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A371 near Locking.pngGirl killed during family bike ride struggled with gears and veered into road
A seven year-old girl was killed after struggling with her gears and swerving into the path of a car while cycling alongside a busy A road near Weston-super-Mare. April Reeves’ parents have called for the 60mph speed limit to be dropped to 40mph and a grass verge to be created between the road and cycleway to prevent future incidents.
The Western Morning News reports how April was riding a small mountain bike along a shared footpath and cyclepath next to the A371 near RAF Locking on Thursday May 28 when she lost control of her bike and swerved into the path of a Skoda Yeti driven by Peter Farmer.
April was riding behind her mother, Wendy, and older brother, Tyler. PC Julian Chambers, who attended the scene, told the inquest:
"Mrs Reeves said she was struggling with operating the gears because she was not used to them. She was riding in sixth gear, which is the last and most difficult gear to cycle in. It is possible April was trying to change gear while she was moving. She lost control of the bike and fell off the kerb."
Chambers told the inquest there was nothing Peter Farmer could have done to avoid the schoolgirl crashing into the front side of his car.
Jeremy Spearing, who had been driving on the opposite side of the road, said there had been a gap of up to 30m between the three cyclists. He saw April wobbling on her bike before she fell.
"April started to wobble. I could see her wheel turning left towards the road and noticed she was close to it. Within five metres of passing I heard a noise like an empty cardboard box being hit with a baseball bat. I knew straight away she had been hit."
Peter Farmer said he saw April in his peripheral vision as he drove past, looking unsteady or not in control of her bike.
"I cannot describe the sound. I just knew something had happened and I instinctively veered to the right but there was oncoming traffic."
Another witness, Shirley Hobson said she was travelling behind Farmer and did not register any concerns about his driving.
The inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Since the accident in May there has been a campaign to lower the speed limit on the 60mph road. After the hearing, April’s father, Garry, said:
"I just want the road changed so the speed limit is lower and there is a safe crossing point especially up by the school. I would like there to be a grass verge running along the side of the road like the rest of the cycle paths in Weston. There is no protection between that road and that path at all.
"Like my little son said, on that day if there had been a grass verge his sister would be here today. We think 60mph is way too fast for speed on that road and prevention is much better than cure. Why wait until more and more accidents and deaths are being reported to then change the road? Why can't it be done now? Why wait? Why risk more lives when there is a cure?"
Following the inquest, a spokesman for North Somerset Council told the Bristol Post:
"Our sympathies are with the family at what must continue to be a heart-breaking time for them.
"Although it is clear that the road condition and vehicle speeds played no part in this tragedy, we did say at the time of the accident that there were already improvements being planned as a result of the new residential and employment development taking place at Locking Parklands.
"We had been in discussions with the local school and had moved flashing warning lights nearer to the current crossing point on the A371. We have also completed the work in conjunction with the school and parish council to create an extension to the school car park to encourage parents not to drop off children on the main road.
"We are now progressing the planned widened cycle/pedestrian path from Locking Parklands down to the Laneys Drove junction; funding for this has been identified from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund. The design work has been completed and we are waiting for confirmation of a start date. Where space allows there will be a grass strip between the road and the footway.
"Design work has also begun on the north-south road link across the site which will require a traffic-light junction on the A371 with new pedestrian crossing facilities. This will enable us to review the speed limit here but no decisions have been made yet as to what that limit should be or the extent of a reduced limit.
"We will carefully study any comments we get from the coroner and respond to them appropriately."
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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49 comments
Not really. You can pass a single test of your competence at the age of 17 and drive for 60 years without any further testing. This is not tolerated in the workplace, why is it tolerated on the roads?
It doesn't matter what shape you make a ton of anything travelling at 60mph. If it hits you, it will likely kill you. I assert that the level of training and testing undertaken by private car drivers is not commensurate with the level of risk they post to other road users.
Disclosure - I love cars. But I think that the plodders would benefit from more training and the speeders should test their skills on a racetrack.
It really isn't. Not when people can just cram to get through a test and then immediately forget at least half of it, and just operate on the single rule "it's fine if I get away with it". (And not when there are so many drivers still driving around with huge numbers of points, all pleading 'exceptional hardship')
The vast majority of the 'various safety rules' that make cars 'like blobs' are there for the benefit of those inside the vehicle. And yeah, clearly the industry is _desperately_ concerned about the well-being of those outside the vehicle (who aren't their paying customers) - that must be why they were so scrupulous about sticking to the spirit of emissions limits.
There's no comparison in the lethality of cyclists, don't be silly. Since when has a terrorist ever staged an attack by cycling into a crowd of pedestrians?
1800 people a year are killed by these 'not weapons' hiow does that stack up against knives? knives are tools, but in the wrong hands can become weapons the same is true for motor vehicles.
cars may be heavily regulated, but any chump can buy any car, regardless of power once they pass a single test, which they may attempt as many times as they like, until they get conditions benign enough for them to pass.
no minimum period between tests, and no requirement for further training.
Motorcycle licences are graded based on age and experience, the same does not apply for cars, relying instead on prohibitive insurance costs to keep inexperienced drivers out of high powered machines.
Considering there are more uninsured drivers on the roads than cyclists this seems to be a vain hope.
By far the greatest advances in motor vehicle safety are aimed at safety of the occupants not vulnerable roads users.
Yes. This is the basic tenet of driving in a safe, defensive manner. Your incredulity only reinforces my belief that most people don't give a shit about anything but getting to their destination in the absolute shortest time and bugger everyone else.
I'm reminded of a time when I got a lift from a colleague that involved a section of twisty B-road. He was showing off about how fast his car could take corners. I was just thinking to myself, "it's a good job there's been nothing else around these blind bends" when we rounded a corner to find a slow moving tractor, which we piled straight into the back of. No injuries but to the driver's pride, but it could easily have been someone on a bike.
This is how most people drive.
Most people drive under the speed limit from my experiences. As the elderly population increases and the 'on the phone' generation increases, this seems to be more likely than speeding. I spend most of my time in the car thinking 'get a move on' as some old boy does 35 in a 60 in perfect conditions.
The only place where people seem to actually drive at any decent speed is the motorway but that's to be expect given its basically a straight line.
Not my experience at all, not remotely. Unless there's significant congestion (which, admittedly, there is a lot of the time), exceeding the speed limit is almost universal. Usually by up to 10 mph, but late at night or in the early hours it can mean hitting 60 or 70 on 20mph limit roads.
Probably depends on the area of the country.
I suppose it depends on the demographics of your local area, but I agree that dangerous driving doesn't have to involve excess speed. I'd rather be overtaken by a car breaking the speed limit but giving me loads of room than someone dawdling along, passing me with inches to spare and taking twenty seconds to complete the manoeuvre.
Too many people see driving as a chore, something to be done in the background while you do something more important like read your texts or chat on the phone. They're bored; they just want to get the journey over with. Inattention and haste are a lethal combination.
Worst passers are Honda Jazz drivers creeping past, flat cap on, neck fixed in position, inches to spare....but at least they indicate when they pull back in, once again inches in front of you now.
A tragedy but throughout my life I have been told that adults should put themselves between children and traffic whether walking or cycling and looking at the poath there was certainly room for this to happen.
I leave it to other commentators to come to their own conclusions but before anyone criticises me for this, look at the comments on the earlier story about the girl who is campaigning for compulsory helmets in Flanders because she fell off a bike and ended up with brain damage. Similar scenario different outcome.
Sadly she shouldnt have been anywhere near the road until proficient.
That's as maybe, but why are our roads so dangerous? This is a tragic accident but it's worth evaluating what's more important to us as a society - fast transport or safe environment or maybe some way of having both.
Tragic. Hope her family is coping and hasn't given up cycling. I wish motorists would slow down when approaching vulnerable road users (e.g. cyclists, pedestrians, horse riders) whether they be using the pavement or the road. It's considerate and conscientious to do so, IMO.
Absolutely hideous incident, poor little thing.
However I can't stand this blame shifting, that road is a 60mph road all day long. Personally I wouldn't have wanted my daughter riding along that path when she was seven, and if she did she would have been riding where I could see her, not that that would have necessarily made a difference in this instance.
Yes a grass verge seperator might have made a difference, but it might not.
Just absolutely tragic.
In the Netherlands, every driving instructor will teach prospect drivers to be cautious near children, and very much so if they don't look confident.
Considering how 'patient' way too many drivers in the UK are around other traffic (including cyclists) 'nothing he could have done' raises some questions for me.
Most British driving instructors will teach that too. Doesn't mean anyone bothers once they've passed their once-in-a-lifetime test.
I think it's also worth remembering that this horror show was in North Somerset, where as a funding wheeze to redirect tiny cycling budgets to improve motorway access, the council built a cycle lane in the central reservation of the approach and junction 21 of the M5 with no way to reach it from any other cycle lane, which the councillor responsible lied that it's perfectly safe but refused to ride on it when the BBC reporter asked, yet still motorists whine in the local papers about cyclists riding on the road instead of these council deathtraps! I like good cycle lanes but some of North Somerset's are disgusting.
I regularly cycle through J21 on the M5 to reach the A370 and you're so right about that cycle path. I'd forgotten it was even there as it is of no use at all. I just stay on the road rather than having to cross an extra lane of traffic to be able to reach the "cycle" path. These days, I mainly ignore cycle paths as they're so badly designed and not fit for purpose.
It doesn't have to be that way - just see the recent video of what's being built in London - but it is in most of North Somerset.
God that's awful. For everyone.
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