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Wicklow 200 (Kevin McFeely)Cyclist killed during major sportive after hitting cracked and uneven speed ramp with “badly worn” markings and warning signs covered by vegetation, inquest finds
The son of a cyclist killed during a sportive after hitting a cracked and uneven speed ramp with “badly worn” markings, leaving him with severe brain and facial injuries, as well as multiple fractures, has called for improved signage to be used in future at similar events to alert cyclists to obstacles on the road.
But the organiser of the Wicklow 200, Ireland’s biggest cycle sportive, told a coroner’s inquest into the cyclist’s death that there are “inherent risks” to cycling, and that it was not possible to devise a route which completely avoided speed ramps and other potential dangers.
Belfast cyclist Patrick Kelly was killed when he crashed after hitting a speed bump on the outskirts of Ashford, Co. Wicklow, on 12 June 2022 during the Wicklow 200 sportive, the 39th edition of Ireland’s most popular leisure cycling event, which usually attracts around 3,000 cyclists every year.
The 62-year-old father of two, who was one of Northern Ireland’s best-known criminal lawyers, died from his injuries three days later in Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital.
On Thursday, a sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Kelly was taking part in the sportive’s shorter 100km route with his friend, Peter Swan, when – around 30km from the finish – he hit a speed ramp while travelling at around 25-30mph on a slight downhill, losing control of his bike.
The inquest heard that Mr Kelly, whose helmet was not badly damaged in the crash, suffered severe brain and facial injuries as well as multiple fractures to his collarbone, shoulder blade, and ribs.
He was found at the scene to be unresponsive and bleeding significantly, and a postmortem confirmed that he died from severe, acute traumatic head injuries consistent with a fall from a bicycle.
A forensic collision investigator, Garda James Reynolds, told the inquest that the road surface at the location of the crash, on the L1096 between Glenealy and Ashford, was “cracked and uneven”, while the markings on the speed ramp were “badly worn.”
“In plain English, it was not in good nick,” he said of the condition of the road and the speed ramp, or “speed cushion”, due to it not covering the full width of the road.
The investigator also pointed out that a sign alerting road users to the speed ramp was partially covered by vegetation, while it also contained another warning about a “community alert area”.
Reynolds observed that there were no additional signs put in place to alert cyclists to the speed ramp, which he said were common at other cycling events he had attended.
Reynolds continued to note that Mr Kelly’s bike computer showed he was riding at 35kph at the time of the collisions, before slowing significantly, indicating “something had gone wrong”. The officer said the 62-year-old slid for around 18 metres after coming off his bike, which was found to not have suffered any technical or mechanical fault before the crash.
The investigator noted that it was not possible to say why Mr Kelly had slowed down at that moment, but he concluded that the condition of the speed ramp could have been a contributory factor.
> Inquest into Oxfordshire sportive rider's death to focus on event safety
The organiser of the Wicklow 200, Oliver Kirwan, told the inquest that an ambulance had arrived at the scene of the crash within five minutes of being alerted to the incident, the seriousness of which he said he had not experienced before during his time organising the sportive.
Mr Kirwan added that a subsequent review of the emergency response, including the deployment of a rapid response unit, was deemed satisfactory as all actions had been undertaken in a “professional and timely” manner.
Kirwan told the hearing that it was the personal responsibility of all participants to decide if the event was suitable for them, and that the organisers had carried out a risk assessment of the proposed route months in advance to ensure it was both “challenging and as safe as possible”.
The organiser, who noted that the route had been changed the following year for “logistical” reasons not relating to the fatal crash, also told the coroner that there were inherent risks to cycling on Irish roads.
He confirmed that the roads were not closed for the event, but marshals were in place along the entire route.
Kirwan also said there were eight speed ramps in total on the route for the 2022 edition of the Wicklow 200, and argued that it “would not be possible to devise a route that completely avoided speed ramps”.
He nevertheless acknowledged that speed ramps were not identified as a specific risk in the information provided to participants prior to the sportive.
Patrick Kelly
The coroner also heard evidence that Mr Kelly had suffered problems with his left eye for a number of years prior to his death, including cataracts and glaucoma.
A consultant ophthalmic surgeon, however, told the inquest that the cyclist had reduced vision in his left eye, but no limitations had been placed on him driving as his other eye had normal vision.
His wife, Doreen Kelly, said he was very fit and well and that she had no concerns about his participation in the Wicklow 200.
Mr Kelly, a partner at Belfast legal firm McConnell Kelly for over 30 years, had retired from practising law just a short time before his death.
His son, Rory Kelly, expressed a wish that improved markings would be used in future to alert cyclists to speed ramps at sportives like the Wicklow 200.
A jury of four men and two women returned a verdict of accidental death but made no recommendations.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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26 comments
The language in the title and the article seems a little odd/presumptuous to me, saying that the cyclist "was killed", which suggests that some entity was responsible. More neutral and less judgmental wording would be simply that the cyclist "died".
To say "died" is simply to say that the person has moved from a state of being alive to a state of being dead with no implication of the cause of this transition. To say someone "was killed" implies that there was some form of agency involved in their death, as there clearly was in this case, whether it was the fault of the organisers, the cyclist, the road conditions or whatever, so there's nothing judgemental about the language. If it said "cyclist was killed by organisers' neglect" or "cyclist was killed by riding error" then yes, that would be judgemental, but it doesn't.
This map link seems close to the described crash location. A couple of cushions hiding in the dappled shadows.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/kr6p7nvvs3T1RQAW6?g_st=ac
I'm surprised that so much of the focus seems to be on the event organiser. I'd expect the road authority to be accountable for maintaining signs and lines. The hidden threat risk exists 24/7 for every day bike riders and motorcyclists. It shouldn't completely up to event organisers to correct the failings of road authorities.
These "double pillow" speed bumps are a complete nightmare for cyclists in any situation. They don't slow drivers in anything but and old mini and cyclists are left with three choices. Take the left passage which is usually potholed and full of debris and it encourages unsafe overtakes by following vehicles as you move in. Take the center gap which should deter overtakes but often doesn't which leads to a very close pass. Cycle over the bump. Some of these are quite severe in the middle (cars don't use this bit) and it is at least uncomfortable or, as in this case, dangerous.
We should be campaigning to get these removed and replaced with 20mph speed limits (enforced) or triple pillows which allow cyclists to pass through in the center of the lane and would slow down motor vehicles.
I cycle through these every day on the aproach to a roundabout. Three incidents reported to the police, two taking the inside gap and one through the middle.
https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-674-driver-inconveniences-cyclist-288521
https://road.cc/content/news/near-miss-day-848-299017
https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-902-i-cant-believe-i-wasnt-hit-308071
Read rule 153 which nobody seems to take any notice of.
I do wonder if Highway Planners and Councils understand all the implications of putting in traffic calming measures. They certainly take no responsibility for informing drivers about the additional responsibility expected in these zones under Rule 153.
They've put in a 20mph zone with speed bumps near me. It's about a kilometer long and over half of it is on a road out of town with no houses directly on to it. The idea that drivers either stick to the speed limit or even maintain a constant speed is laughable. I started off by riding in primary but this just seemed to lead to conflict with cars that still want to overtake me on the bumps themselves. I am therefore riding more defensivey than before they were put in which, of course, makes it more dangerous.
I have contacted the council about it but there seems to be no attempt to educate drivers.
Very true.
My village has these, and then about a hundred metres further on there's a 'full width' speed table. I think people forget that the 'double pillow' humps are even there, TBH.
That speed bump looks no end of others typically used in 30mph or less zones in the UK (and if you move the Streetview up the road a bit you'll see 50kph sign so no difference). You've got a choice of going left, down the middle or right to avoid it. 3,000 other people did, so why didn't the inquest focus on why this one particular rider didn't rather than look for 'faults' that everyone else seemed able to cope with? If the rider had fallen off after say sliding on a wet manhole cover white line, would we be asking the organisers to have a marshal at each and everyone warning riders because it rained. Of couse we wouldn't. If you want a sportive with super smooth tarmac and no risks, pay for one that does fifty laps of Brands Hatch.
How do you know every other rider was able to cope with it, perhaps there were numerous wobbles and near misses from other riders (there certainly was at least one, see JMcl_Ireland's comment below) and Mr Kelly was just the unlucky one. Of course riders have to take responsibility for themselves but looking at the picture supplied by Uaf above I'd say given the location and the light conditions it certainly would have been helpful to have a warning sign or for the bumps to be highlighted with temporary markings as is done with potholes on many sportive routes. Without having been there and seen the incident and seen how the other 3000 people coped with the hazard, it's rather a disrespectful assumption to say that everyone else was fine with it and "this one particular rider" is, by implication, totally to blame for his very sad demise.
I would have expected the organisers when doing their recon to have flagged issues to the road authorities and to have hazards that were concerning to be marked or signage placed at the very least. Even then the organisers could have rerouted sections if possible.
May the poor man rest in peace.
I was on that route and nearly came a cropper at those same speed bumps. They were lethal and almost entirely invisible. I'm not sure whether Mr Kelly crashed before or after I came through - one of the locals was out flagging people to slow down so maybe after. While I wasn't aware of the crash on the day, that spot is the first thing that came to mind when I heard it.
The organiser isn't shy of charging for the event which came to around €100 all told. This is par for the course for sportifs run by this organisation (read all the major ones in Ireland) on open roads. While I can't fault the marshalling on the WW100 in general, value for money has gone down the drain in recent years and it's difficult to see where it's gone to - certainly in this case not to highlighting this which should have been an obvious catch coming as it does after a long descent.
Rubbish comment coming from a cyclist. Blaming the organiser for the speed bump! The sad accident on the road was rider error, if 5000 other cyclists were able to navigate the speed bump, designed to slow traffic down. We are traffic too.
The family left behind of any death look for some form of blame to deal with their grief.
"The organiser isn't shy of charging for the event which came to around €100 all told." ALL profits go to charity.
muppet
Your attitude to the posts here seems very dismissive and rude. Are you defending the organiser for any particular reason? And are you saying that Elite Events Management don't make any money from these events? I don't see a charity mentioned on the event website and the €85 entry fee isn't cheap for an open-road non-competitive event.
As with the sad death of Muriel Furrer at the World Champs in September, it would surely be sensible to ask whether the organiser has done everything they should regarding hazards and suggest that lessons are learnt from the experience.
So Elite Event Management, the professional company that took over running the event from ICVA in 2020, do it for free, do they?
It was cheaper and better when the IVCA ran it. Elite events don't give a shit about riders
The organiser of the event has a duty of care. I rode the 200 version some the roads were appalling. Huge potholes not circled like other events do, events that charge less and deliver more. 100 euros is a lot, dead riders don't give you repeat business. Do better
As what you have said is demonstrably untrue, given that the event is organised and has been for the last four years by a professional events company, presumably you would like to apologise for calling the above poster a muppet?
I absolutely stand by my criticism of Elite (note: I'm not criticising the volunteer marshals). They charge an arm and a leg for these events but barely seem to provide the basics. If I'm riding an open road on my own, then yes, my safety is entirely my own responsibility. If I pay over €100 to a professional events company then I expect them to have a duty of care. While the council clearly is at fault for not maintaining the road markings, the route no doubt would have been ridden and/or driven ahead of time, and this is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect to be flagged. Whether it wasn't or was and ignored isn't clear and who's to say how many other participants didn't have an "oh s**t" moment at that point? Look at the map link posted elsewhere in the thread - that's an accurate representation of how they were on the day bearing in mind they come after a sweeping descent on an otherwise good road.
Another case in point, L'Etape du Tour in Kerry, organised by Elite on semi-closed roads in September at an even more eye-watering price. You'd expect this to mean that traffic wouldn't be allowed up. Nope you'd be wrong. Add to that food stops packing up early and worse marshals disappearing early and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
The family absolutely has a right to get answers as to why their loved one didn't come home.
Yours is an interesting comment as it's from someone who rode the same route and saw the problem area. Surely if the organisers knew there was an issue at a particular point, they should've had marshalls or signage there to slow people down?
its tricky because there are arguably hundreds, maybe even thousands of "problem areas" on any sportive route, that potentially could result in the same outcome, and the organisers are never guaranteeing the course is 100% foolproof safe so have at it, or that everything is signed, critically because you need to judge yourself the route ahead, and how to ride it safely, rather than rely on a sign to tell you.
and thats something every pre ride safety briefing on sportives Ive done, has stressed (for legal reasons).
Sadly this crash resulted in a riders death, RIP, but Im assuming the ramps havent been fixed since, so anyone hitting them the same way is still at risk of the same injuries, so I dont feel the organisers of the event bear responsibility for this, even if you could argue there are things they could do differently to mitigate it happening in the future.
You make a good point. So that puts the onus back on the local council to fix its roads. In the UK we've a situation with roads having degraded significantly over the last 14 years. That's because the Tories stuck with their stupid 'austerity' policy, cutting costs by cutting back on council budgets by an average 40%, with the rsult that maintenance simply wasn't carried out. As anyone with any intelligence knows, that's meant it'll cost significantly more now to fix all the damage than it would've done if the proper maintenance had been carried out. By try explaining that to some Eton-educated Tory.
Given that - at least in UK- we have a mostly flip-flop political system and parties in power eventually run out of credit with the electorate - one would have to be an idealist to discount some thinking along the lines of "by the time the impact of (insert tax cutting / borrowing and spending as appropriate) comes back to bite the government it will probably be a problem for the other lot" ?
It'd appear the sportive organizer is particularly uncaring. They are asking for extra signage prior to speed bumps, not change the route or other things. You'd think they'd go yes we can add signs at the speed bumps and other areas of added risk. Having done a few mass start events, what is not a risk when riding solo is a risk when ridden with others side by side. Think I'd avoid this Sportive if I lived in Ireland, if that is how the organizer is towards the people who pay money to enter their events.
"It'd appear the sportive organizer is particularly uncaring"
WHAT! it is not big business, the organisers are cyclists, like us giving up their sunday to marshall. When did you ever organise anything?
Have you done an elite event? They charge more and deliver less. I live in Ireland
The organisers are Elite Event Management, a for-profit company. Do you not know this or are you just ignoring it?
Based on the report the organiser seems completely unconcerned that someone died.
My local sportive organiser is ITP events, which is basically a1 person operation. There is always a detailed briefing available, with particularly significant issues highlighted to riders before the start. A few years ago a rider tragically died of a heart attack during an event. No way the organiser could be blamed, but talking to him afterwards he was so upset he was considering stopping all future events.
The moral, size doesn't matter, but humanity does.