is not yet proven what happened.
It may well be that video evidence from the cyclist emrges showing an extreme brake chack and no hint of geese. But generally the onus is on following vehicles (including bikes) not to hit the back of vehicles in front.
Remeber it is not beyond the realms of possibility for a child or animal to enter the road causing the driver in front to brake hard. So UNLESS the car driver has brake tested immediately after overtaking, this looks like one being determined in favour of the driver.
I hope the cyclist has 3rd party insurance.
Anyone in doubt of the utter stupidity of some drivers in Richmond park -
https://road.cc/content/news/near-miss-day-587-one-cyclists-2021-compila...
'He brake tested me, man.' - Sir Lewis Hamilton
We need to see the telemetry.
Clearly the geese should be well and truly plucked.
There is insufficient information to be definitive, so we can only hope the Police complete a proper investigation. After all stopping for a dog or livestock is considered reasonable, however; as unpalatable as it is, stopping for smaller animals and putting other road users at risk is not.
Slowing so as to avoid a collision is perfectly reasonable. It is the following road user's responsibility not to crash.
Btw,a goose hit at speed will cause similar damage to your vehicle as a small child....
We clearly view this differently. Not all acccounts initially given to the police stand up to scrutiny so I remain sceptical about accepting a drivers comments about slowing. Whilst I agree with the principal of the following vehicle responsibility, there are circumstances where this is not possible as I have found to my own cost, being the victim of being passed by a car that stopped immediately afterwards forcing me into evasive action which involved a significant crash. So I will reserve judgement.
Irrespective of the damage of hitting a goose at less than 20 mph would cause to a car, it is invariably less than the risk of causing an incident like this.
I don't actually think we do. In the situation that you describe I wouldn't class the rider as following, and I'm sorry to hear about your experience.
However, I am taking the drivers account at face value in light of no further evidence, and in that scenario the rider would be at fault. Hopefully the rider was filming if the driver's account is suspect, as the current presumed liability approach in these situations would put the rider in the wrong. It is perfectly possible for a rider to rear end a car, as seen in the clip I attached to a reply to brooksby later in this thread.
As far as not slowing in this situation, that is nonsense. A hazard may be perceived and reacted to before full appreciation of what the hazard actually is is completed. And rightly so - to deliberately not apply the brakes and accept a collision because you are not sure that the hazard is a child instead of, say, a sack of potatoes is shit driving - you would be putting the life of a 3rd party below that of the inconvenience to the person behind you (or the worry of scratching your car). Injury to the person behind you in this situation is solely that person's concern (notwithstanding cash for crash, left hooks, brake checks etc). That is exactly why you leave adequate stopping distance to the vehicle you are following, because YOU don't know (or actually need to know) why the vehicle you are following is slowing or stopping.
I always thought slowing or stopping to avoid killing an animal is OK, but swerving to avoid is not.
I'd be interested in your definition of smaller animal also. Arguably squirrel pigeon, rabbit etc would be unlikely to damagae a vehicle bu a full size goose (or several geese) would easily be equivalent to a small or medium sized dog.
There also seem some doubts about whether geese ever cross the road, but if the driver was making things up, why would he not say dog, or deer or even child?
there is only one question here really, has the driver just overtaken the cyclist and pulled into their safe stopping space?
But the question on all of our lips is why?
The grass is often greener.
I slowed to a stop a few weeks before the holidays on my morning commute that took me through a village green, between the pond area and the cricket ground, for a line of Canada geese.
Bloody immigrants.
Chicken's day off
Sadly we will lose if trying to be confrontational with 2 tonne machines. Best to keep a wide berth and internalise that rage.
Great learning experience but so very sad to sustain the injuries.
Richmond park is a madhouse, frequented with irate drivers and cyclists who perhaps thing they're a bit bigger than their lycra would suggest. I avoid like the plague and leave the chest banging and competitive park pootles to others. It must be incredibly frustrating for those with no choice having to take that on.
So you witnessed this incident and know that it comes from the cyclist trying to be confrontational with the car driver, not the other way round or that the car driver made a serious mistake?
No, Mr. Black and White, he didn't say that, as you well know.
Jayz, you are so certain in everything you say, aren't you, even when you clearly know nothing or even misrepresent, as you so often do.
Read what he says. Understand. And then - STFU.
.
Ban all bikes from the park because they are dangerous weapon.
https://mobile.twitter.com/MPSRoyal_Parks/status/1362347460845318147?ref...
That being the case then, cars must the nuclear bomb of all weapons!
Accidents happen, we don't live in a perfect world. We just have to remember when we get on a bike or into a care, that our first duty is to drive/ride safely and take into account others safety aswell. We all have a right to be on the road and must respect others rights whilst on the road.
Wishing the cyclist a speedy recovery and he's back on his bike sooner rather than later
I wish I hadn't read that Twitter feed
Criminal damage
Dangerous cycling
Presumably 1000s of drivers are arrested everyday for the collisions which occur between vehicles.
I mean that's crap cycling.
And people slapping cars? That's always going to end in trouble. Car v bike is only ever going to end badly for the cyclist. I've never slapped a car in 40 years.
Shout if you want to but at least have both hands on the bars.
Interesting, doubtless subconscious, choice of nomenclature by the RPS there: the person in the car is "the driver of a vehicle" (pretty much neutral) with the cyclist being "a male on a bike" (pretty close to the hated MAMIL). Why, I wonder? Why also is the incident described as "slowed to allow some geese to cross the road" rather than "braked" - it would be a highly inattentive cyclist who ploughed into the back of a car with sufficient force to go through the rear window because it merely "slowed". "Collided into"? A collision is the interaction of two bodies, apart from "collided into" being grammatically incorrect it implies that only one body was actively involved with the other being passive and static. The whole description seems slanted towards the incident being the fault of an aggressive cyclist - which for all I know it may have been, but as the police wouldn't have finished any investigation and no charges are mentioned they should surely have been more neutral in their posting.
Even with hard braking, unless the car suddenly went into reverse, it is the fault of the cyclist.
What if, as has happened to me more than once, the driver is overtaking then suddenly perceives a hazard ahead they hadn't accounted for and cuts straight back in whilst braking hard?
Exactly, rendel - no way was the car being slowed cautiously and gradually, if the bike went through the rear window like that.
I'm biased and would probably initially suspect that too. However I do have a couple of counter examples. I've ridden into parked cars more than once (only damaged my ego and I've grown up since) and once a flatmate managed to do exactly this e.g. through the rear window of a stationary car. (Said flatmate was a pretty powerful rider).
Luckily the consequences of "bike hits car" (or indeed "bike hits anything") are generally much less than "car hits something".
Fair enough, chris; I wonder if beetlejuice will be along to blame it on head-down posture and/or TT bars...?
Alas no such excuses - never ridden TT bars in my life. Although now I do favour an aero posture. (actually for comfort reasons now):
Reckon? https://youtu.be/9OrKLGEOVRA
Edit: to expand a little, toughened glass (as is typical for rear and side windows, but not for windscreens which are laminated) is very difficult to smash. Except when it isn't. A heavy impact spread over a wide area may be sustained (for example a squishy cyclist landing on it) even though the glass can flex alarmingly.
Or a less severe collision, where a point load makes contact (for example an exposed bar end) may result in the glass shattering like, well, something that shatters easily....
The condition of the glass doesn't tell us much in itself.
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