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news
04 Bradley Wiggins at the TDF 2013 launch © Simon MacMichaelUpdated: Bradley Wiggins in hospital after collision, injuries "not thought to be serious" says Sky
Bradley Wiggins was taken to hospital after being involved in a collision with a van in Wrightington in Lancashire. Lancashire Police later confirmed that the Olympic time trial champion and yellow jersey holder suffered a number of broken ribs and further injuries to his hands and wrist.
The Lancashire Evening Post reports that The incident occurred at 6pm when a white Astra van pulled off a filling station forecourt and collided with the cyclist, although the Sun have the vehicle as a car and say that the woman driver was being questioned by police.
The incident took place about five kilometres south of the village of Eccleston, where the 32-year-old lives with wife Cath and their two children.
In a brief statement issued shortly before 1130pm this evening, Team Sky said: "We can confirm that Bradley Wiggins was involved in a road traffic accident whilst riding his bike near his home in Lancashire on Wednesday evening.
"He is being kept in hospital overnight for observation but the injuries he has sustained are not thought to be serious and he is expected to make a full and speedy recovery.
"We will announce more details in due course."
Earlier, a spokesman for Lancashire Police said: "A cyclist has been involved in a collision with a white Vauxhall Astra car.
"The rider of the bike, a 32-year-old local man, was taken to hospital by ambulance with injuries not thought to be life-threatening. His family have been told."
The attendant at the garage, Yasmin Smith, reportedly said of Wiggins, "He said he thought he had broken his ribs and while a lot of police cars arrived it was about 15 minutes before the ambulance got there by which time he was blue."
Crow Orchard Road filling station is the reported scene of the incident (Google Maps)
The Sun, which notes that Wiggins had recently shaved off the 'lucky' sideburns he sported on his way to Tour and Olympic glory, aid that he was being followed by a support vehicle when the incident happened, and quoted a source as saying: Wiggo was on a ride followed by his support team.
He was sent flying by the impact and his pals raced to his aid. A source said: “They were following him in a van and they helped him out after the crash. We think he’s going to be fine, but I don’t know how quickly he’ll be back on his bike. His family have been told.”
A lorry driver, Barry Blacklidge, aged 46, who arrived at the scene immediately after the incident, told the Sun: “There were about four police cars there. All the roads were coned off.
“I could see a pushbike, like a mountain bike, and the front wheel was all buckled. I went into the garage and asked what was going on.
"She said ‘Bradley Wiggins has just been knocked off his bike’. The ambulance turned up and they treated him for a while.
“He was up and walking around, but apparently he wasn’t too good. Drivers were stuck in the service station as the emergency vehicles blocked the exits.”
He continued: “I couldn’t get out of the service station in my truck because there were that many police vehicles there. I had to wait until they had moved. The police were examining his bike.”
Wiggins found himelf at the centre of a controversy over road safety during the Olympic Games when he suggested at a press conference that cyclists had a responsibility to wear a helmet.
He made his comments after being put on the spot with a question related to the death of 28-year-old Dan Harris from Wanstead, who was struck by a bus ferrying media between London 2012 venues immediately outside the Olympic Park.
He later took to Twitter to clarify his comments, saying that he had not been calling for helmets to be made compulsory.
Three years ago, Wiggins' wife Cath, who is herself an age group national champion on the track, vowed to stay off the road bike after being hit by a car while out riding.
A separate incident today in Leyland, less than 10 kilometres from Wiggins' home and 15 kilometres from where he was hit, left an male cyclist aged in his 80s seriously injured whe he was hit by a Citroen car on a roundabout at around 2pm. Lancashire Police have issued an appeal for information, with further details on their website.
Responding to news of Olympic cyclist Bradley Wiggins’ road incident last night, Sustrans Policy Advisor Joe Williams said:
"This collision shines a light on the increasing number of cyclists being killed or serious injured on Britain’s roads.
“Making cycling safer for everyone would cut congestion and pollution and help us to lead healthy lives. The government must create more safe space for cycling on and off roads and look at changing the law to follow the lead of many European neighbours, where a driver is also presumed at fault in a collision with a cyclist.
“We wish Wiggo a speedy recovery and a quick return to cycling.”
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
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94 comments
Anyone catch BBC Breakfast this morning where the sports reporter (whose name I cannot remember) claimed that Wiggo was pro helmet compulsion laws?
Now, is it me, or did he not specifically clarify his comment to say that he did NOT support complusion?
And what on EARTH do helmets have to do with an accident involving broken ribs?
It's quite clear who was at fault in this situation. He obviously wasn't wearing the high-vis jersey or reflective pendant he won in those cycling competitions over the summer, so what does he expect to happen
Is there nothing this man won't do to raise the profile of cycling issues? He's a hero!
Hoski - YES! I actually shouted "NO HE ISN'T!" at the TV when the silly mare said that!
I too hope that Wiggo recovers quickly and focuses his post-crash emotions that we're all too familiar with into galvanising a real cultural movement (maybe along side the Times' campaign) that is long, long overdue in this country.
Now on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2. Await the 'Road Tax' paying idiots saying how cyclist shouldn't be on the roads.
Spread the word and get calling in.
Bloody hell - didn't take long
From the Evening Standard
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/no-arrests-to-be-made-after-bradley-wi...
Hope that this doesn't harm is preparation for next year's Giro.
GWS sir!
drheaton, very well put
The slip in concentration though can be brought on by the simplest of things, "what shall i do for tea", "must remember to phone "whovever" when i get in" etc etc. The list is endless and all of these can cause the lapse and ultimately an accident.
Driver training will never remove these however you ARE right though in that driver training needs to be made better. The roads are getting busier all the time and this will only lead to more accidents occuring.
I like the Mr Sensible, thank you
Just to clarify - i quoted the Mcr Evening News not to highlight daft drivers but to highlight daft reporting.
I would be very interested to know how many vehicle drivers *have* been injured when they have run a cyclist off the road. That was *my* point.
In other news - i love the reports that Mrs Wiggins turned up and was rather keen to "discuss" the incident with the driver. Mrs Wiggins sounds like a wonderful woman.
Cycle Streets is reporting that they have an accident logged at the same location back in 2007:
http://www.cyclestreets.net/collisions/reports/2007/06l082760/
Shane Sutton, head coach of Team GB cycling team is in hospital after an 'incident' on the A6:
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/gbcyclingteam/article/gbr20121108-News-...
See? We should be the ones setting policy - robust debate followed by workable suggestions
Don't suppose Brad and family will be feeling like visiting Wrightington Hospital Open Day on Nov 22 but if they do there will be a warm welcome! Get well soon Brad and get back out on the bike!
The Manchester Evening News article isn't well-written, but:
"A lady had been coming out of the forecourt and she’s hit him and he’s gone flying – knocking the wing mirror off her van.
"She stopped because she realised he was on the floor."
She added: "I think he was on the phone to his wife.
"A gentleman was shouting at the woman driver. The next thing, about eight police cars arrived.
Not sure if she's saying he was on the phone at the time, or called his wife afterwards.
Re - my previous post about bad/ biased reporting
The Shane Sutton story carried something similar
"A Greater Manchester Police spokesman added: 'The driver of the Peugeot was not injured.'
Thats a huge relief because the figures regarding cyclists injuring occupants of vehicles are truly shocking.
Why did they let him turn blue?
He's skinnier than me - and people just stand around pointing, "oo it's wiggo?". Put a coat or 3 on him while you wait for the ambulance, at least.
And 15 minutes is not a long time to wait for an ambulance with a conscious patient. Not desirable, yes. But not that long.
It's likely that the Ambulance Service may have called back to ask what Brad's state was (apart from livid). Certainly at an accident I witnessed & called in, LAS dispatcher/triage phoned me back in order to prioritise the need for the ambulance. Victim was conscious but with likely broken wrist, no apparent head impact but was possibly woozy from, er, other substances... so after the blood wagon didn't turn up after 30 minutes stuck him in a taxi. Similar temperatures, we were turning blue!
Also, I picked up the Sun this morning (purely because of the front page Wiggo story) while I was waiting for my bacon buttie and the driver is quoted as saying "I just didn't see him" so clearly another SMIDSY.
It bugs me that this is socially acceptable. That while driving something that can cause great harm you can hit someone, say "I just didn't see him" and that'll make it all ok. It's the usual, shoulder shrugging, indifference to the damage caused by these events that bothers me more than the events themselves. As has been previously mentioned we can't stop people lapsing in concentration and making these mistakes but the post-accident indifference really needs to change.
Also, Sun quotes a source as saying that she won't face charges as long as she takes an awareness course.
It's also almost certain that she did the usual turning-right-from-side-road observations that I see most car drivers do (including my wife, unfortunately).
Stop car, usually with a good chunk of the bonnet poking into the road.
Long look left
Short look right to see if anything's coming
Another long look left while pulling out.
There is often no additional check to the right to re-evaluate the speed of whatever's coming before moving the car. I always find this surprising as traffic coming from the right is what's going to hit them first.
I would argue this is the very core of the problem - drivers of motor vehicles do not always take the responsibility and risks involved seriously enough
The question becomes one of how can they be made to?
Social stigma is one method - as per the successful anti drink-driving campaigns both in the UK & Eire
However I would contend that in the short term only a more forceful application of the law can make a difference by providing a deterrent
I blame the French. Who's going to be next - Jason Kenny?
They "let him"? They may not have had much choice in the matter.
Shock can set it regardless of layers and any other precautionary measure you might deem appropriate. Perhaps now is a good time for everyone to read up on the subject:
http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/First-aid/First-aid-campaigns/Road...
There's also the question of kit, was he wearing hi-vis or Team Sky issue black kit?
I'm not saying that this in any way negates the severity of the drivers offence, but from purely a view of making the best argument possible for improved driver training there needs to be no 'out' for the driver to use as an excuse.
If Wiggo's in black kit and doesn't have amazing lights (even though the area is well lit) then the driver, and driving groups, will likely use these as excuses and brush the whole affair under the carpet.
I think you're wrong there. I don't drive along safely avoiding cyclists because I'm scared of going to prison, I drive safely because it's how you're supposed to drive.
Implementing harsher sentences as a deterent only works where there is a thought process involved such as with shop lifting, assault and other considered crimes. You think about stealing something and a prison sentence may persaude you against it. You don't think about hitting a cyclist so the punishment is really irrelevant when it comes to ways of preventing accidents like these.
I can certainly see your point on that - hence my argument about Social Attitudes being the *correct* way to fix this - but sadly those inevitably take a long time to change
What I struggle to see is any way other than fear of a deterrent making a quick impact
Agreed, this isn't something that can be fixed quickly, driver attitudes and ability need to be improved over a couple of decades (yes, decades) before we'll see significant change. Implementing a tougher, or more comprehensive, driving test now would start the change but would only kick in once there were enough people on the roads who'd taken it.
I might also suggest (to the ire of many motorists) having to take refresher courses every 10-20 years after passing your test to re-learn all the things you forget. This would improve the standard of driving across the age range and allow instructors to teach older drivers as well as the young rather than relying on the slow trickle effect of 18yr olds improving the overall quality of drivers over time. I wouldn't go as far as forcing people to re-take their test every few years but having compulsory courses could help.
Likewise, starting to change opinions now and social attitudes would still take years to come into effect but in the long run it's the best option. Knee-jerk reactions might satisfy the public's desire to see something 'done' to fix the problem but short term measures won't solve the problems cyclists face.
My other bug bear is new drivers driving around in big engined cars. In your first year of driving you should be limited to a 1l car, 1.2l cars for years 2 and 3 then 1.4l for those up to 5 years experience. That would reduce a large number of accidents and reduce the severity of many more.
Personally, I think periodic retesting would be a great idea. One way to do it would be to make it voluntary, but then incentivise insurance companies to offer lower premiums to those who have taken it. It would quickly become popular. The after a few years of that, look at the data - if it works, make it compulsory.
Nice suggestion
Excellent idea. When people feel that doing something will save them money they're more inclined to take to it than if they're being forced to.
This, in conjunction with a better driving test, would be a great start.
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