A cyclist has called for fly-tipping drivers’ licences to be revoked after he lost a quarter of his skull in a devastating crash caused by a dismantled asbestos-riddled shed dumped by a motorist on a blind bend.
66-year-old Colin Appleton was riding his bike on his usual rural loop near Brentwood, Essex on 18 September 2024 when he hit a nail protruding from a piece of the garden shed, left strewn across three-quarters of Lincolns Lane by tree surgeon Craig Frewin.
The nail caused one of Appleton’s tyres to puncture and split, throwing him from his bike, and he crashed heavily, suffering a severe head injury. He was later found by a delivery driver and subsequently airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries. He was unconscious for three weeks after the crash and given a 10 per cent survival rate by doctors.
Appleton spent the next seven months in hospital, undergoing emergency surgery to remove a significant section of his skull. He also suffered a shoulder fracture in three places and broken ribs, while since the crash the left side of his body has been weakened and he continues to experience severe headaches and brain fog.
“When I came round, I had no memories – nothing at all,” he told the Echo this week. “I had no memories with my family or with my kids, I weren’t even sure what their names were.
“I couldn’t eat, I could barely talk or walk. I had a tube into my stomach which is how I was fed. I didn’t know where I was, what I was doing, or even what I was saying.”
Appleton, a self-employed double-glazing service engineer, has been unable to work since the crash, while the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has taken his driving licence away.
“I don’t think I’m going to get my licence back,” he said. “I wanted to work at least another five years and I’m gutted I can’t drive. “I’ve got no way of getting round apart from the bus or on the train and so I haven’t got my independence.”
As we reported last month, 36-year-old Craig Frewin was sentenced to 16 months in prison for causing danger to road users by “deliberately and cynically” fly-tipping the dismantled shed, according to Judge Samantha Cohen.
A trial in April heard that Frewin had cleared a garden in Havering and took the waste, using a hired tipper truck, to his usual disposal site, where he was told that they couldn’t take the shed because it was full of asbestos.
Frewin then dumped the shed on Lincolns Lane, shortly before Appleton’s crash. Essex Police said CCTV footage was used to identify the hired lorry by matching the dismantled shed loaded in the tipper truck with the rubbish found at the scene. The rubbish was subsequently removed by a specialist asbestos company at a cost to Essex County Council of £1,660.
In a letter read in Southend Crown Court, Frewin said he felt “deep remorse” about the crash and was “painfully aware that no words can undo the harm that has been caused”.
Judge Cohen told him: “You were fly-tipping asbestos to avoid having to pay to deal with it properly. I am satisfied that you committed this offence deliberately and cynically.”
Speaking this week, Appleton said: “I was caught on our doorbell camera leaving to go cycling, and caught on other cameras just before the accident.
“If I’d had a helmet on, I might not have been injured as badly as I was. But he tipped it in the lane itself – he didn’t even try and put it to one side – and it was full of asbestos.”
The cyclist said he was “surprised but glad” at the length of Frewin’s sentence and hopes it will act as a deterrent to other fly-tippers.
“I wanted to see justice done,” he said. “I’ve never fly-tipped or even dropped a bit of rubbish out my car window. I think it’s stupid.
“Frewin’s sentencing is a bit of a deterrent and I hope that going to make a change. People may think it’s not that serious but I have really suffered.”
> Fly-tipping lorry driver jailed after cyclist seriously injured by “lethal hazard”
He continued: “I thought he might get a driving ban and serve six weeks in prison – but they’ve given him a 16-month sentence and he’s got to serve at least six of it.
“It wasn’t just dangerous for me. If there’d been a motorbike or car, they might have gotten punctures as well. The lanes are so narrow, you couldn’t really go round it and if something was coming the other way, you’d be in great trouble.
“I wish fly-tippers wouldn’t do it. There’s talk about cancelling their licences and retaking their tests if they’re caught and I think that’s a good idea. They should be coming up with ideas that are going to put people off.”
In his victim impact statement read in court, Appleton underlined the severity of the crash and the impact it’s had on his life.
“Sometimes I wish I had died. Life is never going to be the same as it was before the accident,” he said.
Following Frewin’s sentencing, Detective Constable Alan Marks, who led the investigation, said: “Fly-tipping isn’t just an eyesore – it can be a lethal hazard. In this case, rubbish dumped across a country lane caused a cyclist to come off his bike and suffer a devastating head injury, leaving him with no recollection of what happened and months of hospital treatment.
“This family’s life has been changed forever, and it simply did not need to happen. If you produce waste, you have a responsibility to dispose of it legally and safely – and if you pay someone to take it away, make sure they’re a licensed waste carrier. Fly-tips can contain sharp or hazardous items and can put the public at real risk.”
15 thoughts on ““Sometimes I wish I had died”: Cyclist had quarter of his skull removed after fly-tipped, asbestos-riddled shed on blind bend caused “catastrophic” crash”
I wish we had a duty to be a “fit and proper person” to have a valid driving license in the UK.
If you’re specifically using a vehicle to commit a crime you couldn’t carry out otherwise it should be an instant ban and you should have to prove you’ve turned your life around before you get your license back.
Courts have the power to impose a driving ban for a non-driving offence, although I don’t think it’s used very often.
Sentencing Act 2020 – https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/17/group/THIRD/part/8/chapter/1/enacted
If you stab someone and they die that’s murder, if you stab someone and a doctor saves them that’s attempted murder.
If you create a hazard and kill someone that’s manslaughter, if you create a hazard and a doctor saves them that’s fly tipping.
Horrific story, but these days it’s so silly to not be wearing a helmet. As the article proves, you literally don’t know what’s round the corner. His injuries may have been no different of course, but why take the chance?
Don’t forget motorbike armour / knee / elbow pads.
Since “he also suffered a shoulder fracture in three places and broken ribs,” … without full leathers he could have died from internal injuries / damaged his spine with terrible consequences also.
Why take a chance?
Where does the article say he was wearing full leathers?
I’ve bashed my unprotected knee a few times and been fine after a day or two. I don’t want to think about bashing my unprotected head, though.
@robgodd er… if your point was “not taking a chance” why would you limit your actions to reduce your chance of serious injury or death just to head protection capable of fairly mild damage mitigation in certain circumstances?
Mine has certainly helped save me from bangs from overhanging foliage, which would probably have been fine after less than a day, but would it have helped here? We don’t know.
Indeed: what has changed “these days” about blind corners? Perhaps that’s the issue and one should just slow to walking pace? (Of course that would probably increase your risk from following motorists who … don’t).
I think “illegal road obstruction-> talk about helmets” is missing several points and indeed “these are not the cyclists you’re looking to inform”.
If it makes you feel better though…
The poor guy himself said “If I’d had a helmet on, I might not have been injured as badly as I was”. This story wouldn’t have been reported if he hadn’t been so badly hurt.
@robgodd The poor guy himself suffered a traumatic brain injury and his skull was so badly shattered a significant portion of it had to be removed – do me a favour, have a look around cycling helmet manufacturers and see if any of them claim the foam hats they produce will protect against or even mitigate that level of injury.
I’ll wait if you like, but I can save us both the time and tell you what you’ll find: none of them. Not a single one of them will. Because they don’t, and they *can’t* based on simple physics. Once the point of failure in a material is reached all(or as near as makes no odds) of the additional force beyond that necessary threshhold transfers through to the object beneath. Since bicycle helmets are rated for forces roughly equivalent to being dropped straight down from a stationary start 1.5m above a hard surface. Now, I’m not an expert in vehicle crash investigation, but I’m *fairly* sure that any impact or series of impacts powerful enough to render a quarder of your skull into gravel, put you in a weeks-long coma, give you massive amnesia, and leave you with ongoing symptoms of traumatic brain injury are a little bit, a teeny-weeny amount, a little smidgeon-widgeon more than what bike helmets are rated for. That’s why none of the companies that make them claim they will help in such circumstances: because they know it would be a lie, and that unlike uninformed punters, carbrained journalists, or “medical professionals” who think wearing a helmet would save you from a broken arm(an actual scenario encountered by a mate, who’s nurse at the A&E tutted and harrumphed her way through his whole treatment due to his lack of helmet despite his bonce having come through *being hit by a car* – another scenario bike helmets are worthless in – completely unscathed), the lawyers for those companies know their business and understand that if you lie in advertising you will get sued into the ground.
@yodhrin I believe the fairer summary is “we don’t know – but making the main point advocating a form of PPE with relatively limited protection – and to a group of likely experienced cyclists – isn’t very helpful…”
I’ve only read one of the reports but that suggested the skull removal was to alleviate pressure from major brain swelling. And a given helmet *might* be better than the standard. So I think “don’t know” is fairest.
@robgodd I take the chance because I find wearing a helmet uncomfortable and I find it affects my ability to build up a mental picture of what’s happening around me as it affects my hearing. It’s personal preference of course but to me the risk is worthwhile. I do wear a helmet when it’s raining and at night as I have a light on it. In these circumstances the balance of risk is shifted for me personally.
It’s easy to be wise after the event but you do have a point. If your main aim is to minimise risk of a head injury from falling off your bike then always wear a helmet.
Chocks away lads…
Presumably Mr Appleton will be taking out a civil case against Frewin and his insurers and possibly the owner of the shed?
The judiciary have been quite happy handing out near maximum prison sentences to otherwise peaceful climate protestors who cause the closure of roads yet hand out very limited ones who to those that cause real life long harm and virtually nothing to those that cause vastly greater delay and disruption through their utterly irresponsible driving.
It would amount to a contravention of Article 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 to sentence Mr Frewin to cleaning up similarly dumped asbestos with a rolled up £10 note and a Friday night toilets technique, as part of a community payback scheme.
I make no presumption or judgement on how practiced he may or may not be at such activities.