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news
Cat and Fiddle (picture credit- Philip Halling, Wikimedia Commons).jpgFather of three killed by a car on Britain’s most dangerous road
Tributes have been paid to a father of three who was killed by a car while cycling on the Cat and Fiddle - one of Britain’s most dangerous stretches of road.
Guy Andrew Wharton, 46, was hit by a blue Renault Clio on the A537 Buxton New Road in Macclesfield on Tuesday at about 5.20pm.
Police have arrested the driver, a 41-year-old man from Buxton, and are seeking witnesses to the collision. The driver has since been bailed.
His family said: “We are deeply shocked and saddened at the sudden and tragic loss of Guy, a loving father, husband, brother and son.
“He was a passionate cyclist and loved riding in the hills. He will be greatly missed.”
The science teacher at Tytherington School in Macclesfield was praised by his colleagues for his commitment.
In a statement on the school’s website, headteacher Emmanuel Botwe said: “It is with great regret that I inform you of the sudden death of the much-loved science teacher Guy Wharton. Mr Wharton was involved in a fatal road traffic accident on the A537.
“Mr Wharton will be hugely missed. He was a great teacher and arrived at Tytherington School in 2002. I would like to take this opportunity to extend our deepest sympathy to his wife and three children.”
Mr Wharton was discovered at the roadside by driving instructor Ian Brown, who tried to save his life when he came across the scene during a driving lesson.
He and a passing nurse attempted CPR until the arrival of the emergency services.
Ian, 55, from Abacus Driving School, told the Buxton Advertiser: “This was a terrible tragedy for the family who got heart-breaking news and it weighs heavily on my mind and my heart goes out to them completely.”
Cheshire police are appealing for anyone who witnessed the collision, which happened at around 5.20pm on Tuesday, and has information to contact them on 101, quoting incident 688 of June 7.
Back in 2010 we reported how the A537, well known to cyclists as the Cat & Fiddle, topped a list of Britain’s ten most persistently dangerous roads.
The Road Safety Foundation said that the single carriageway road, which has a speed limit of 50mph, is particularly hazardous for motorcyclists, with police records showing that “the vast majority of casualties were motorcyclists, from outside the local area, male, and with an average age of 35.”
It added that factors contributing to the road’s danger were its “severe bends, steep falls from the carriageway and is edged by dry-stone walls or rock face for almost all of its length,” and added that the number of fatalities and serious collisions there had seen a 127% rise from 15 to 34 between 2006 and 2008.
Lee Murphy, Manager of the Cheshire Safer Roads Partnership, said at the time: "The Cat & Fiddle does have a bit of a challenge mentality, and a minority do try to ride it as fast as they can.
He continued: "I think there's almost a 'badge' of 'I've ridden the Fiddle.' It's like climbing Everest or swimming the Channel; it's something that people aspire to.
"But by highlighting this each year, I suppose we're perpetrating its reputation as 'the most dangerous road in Britain," he said, adding that “if you go on YouTube, you can see lots of people are filming themselves riding that route, which is fairly unusual thing to be doing."
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36 comments
The article and/or quotes from this are terrible, bunching cyclists and motorbike riders in together. As a cyclist the badge of honour is riding UP the Cat and Fiddle so I can't see excessive speeds being an issue on the whole (though you do see the odd video of a descent topping 50mph in parts). You can see from Old Ridge's comments that even in the laid back years the joy for a motorcyclist is pushing the limits somewhat, if you've managed to find a good line into a corner and hold 35mph then surely the next step is 36, 37, 38... Over the edge?
And to anyone reading this who has any connection with the unfortunate rider and his family, Willo does not represent us. RIP
Cat & Fiddle does have average speed cameras; unlike most average speed cameras they actually read from the rear so they can be used against motorbikes.
Problem is that not long after they were installed, people worked out the blind spots and it's actually pretty simple to belt it along then stop in a layby for a bit, turn around and belt it back again. Motorbikes still use it as a racetrack, they're just restricted to doing much shorter segments and having to stop for a while in between.
I was actually thnking of going over it on Tuesday evening, the day that Guy was killed but ended up getting home from work a bit late. I rode it this morning at about 8am, it was lovely and quiet, really still up there. It is a stunning road and personally I've never had any problems along it but it's used by everything from cyclists to lumbering trucks and caravans right up to fast motorbikes so there's often an element of frustration amongst motorists who are "held up" for a few seconds. The road sort of tempts you into faster speeds; it's quite open and has mostly good sightlines, however the corners catch people out - they often tighten up mid bend and there is absolutely no room for any error as you're straight off the side of it. It's also wide enough for 2 cars only. Not 2 cars and a bike so there's no room for manouvre if you screw it up.
The held up thing is undoubtedly real. Been there, felt that, when I was young, foolish, and drove like a cock. Particularly the case on what's seen as one of the best driving roads in the country - you take chances to get ahead of traffic so you can drive a road like that without anything in front. Looking back had so many near misses including one with my brother in the car involving a container lorry where I missed him by inches.
"barbarus
I'd almost prefer it if admin blocked comments on a thread regarding death or serious injury. If I was a family member of the cyclist concerned, I'd find all this petty point scoring pretty distasteful."
I'd definitely prefer it
'Killed by a car'.
So he's riding on the most dangerous road in Britain and seems that the probabilities of being hit are very high. So why is this news? Yes it's a tragedy but sadly predictable, no?
Troll? Tut Tut.
Maybe if people treated their cars with respect like the heavy weapons they actually are to other more vulnerable road users.
Drove with more consideration and well within the national speed limits and road conditions at hand.
Then there would be lot less of this type of sad news .......
Because we don't want cyclist deaths 'normalised' like pedestrian deaths that don't even make the news anymore.
Because we want people to know the reality of the carnage that cars are creating on the roads.
And maybe (In the long term.) we want to reverse this;
Britain's child pedestrian safety record is worse than the average for Europe, in contrast to the better than average all-ages figure.
Children's independent mobility is increasingly curtailed, with fear of traffic being cited as a dominant cause
Distances walked have declined more than in other European countries
Similar (though less well-defined) observations can be made regarding the elderly
Because if people are more willing to walk to the local shop or to school they are more likely to be willing to cycle a further distance and less car journeys is only a good thing. (Unless you are an oil company, but then I don't care for those, I care about my children.)
Or do you not think that it's ludicrous that my generation used to walk and bike to school (3 miles in my case.) no matter the weather, yet parents are now driving their kids the 1/2 mile to the bus stop?
@ pdjohnson
Thank you for this post. It contains more positive and productive thought than others have produced in 200+
I'll sign up. Please keep road.cc informed of any progress.
Cheers
Andy
Hi,
I live on The Cat & Fiddle and have mutual friends who knew Guy. Terrible news on my doorstep, literally.
I wrote an article http://bitly.com/thinkcyclist about the topic and since writing (and the article having 5000 reads in 24hrs) I have been inundated with feedback and similar stories, near misses etc.
I've called a meeting of Macclesfield cyclists tomorrow and have an idea for a campaign on social media to raise awareness of the vulnerability of cyclists.
Once our plan is cemented I will announce this on road.cc so perhaps readers will choose to get involved. My only aim is to try and reduce the chances of this happening again.
If you are interested in being one of the first to know please complete this form and I will email you http://bit.ly/signupIAM
Yes, I'm sure there will be comments that it is inevitable, and I am aware of the conflict between riders and drivers. But seriously, I don't want to read them, I will steer my efforts towards constructive and positive change, even if this takes a long time.
Thanks
Paul
Go on and your account while you're at it. Be nice just once.
No.
I'd almost prefer it if admin blocked comments on a thread regarding death or serious injury. If I was a family member of the cyclist concerned, I'd find all this petty point scoring pretty distasteful.
Agreed wholeheartedly
And here. I think that means it becomes law... Of course, we could all just *voluntarily* not comment on stories like this?
Guys, please don't feed the troll, he'll only come back and misquote you.
ADMIN:
How much deliberate mis-quoting and offensive trolling does L.Willo have to do to get blocked?
He's making this forum un-readable, I'm certainly visiting road.cc less directly because of this.
If ever there was a stretch of road that needed its speed limit dropping to 20mph with average speed cameras along it, then this is it.
Regards
Tony,
Bikesy.co.uk
My feeling is that if people stuck to the 40mph and 50mph limits and average speed cameras were installed, the casualty rate would be reduced significantly.
The tipper truck I saw that time as most certainly not doing the 40mph it was supposed to and I've seen many drivers totally nailing it along there. If this crash was caused by a car overtaking, thenit begs the question of how fast the car being overtaking was travelling at. And if it was travelling at the speed limit, then the overtaking vehicle would have been speeding.
The A9 had a terrible record for head on crashes due to bad overtakes. Since the average speed cameras were introduced, its safety record has improved enormously.
What gets me is the people who can afford to buy a hot sportsbike or a tuned up car can also easily afford to pay for a track day. I just don't get why they feel the need to race on the road.
The public road is no place for excessive speeding. And unfortunately, vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians all too often are those paying the price.
The Cat and Fiddle does have average speed cameras. The speed limit is 50 mph (most rural roads in Derbyshire have a 50mph limit). Not sure about the enforcement levels, but the police are seen up there quite a bit.
Very sad that there has been another fatal accident.
No.
Please either quote me accurately or do not quote me at all. You haven't "fixed" anything. Please do so.
It's a fantastic stretch of road, but also a highly unforgiving one. Mess up a corner and there's every chance you'll go off the road or hit a stone wall, or both. I've ridden it many times back when I had my Ducati. It's great on two wheels, whether or not you have an engine.
A lot of bikers go there basically to race and show off their skills, as do a lot of car drivers. The speed limits and speed cameras were introduced some years ago in a bid to cut the death toll, which they did though clearly not sufficiently.
The thing is, you can stick to the speed limit and still enjoy riding the road. On a sportsbike there's no need to wind up the speed and it's enough to focus on braking points and entries and exits to corners to get the lines right. I've never cycled along it, but if I'd taken one of my bikes with me, I'd certainly want to. On a bicycle too it's s winding stretch of road with corners that will chall;enge you to try and find the best line.
But too many people want to simply go as fast as they can because they're selfish. I've seen footage a year or so back of a bloke on a Kawasaki whose enthusiasm for speed clearly outweighed his skills and he was lucky to survive. One time when I was riding it on my Ducati, I spotted a complete nutcase in a four axle tipper truck, presumably from one of the many local quarries, and he was hammering along at a frightening speed. I pulled off the road as he approached and I remember watching him go thinking he was going to kill someone if he kept it up.
Average speed cameras have been introduced to the A9 in Scotland because of its bad record for road safety and I suspect the Cat & Fiddle run may soon get the same technology. It's a shame that immature and careless nutters make this necessary.
I hope the driver of the Renault gets an appropriate sentence. My condolences go to the family of the dead cyclist.
Yep. The structural hazards of the road are only dangerous when people drive like dicks on it.
So it's not a "dangerous" road - there are just dangerous drivers / riders.
Fixed. It. For. You.
The circumstances of this accident are still not clear apart from ..... it would seem that the driver left the injured cyclist by the side of the road rather than stopping to help and call the emergency services. If true, THAT is TOTALLY UNFORGIVABLE!
How dare you alter my words, using the "quote" function to make it look I've written something I didn't write.
Please edit it. You despicable little man.
Whilst it has not yet gone through a court of law, we all know that given the UK's current climate of road policing/judiciary/CPS apathy to vehicle-cyclist violence, for the police to actually arrest someone is pretty damning evidence that the driver was totally in the wrong. Come on here, essentially defend the driver, blame other victims with the pedantic 'everyone is equally to blame' BS inference, alter other commentor's words, then make out like PennineRider was the one out of order with.your.period.usage?
That's a spectacularly shitty thing to do there L.Willo. The guy has grieving family/friends, three kids, and loads of cycling mates who will probably come across this article. Check your soul. To any of the above reading this, L.Willo does NOT represent the vast majority of people who love cycling and want a better deal on our roads. L.Willo, please don't bother replying. Seriously.
Right .... because all arrests lead to a prosecution and conviction ....WRONG!
Defend him by stating in capitals that his failure to stop and assist the cyclist, if true, is unforgivable? You call that defending?
Religious concept. Sorry, don't do those.
Fixed that for you.
Curcumstances unclear except the blog post which you can get from the forum story about this says the cyclist was on his side of the road and a car overtook another vehicle and went head on into the cyclist. So, except for that, totally unclear.
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