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Two cyclists killed in Buckinghamshire crash involving Volkswagen Golf car

Driver is assisting police in relation to double fatality in High Wycombe yesterday

Thames Valley Police are appealing for witnesses after two cyclists were killed in a collision involving a grey Volkswagen Golf R car in High Wycombe.

Paramedics attended the incident but the victims, men aged 52 and 56 who lived locally, were pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident happened at around 6.30pm yesterday evening on the A40 Wycombe Road, near the junction of Old Dashwood Hill. 

Thames Valley Police said that the victims’ next-of-kin were being supported by specially trained officers, and that the driver of the car is assisting officers with their enquiries.

Inspector Andy Tester of the Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit, said: “This incident has tragically led to the deaths of two cyclists. Our thoughts remain with their families at this difficult time.

“We are carrying out a thorough investigation to establish the full circumstances of this collision.

“As such we are asking anyone who may have witnessed the collision to please come forward.

“Additionally we would ask anyone who may have seen a Grey Volkswagen Golf R or the two cyclists travelling on the A40 Wycombe Road near to the junction of Old Dashwood Hill prior to 6.30pm to please get in touch.

“We would also ask anyone who was travelling on the same stretch and has dash-cam footage to please check it to see if it may show either the cyclists or the Golf,” he added.

Anyone with information should call Thames Valley Police on 101 quoting reference 1111 01/06/20.

Around 100 cyclists are killed each year on Great Britain’s roads, but individual incidents in which more than one rider is killed are very rare – indeed, during the past decade, only two such cases spring immediately to mind.

In February 2014, John Morland, aged 30, and 39-year-old Kris Jarvis, were killed on the evening of 13 February when they were hit by a black BMW car in Purley-on-Thames, Berkshire.

The driver Alexander Walter, was jailed for 10 years three months after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and other offences including aggravated vehicle-taking, driving while disqualified, and driving while uninsured.

He lost a subsequent appeal to try and have the jail sentence shortened.

> Drunk, speeding driver who killed two cyclists loses appeal against length of sentence

The previous year, disqualified driver Nicholas Lovell, 38, was jailed for 10 years and six months and banned from driving for life for killing husband and wife Ross, 34, and Clare Simons, 30, when he crashed into them in Bristol as they rode their tandem bike while he was trying to get away from a police car.

> Killer driver sentenced to 10 years and 6 months for deaths of Bristol tandem couple

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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14 comments

Avatar
bigfatron | 3 years ago
1 like

I'm a 54 year old and ride that road a lot, it's a nice grind up to Stokenchurch from West Wycombe.
Lots of trees overhead, quite dark when the sun is dropping, no houses and a 60mph limit.
Traffic flies past, up and down the hill, without much regard to the speed limit. If the riders were turning into Old Dashwood Hill as they were hit the driver probably wouldn't have seen them on the slight bend.
Especially in sunglasses under the tree canopy. That's obviously speculation, so please ignore.
So sad, my condolences to their families.

Avatar
NZ Vegan Rider | 3 years ago
1 like

Terrible ;-(

Avatar
Richard_pics | 3 years ago
1 like

Thats fucking Awful 

Thoughts to all families & friends.

Avatar
maviczap | 3 years ago
4 likes

Back to normal after the lockdown, death returns to the roads

RIP guys

Avatar
Huw Watkins | 3 years ago
13 likes

That's really, really shit.  

'Volkswagen Golf R' - speeding perhaps?

If this country really is serious about getting people onto bikes, it has to introduce Presumed Liability.  The UK is one of only 5 European countries where it does not exist - the others being Malta, Cyprus, Romania & Ireland

Avatar
flobble replied to Huw Watkins | 3 years ago
0 likes

Huw Watkins wrote:

​That's really, really shit. 

Indeed it is. V. sad. That's my neck of the woods too. Not that it matters for the victims.

However...

Huw Watkins wrote:

'Volkswagen Golf R' - speeding perhaps?

And also perhaps not. There is no information either way. Could also have been drink/drug driving, simple inattention (aka carelessness).

Avatar
flobble replied to Huw Watkins | 3 years ago
0 likes

Huw Watkins wrote:

​That's really, really shit.

Indeed it is. V. sad. That's my neck of the woods too. Not that it matters for the victims.

However...

Huw Watkins wrote:

'Volkswagen Golf R' - speeding perhaps?

And also perhaps not. There is no information either way. Could also have been drink/drug driving, simple inattention (aka carelessness).

Avatar
Huw Watkins replied to flobble | 3 years ago
2 likes

 

Indeed; you are correct.  I shouldn't postulate without more information.

I stand by my Presumed Liability statement though.

Avatar
flobble replied to Huw Watkins | 3 years ago
0 likes

Huw Watkins wrote:

​That's really, really shit.

Indeed it is. V. sad. That's my neck of the woods too. Not that it matters for the victims.

However...

Huw Watkins wrote:

'Volkswagen Golf R' - speeding perhaps?

And also perhaps not. There is no information either way. Could also have been drink/drug driving, simple inattention (aka carelessness).

Avatar
cdamian replied to Huw Watkins | 3 years ago
1 like

Huw Watkins wrote:

'Volkswagen Golf R' - speeding perhaps?

288 hp hatchback, could be anything really.

RIP.

Avatar
kil0ran replied to cdamian | 3 years ago
4 likes

On a road where the speed limit is routinely broken as people ratrun to/from the M40

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to Huw Watkins | 3 years ago
2 likes

Huw Watkins wrote:

If this country really is serious about getting people onto bikes, it has to introduce Presumed Liability. 

Have you written to your MP?  We're in a very peculiar position at the moment, what with C19 and the most incompetent government in living memory, but they do seem to be receptive to improving things for cyclists.

Do it today; who knows how much longer it'll last.

Avatar
tarquin_foxglove replied to Huw Watkins | 3 years ago
0 likes

Huw Watkins wrote:

That's really, really shit.

Agreed.

Huw Watkins wrote:

If this country really is serious about getting people onto bikes, it has to introduce Presumed Liability.  The UK is one of only 5 European countries where it does not exist - the others being Malta, Cyprus, Romania & Ireland.

Presumed liability is a purely civil process not a criminal one.
In this case, it would be up to the driver/insurance company to show the driver wasn't at fault in any compensation action by the families. It would have no bearing on any criminal proceedings brought against the driver.

Given we have presumed liability to an extent with regards to one car driving into the rear of another, which doesn't seem to have stopped tailgating and indeed seems to have encouraged a new dangerous behaviour of brake checking the vehicle behind, I fail to see how its introduction would be a panacea for all of the driving ills we all experience on a daily basis. 

 

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