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Sixth fatality of 2015 as cyclist killed in crash on A37Broken bike (CC licensed image by garryknight, www.flickr.com)

Sixth fatality of 2015 as cyclist killed in crash on A37

Second cyclist death in two months on Dorchester bypass
by John Stevenson
Fri, Jan 09, 2015 08:17
9

The grim opening to 2015 continued last night with the sixth cyclist fatality of the year, in Dorchester.

An as-yet-unnamed 46-year old man cycling along the A37 at Dorchester when he was involved in a collision with one or more vehicles, according to police reports.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Three rapid response vehicles and two ambulances from South Western Ambulance Service attended the crash. A spokesman for the service was unable to say how many casualties there were but told the Dorset Echo: “Both of the ambulances conveyed patients to hospital.”

Police are appealing for witnesses to the collision, which happened at around 6.40pm on Thursday January 8 2015, between the Weirs roundabout and Loders garage.

It's the second fatality on the A37 near Dorchester in less than two months.

On Friday, November 28 2014 a 55-year-old man was killed when he was hit by a car between the Weir and Monkeys Jump roundabouts.

Dorset Police are appealing for anyone who witnessed the latest collision to call PC Tim Gooding of the Dorset Police Traffic Unit on 101 quoting incident number 8:349.

Dorchester
Dorset Police
A37
Fatality
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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9 comments

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Mark By | 9 years ago
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First and foremost, my deepest sympathy for the family and friends of the victim, a 46-year old headmaster of a school in Yetminster.

The previous commentators do not seem to be aware of the report issued by the Dorset police stating that the cyclist was hit from behind by the car.

Also this collision did not occur on the A37; it happened on the B3147 which is the spur road running into Dorchester. I have cycled along it many times, including at about the same time as this incident occurred last Friday evening. This road is of good enough visibility and wide enough for a driver of a car to overtake a cyclist without endangering them.

Avatar
Simmo72 | 9 years ago
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well said mrmo

Avatar
Simmo72 | 9 years ago
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A terrible start to the year. I might be wrong but I'm getting an A road theme.

What is behind these tragic events? A lack of cycle lanes on key fast roads, idiot drivers, smart phones and gadgets, cars getting wider, poor cycling skills, increase of lorry speed limit.......which one is it......probably all of them, but the government is doing next to nothing about it.

Avatar
Paul_C | 9 years ago
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To paraphrase Admiral Beatty's comment when he observed his battle-cruisers blowing up under shellfire at Jutland... "There's something wrong with our roads..."

Avatar
mrmo replied to Paul_C | 9 years ago
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Paul_C wrote:

To paraphrase Admiral Beatty's comment when he observed his battle-cruisers blowing up under shellfire at Jutland... "There's something wrong with our roads..."

I know where you are coming from but your wrong, IMO, there is nothing wrong with the vast majority of roads and to blame the roads is to excuse the problem.

The real issue is drivers, to blame cars, roads, the sun etc. All that does is excuse the driver, "it isn't my fault, it was because....."

We need to stop looking at the external issues and place blame where it really belongs, if the sun is low the DRIVER should slow down, if the road is too narrow to overtake safely then the DRIVER shouldn't overtake, etc etc.

Avatar
FluffyKittenofT... replied to mrmo | 9 years ago
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mrmo wrote:
Paul_C wrote:

To paraphrase Admiral Beatty's comment when he observed his battle-cruisers blowing up under shellfire at Jutland... "There's something wrong with our roads..."

I know where you are coming from but your wrong, IMO, there is nothing wrong with the vast majority of roads and to blame the roads is to excuse the problem.

The real issue is drivers, to blame cars, roads, the sun etc. All that does is excuse the driver, "it isn't my fault, it was because....."

We need to stop looking at the external issues and place blame where it really belongs, if the sun is low the DRIVER should slow down, if the road is too narrow to overtake safely then the DRIVER shouldn't overtake, etc etc.

Wouldn't want to get into too much of an argument about this, as I think its not an open-and-shut question, but personally I do tend to blame the roads, because drivers are humans and humans just are, and always have been, a bit crap. That's just how we roll.

Roads can be made a lot better than they are, while I'm just far less hopeful about humans.

Avatar
mrmo replied to FluffyKittenofTindalos | 9 years ago
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FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

Wouldn't want to get into too much of an argument about this, as I think its not an open-and-shut question, but personally I do tend to blame the roads, because drivers are humans and humans just are, and always have been, a bit crap. That's just how we roll.

Which suggests that the the driving test needs to be FAR harder to reduce the number of crap humans out there on the roads. And is humans are a bit crap really an acceptable excuse for those who are killed and injured each year?

Quote:

Roads can be made a lot better than they are, while I'm just far less hopeful about humans.

undoubtedly!

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peted76 | 9 years ago
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http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/breaking-cyclist-die...

Avatar
Bez | 9 years ago
1 like

[sorry—added something I now see you've already mentioned]

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