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Cycling in London lucky escape.pngVideo: you'll never guess what happens after this cyclist tries to avoid the pedestrians
A cyclist's helmet camera has captured the moment a driver cuts across his path at a junction in Fulham, leaving him with a fractured wrist and bruising.
The video, titled Cycling Accident in London - Lucky Escape, shows some of the challenges of cycling in the UK: Myles Gatherer is riding toward a T-junction in a bike lane, before moving out to avoid two people crossing the road, while at the same time a driver, coming from the opposite direction, is turning right.
The driver proceeds into Gatherer's path, and the moment of impact and cries of pain are captured as he hits the car, rolls across the bonnet and onto the ground.
Myles Gatherer told the Evening Standard: "When approaching the green lights two pedestrians crossed in front of me.
"I took the decision to manoeuvre around the pedestrians, after I cleared the pedestrians I entered the junction.
"When I entered the junction it became clear that a vehicle located at the oncoming side of the road intended to move across my trajectory."
Gatherer was not seriously hurt, fortunately.
Some viewers have expressed the opinion the rider should have slowed down for the pedestrians.
YouTube commenter 95Gabe said: "If he had braked when he saw them...like a motorist would...he would have been going slow enough to avoid the collision. I am not absolving the motorist, but I suspect the cyclist was hidden behind the pedestrians which were crossing the road. Given that they were there the motorist probably thought it was safe to turn."
What do you think?
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
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84 comments
There is a differnce between being able to avoid a danger and being *responsible* for that danger.
Had the cyclist stopped in time before being hit, the driver would still have been careless in pulling out and not looking out for oncoming traffic.
With thinking like yours, perhaps you should consider becoming a magistrate? You'd fit right in.
But he didn't, did he? He was travelling too fast to react quickly enough to do so. And if you follow that logic through at a human level, perhaps the motorists decision to make the manoevre was because he did not see the slender missile hurtling towards him until it was too late or if he did he did not expect it to be travelling at an an out of control speed in a built up area?
But under the law he is obliged to look out for other road users, be them slim, fat, in a car, on a motorbike or whatever.
I think you are over egging how fast he was going. Probably less than 30mph. Missile? Hardly.
It's the drivers fault plain and simple — he pulled out into oncoming traffic (oncoming traffic that was acting lawfully) and caused a collision.
The cyclists size, or what he is wearing, or whether he shoulder checked, or whether you consider him to be hurtling is irrelevant.
Nah, this is irrelevant
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Loxodonta_africana_-...(Ngorongoro,_2009).jpg
I found the moron.
Out of control speed? He was well within the speed limit. Cyclists can't win - harassed for going too slow, but apparently within the speed limit is too fast. Personally I would have slowed down around the pedestrians but he certainly wasn't obliged to do so.
If the driver couldn't see what was behind the pedestrians, he shouldn't have pulled out. It's as simple as that.
Irrelevant.
You can be going too fast for the conditions well under the speed limit. The two can be mutually exclusive.
I think that is what is meant by 'out of control speed' in this case - ie too fast for the conditions.
Having said that, the driver is definately to blame as he should have given way. The cyclist should have approached the junction more slowly.
It makes no difference what speed the cyclist was doing the driver had no intention of stopping and, however fast you say the rider was going, the car was moving slowly and deliberately and had plenty of time to stop quickly. As I said earlier the driver had a clear line of sight after the pedestrian in the red jacket had crossed but chose to drive forwards anyway across the path of the rider and was still moving when he hit him.
It seems common sense isn't so common after all.
This road is on my daily commute and, despite its width, is a very major road so using the excuse of "he did not expect it to be travelling at an an out of control speed in a built up area" simply doesn't hold.
It is when you want to live to see tomorow ...
You need to change your user name...
No need, I just dropped by to stir things up a bit ...
Hazard in the road (pedestrians) should have been slowed for. As should the junction. The fact he didn't is an indication he was going a bit quick and wanted to maintain momentum.
The driver is also in the wrong. Basics of advanced riding and advanced driving are TTR Time to React.
Neither gave themselves time or space to avoid the collision.
I used to have a driver working on my team that had constant little collisions. He swore it wasn't his fault every time. I had to go out an assess his driving which was poor. He was always wanting to push on. Between putting in my report and him being asked to go on a remedial course he had another little incident.
"it wasn't my fault" he said "she just pulled out in front of me."
and my reply was that people pull out in front of other people all the time. But most of the time if you aren't driving too fast you can usually stop before you hit them.
And I don't go in for the how to split the 100% between the parties. They were both, in this case, 100% at fault.
If you play it frame by frame you'll see the cyclist was clear of the pedestrians as he enters the junction. You'll also see that there is a pedestrian walking across the junction that the car driver is waiting to turn into. It could be the case that the drivers attention was fixed on the pedestrian on the junction he was going into and therefore failed to look ahead again before turning. Had he/she been paying proper attention to the road ahead the driver would have had ample time to see the cyclist coming towards him/her IMO.
This is precisely why I always haver a flashing front light when I ride in London - it makes you that much more visible. Can't see if this rider had a front light?
The rider certainly wasn't hanging about and dozy pedestrians are always a hazard in London ... or any town/city, really.
He has a Lezyne Microdrive or similar on his helmet... can't tell what mode it's in though.
I rode through this junction every day on my commute for about 2 years, and it's really common for cars to pull way further in to that turn than is comfortable, as if they're edging in to see if you'll give way.
I'm mostly surprised I didn't see this sooner, I'm sure it's a pretty frequent event. I hope the rider has a full and fast recovery and doesn't let the incident put him off what is still the best way to get around London.
Yes, driver clearly at fault. He/she should not have done this, even though the cyclist was obscured by the pedestrians.
Note also that the cyclist also pulled out without looking, to avoid the pedestrians . The camera is helmet mounted, so would have clearly shown a glance over the shoulder. Yet there were none during the entire video, and so the cyclist could not have been fully aware of what was behind/right of him, potentially moving faster, and which would have been forced into the bollards or the opposite side of the road.
Muppetry in motion, all around. And as usual, it's the more vunerable who come off worst.
OK,
Driver is at fault but the cyclist doesn't help himself and contributes to the accident.
Cyclist was way too fast to be in the bike lane.
Should be slowing down when the pedestrians cross the road.
Should be slowing down on the approach to a junction and anticipating what others may do.
Being in the right doesn't stop you being dead.
All of this - Riders in a built-up area should be thinking ahead a lot more, giving yourself the space and time to react to avoid potential incidents. The loss of two to three seconds pace here could have prevented this. (to be fair I would've probably slowed enough to give them an earful for crossing on a Red Man)
And, if the peds hadn't been there is it likely the car would've still hit him anyway?
An unfortuante set of events, his speed was quite high, maybe could of helped himself by slowing a little when peds were crossing road, the pedestrians distracted his attention, the car didn't pay full attention to oncoming traffic. He is going to spend 6-10weeks thinking about the accident.
Always watch out of cars turning across your path. Drivers don't look properly and you need to have room to stop or avoid.
As everyone has pointed out, in strictly legal terms the driver is at fault. In 'I am on a thin piece of metal with no protection surrounded by big metal boxes of death travelling far faster than I can' terms, the cyclist should have at least slowed down slightly when those (admittedly stupid) pedestrians stepped out in front of him.
100% the driver's fault IMO - he/she turned across through traffic - the cyclist was in primary position after going round the pedestrians and the driver has responsibility to check the road is free before moving...
However, if you follow the advice my grandad gave to my mum in the late 50s when teaching her to drive and "assume everyone else on the road is an idiot" the driver clearly presented a risk to the cyclist...
So, as in many incidents IMO, the driver caused the incident and should be on a charge of careless driving, but, given the lousy standard of driving in the UK, the rider could have anticipated such a stupid move and taken avoiding action e.g. slowed up when he saw the car trying to turn right...
Personally I'd like to see massive encouragment for all cyclists to take Bikeability - not in terms of victim-blaming, but teaching the skills to stay safe when the standard of driving and pedestrians is so low and represents a constant risk
Driver was obviously completely in the wrong but Mr Gatherer lacked a sensible amount of caution heading into that situation, it can't just have been me that saw what was coming from frame one of the film, no?
This is what it's like riding in Brighton - pedestrians simply don't give a fuck!
Also, what's with the rubbish click bait style "headline" for this? It's Road.cc, we all know what's coming next!
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