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Christina Mackenzie (Roads Records Association)Christina Mackenzie "disgusted" by hit-and-run driver who "left her for dead"
Land's End to John O'Groats record holder Christina Mackenzie says she is "disgusted" by the driver who "left her for dead" in a hit-and-run in Stirlingshire last month.
The collision left Mackenzie with "excruciating pain" from a fractured pelvis which required 10 days of hospital treatment, and she now faces up to a year to recover fully from her injuries.
Speaking to STV News, Mackenzie said she cannot accept the driver's decision to flee the scene after hitting her with both their vehicle [below] and the trailer it was towing.
"The decision that they made to just leave me, I'm disgusted by it," she said.
"[I'm] thinking: 'How you could do that to someone else?' I'm not just a cyclist, I'm someone's sister, I'm someone's daughter, I'm someone's niece, I'm someone's auntie. These people in the cars, they've got the same relatives as well, so what would they think if something happened to them?
"The force of it just completely wiped me out. I skidded around, I hit my head a couple of times off the ground and then ended up back facing the way that I was coming, so I did a 180."
The driver of the vehicle behind the one that hit Ms Mackenzie stopped to help before she was taken to Forth Valley Royal Hospital.
Unfortunately, the 45-year-old says her time at hospital was an "awful experience" as she was forced to "justify" why — as a person who lives alone — she needed to stay for fear of being unable to look after herself.
"I didn't want to be there, I wanted to be home, but I didn't feel safe to be and it was just that awful, awful experience of having to justify why you need to be there," she said.
On leaving hospital after 10 days she had to climb steps to her flat without help.
"I was just in tears with the pain just trying to get up there," Ms Mackenzie recalled. "I literally had to basically just suffer the pain to get every single step – the further the steps were going up, the pain just became more and more excruciating."
A failure to deliver the strong painkillers Ms Mackenzie wanted left her taking paracetamol for 11 hours before they were eventually delivered.
Forth Valley NHS said it was "sorry to hear" its patient "was unhappy with aspects of her care" and said a member of the patient relations team would "contact her directly so that we can look into the issues she has raised."
The driver of the vehicle — believed to be a black Ford Ranger with tinted windows — towing a silver trailer, has still not been found.
Road policing sergeant Jack Swindells made a statement suggesting "the driver may not be aware that they are involved in the incident".
"We must stress that the driver may not be aware that they are involved in the incident. [Due to] the type of road that this incident occurred on and the type of vehicle involved, towing a trailer, it may be the case that they had not been aware they had this collision. They may have continued their journey and be none the wiser.
"What I would say is if you do recognise this vehicle or you potentially have any information, I'd ask you to contact on 101 quoting incident 2444 for September 27."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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22 comments
As someone who tows a 7.5 metre caravan I make an even more conscious effort to be aware of my surroundings and what is going on around me, especially overtaking and left or right turns. Far too often I see people towing ( the majority appears to be trailers ) who do not have a clue what is going on or the speed limits for towing. Also with the various lockdowns people have bought caravans to holiday in the UK and it seems a lot have not really looked at perhaps having a days training on towing which would help them and protect other road users.
Road policing sergeant Jack Swindells stated "I would very much like to offer the driver a cast iron alibi. If they would like to come forward and make a statement to this effect the police force will extend the usual courtesy to motorists and allow them to walk away scott-free".
Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery, and sympathy for difficult time you've had Christina.
I also hope that they rapidly track down the perpetrator and hang them from the nearest lampost. Only joking! Slightly.
That looks like a Ifor Williams TA5 Livestock trailer, 4 foot or 6 foot head room?? If I was the poice I would just cross ref who has bought one with Ifor direct or with a dealer as I presume they have records and who has a Ford ranger in black / V5 records! It cant be that hard if you have access, can it???
Carrying sheep or pigs?
As you say, it can't be that hard. I hope the driver is caught. I hope Mackenzie recovers ok as well.
I should just add, well done the police for actually getting out there and securing some CCTV evidence. I know it's their job and they really shouldn't need praising for it, but so often this basic police work just doesn't get done.
Sergeant Jack Swindells, commenting on the discovery of a body with its head blown off, stated, "We must stress that the shooter may not have known that they had hit anybody, as the incident occurred at night time they could quite possibly have been quite harmlessly just blasting their shotgun off at random and then have continued their day none the wiser."
I think that has been carefully worded to encourage the driver to come forward and explain their actions. It's phrased so that there's no presumption of guilt.
It's now in the drivers interests to hand themselves in and gain some brownie points for co-operating with the investigation.
It's likely if they don't fess up, then someone else will dob them in. It will look like they're being evasive and have something to hide if they don't come forward themselves.
Fair point.
I'm afraid that to many motorists (the majority who don't also ride a bike) that isn't the case.
To them, you are just a cyclist
I disagree... I think drivers are well aware that a cyclist is someone's sister, mother etc. however the assumption is that the cyclist will have already been disowned by their family, the moment they first pulled a pair of spandex shorts on. In many respects, the driver would be doing the family a favour by taking out the black sheep that has been bringing so much shame to the cyclists unfortunate relatives...
When we get this from a Road Policing Seargeant
<< Road policing sergeant Jack Swindells made a statement suggesting "the driver may not be aware that they are involved in the incident". >>
Makes my blood absolutely boil. If the driver is unaware that he wiped out a cyclist then they have absolutely NO PLACE on the road. Especially when pulling a large trailer, on a road that is regularly used by cyclists. It's not like no one's ever cycled there before. I also find it hard to believe that no one locally knows who it was.
I completely agree, and don't understand why a police officer feels the need to offer up excuses for the driver. The collision would undoubtedly have caused damage to the vehicle, and made a noise at the time. Anyone with a shred of decency would own up.
Playing devil's advocate here, I'd not so much say it's an excuse for the incident itself, more a possible explanation as to why they haven't come forward.
There are plenty of drivers out there who are inept and oblivious enough to have hit a cyclist without noticing them before impact (we've all seen the "he came out nowhere!" stories), but in a vehicle with that much mass (especially as it was towing, and especially if it was the trailer that hit the cyclist), it's entirely possible for the driver not to notice even after the impact - they obviously weren't looking, but they might not have felt/heard anything either.
Though, I'm not sure if that's better or worse than an intentional hit-and-run.
I once had an extremely close pass (like, centimeters) from someone towing a caravan, and I'm almost certain they'd forgotten that they were towing something. I think a lot of drivers just go into default mode when they're behind the wheel.
As a cyclist who has forgotten the roofrack entering a height limited car park, it is quite understandable - which is not to say it is acceptable.
When we are passed and someone realises there is a trailer involved, the caller(s) will shout an urgent warning that there is a trailer - drivers rarely give proper consideration to the extra width of their trailer compared with the car, and who knows what else is sticking out.
The other evil vehicles are window fitters' vans.
Yeah, we've all done that. Different with towing a caravan, though, is you can see it every time you check your mirrors (rear view or 'wing'
)
Jesus, I thought I was overdoing it with two panniers and a frame bag...
Had one from a horsebox trailer in the Surrey hills a couple of years back that was so close I had to bunnyhop onto the kerb to avoid being hit, when I caught up with the driver her explanation was, "Oh I'm sorry, it's a new one and it's a bit longer than the one we used to have, I'm still getting used to it" as if that excused everything!
It does; you're only a cyclist.
Yeah, they might have been watching an exciting action movie on their phone...