Accidental death verdict in case of Retford teenager hit by lorry

The Retford Times strongly suggests that Callum wasn't paying attention because he was listening to music, despite the fact that the assistant coroner said this was unclear. Given that cyclists who wear earphones are constantly assumed to be distracted, it's not unreasonable to ask the same about the driver.

Cases like this are hard to judge because the only evidence is that of the driver. Although I don't use earphones myself I get wound up when they are assumed to be contributory in the incident. Correlation does not equal causation. If it did then the wearing of shoes would be more causal because more cyclists involved in incidents are wearing shoes than using earphones.

The fact that the he was wearing headphones is a complete red herring, what if he had been deaf? Would he still be blamed for the bad road and vehicle design? What we need is Sustainable Safety (“Duurzaam veilig” in Dutch), not victim blaming.

I would suggest the cause of this death can be seen on the road just after the junction with South St "END" is written in that excuse for a cycle lane.

Callum will have ridden over that many times and without the knowledge we all have to just ignore painted cycle guidance because its more dangerous than just riding on the road knew the painted lane was ending and perhaps feeling under pressure from traffic made the choice to get out of the way early before the junction, then crossing the junction from the pavement unexpectadly into the path of an inattentively driven truck.

Very, very sad and IMO another case of our cycling provision making cycling more not less dangerous.

PS the people making comment about headphones should shut the **** up .

"Here is the scene of the accident on Google Maps.

It is a really odd manoeuvre that Callum made"

Very sad case - but the Coroner should have have invited a cycling expert to comment on the very poor road layout for cyclists and why Callum may have made his fatal mistake -

my take on the manoevre that Callum made is that being a relatively inexperienced cyclist he did what a lot of inexperienced cyclists do when under pressure from vehicles - reverted to the pavement and became in effect a fast moving pedestrian - I'd speculate that did this because he was in a very narrow cycle lane that ended soon AND has a slow moving largish truck waiting to turn left on his tail - my suspicion is that was well aware of holding up the truck but hadn't worked out it was turning left rather than trying to pass and exited the cycle lane early feeling under pressure to allow it to pass
Speculation but think the Coroner needed to walk in Callum's shoes a bit and should have challenged the road layout and made a recommendation that teenagers should get a top up on bikeability at Secondary

Did the driver have their stereo on high volume?

wow, the Dutch would be looking to prevent this in future by eliminating the conflict, not fscking victim blaming to absolve the real perpertrators of this travesty of typical British cr@pfrastructure...

Nothing to do with wearing headphones.
Sounds like he crossed the side road without doing the stop, look bit, listen is irrelevant.
You would hope the driver would have taken more care with a child on a bike alongside a truck she acknowledges has blind spots, but doesn't seem like she in any way caused it.

Blindspot? What blindspot?

http://mccraw.co.uk/sorry-mate-i-cant-see-blind-spot/

so ... knowing your vehicle has inherent blind spots and that you
had previously seen the cyclist means you take no extra steps
to ensure the cyclist is NOT in a danger zone ???

not how I was taught my hgv .....

Here is the scene of the accident on Google Maps.

It is a really odd manoeuvre that Callum made, to ride along the pavement there. The fatal thing was to cross the mouth of South Street without looking over his shoulder. He clearly felt safer cycling past the ESSO garage on the pavement, but I don't see why.

The road is probably horrible to cycle along when the traffic is busy. The on road cycle lanes are typically rubbish. Guidelines are for them to be 2 m wide, or 1.5 m minimum. If the cycle lane was not there, bike training would teach you to "take the lane" and ride further out.

I don't understand how the lorry driver could have seen him angle his bike as if he was going down South Street, and also claim that she couldn't see him because of the blind spots her lorry had.

I don't know about other people, but I can't tell the difference between the sound of a lorry about to pass me 3 inches from my elbow(like normal) or one that going to drive over the top of me.

I be interested to know who's evidence it was that he didn't check over his shoulder before rejoined the road, in wonder if it was the driver of the lorry. Not to suggest that she would have a vested interest in that being what happened or anything like that!

headphones , maybe did not help ?

feel sorry for the family and the driver

I read the poor design of the truck and the on/off pavement cycling routes favoured in the UK contributed to this collision.

I read the poor design of the truck and the on/off pavement cycling routes favoured in the UK contributed to this collision.

“The collision appears to have been a tragic combination of Miss Howson’s assumption as to Callum’s direction of travel, together with an apparent failure on Callum’s part to check before re-entering the carriageway onto South Street.

Condolences to Callum's family and (in this case) sympathy to the driver.

But why no mention poor infrastucture that enabled this to happen?

Not familiar with the scene but it sounds similar to a shared use path on Princess Parkway in Manchester that drops from the pavement on to the carriageway at bus stops and a garage forecourt.

What a waste of a young life.