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Father of three killed by a car on Britain’s most dangerous roadCat and Fiddle (picture credit- Philip Halling, Wikimedia Commons).jpg

Father of three killed by a car on Britain’s most dangerous road

Cat and Fiddle road notorious for deaths
by Sarah Barth
Sat, Jun 11, 2016 08:23
36

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

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L.Willo replied to brooksby | 8 years ago
0 likes

brooksby wrote:

L.Willo wrote:

PennineRider wrote:

 Yep. The structural hazards of the road are only dangerous when people drive / ride / cycle 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!

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.

No link to blog post in the article. Unaware of it. 

The Police are appealing for witnesses. The blogger would be better off talking to the police than publishing hearsay on the incident that might potentially prejudice a trial.

Avatar
brooksby replied to L.Willo | 8 years ago
0 likes

L.Willo wrote:

brooksby wrote:

L.Willo wrote:

PennineRider wrote:

 Yep. The structural hazards of the road are only dangerous when people drive / ride / cycle 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!

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.

No link to blog post in the article. Unaware of it. 

The Police are appealing for witnesses. The blogger would be better off talking to the police than publishing hearsay on the incident that might potentially prejudice a trial.

Read the forum topic "RIP Guy Wharton"

Avatar
L.Willo replied to brooksby | 8 years ago
0 likes

brooksby wrote:

Read the forum topic "RIP Guy Wharton"

Just read it. It is a nice, well-written tribute to a friend.

However for the purposes of this discussion, arguably this is the most important quote from it:

"I wasn’t there, I don’t know exactly what happened, ...."

Avatar
atgni replied to L.Willo | 8 years ago
5 likes

L.Willo wrote:

"I wasn’t there, I don’t know exactly what happened, ...."

 

Quite - please delete your previous insensitive posts above.

Avatar
Jimnm replied to OldRidgeback | 8 years ago
1 like

OldRidgeback wrote:

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.

Such a tragedy, too many loons on the road, thinking that the highway is a race track, poor cyclists just get caught up in it all. Severe prison sentences should be a deterrent for such bad behaviour on our roads. I have both a motorcycle and road bike. Self preservation is foremost in my mind.  Sincere condolences 

Avatar
PennineRider | 8 years ago
7 likes

“severe bends, steep falls from the carriageway and is edged by dry-stone walls or rock face for almost all of its length,”

It would appear that none of these things were a factor in Mr Wharton's death.

RIP

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