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A40 (Google Maps)Cyclist suffers "life-changing injuries" after driver smashes through cycle path protective barrier
A dad-of-four suffered "severe, life-changing" injuries after a driver crashed into a protective barrier, sending their car flying over the segregation and into a west London cycle route.
The Evening Standard reports Mark Thomas was cycling along the shared-use path running alongside the A40 near his home in Ealing just before 8am on January 29 when he was struck and rushed to hospital by air ambulance for five hours of emergency surgery to save his life.
He lost the equivalent of all the blood in his body, needed skin grafts on his legs and was left with "severe, life-changing injuries" to his legs, hips and shoulder.
Having spent a week in intensive care Mr Thomas has been moved to a trauma ward where he remains in a stable condition, but it is feared he may never cycle again and may not be able to resume his career as a plumber.
"His legs and hips are fragmented and open with muscle and skin gone, his shoulder is dislocated and broken in multiple areas," the family explained, with 34-year-old daughter Gemma saying they are all trying to remain "positive".
"It's unlikely he will be able to continue his job as a plumber. Things are definitely going to have to alter," she told the daily newspaper. "I think it has impacted him a lot, the mental sort of worry of how things are going to change.
"His passion is cycling and he's got a grandchild as well, so I think it's going to be a long journey."
The family explained how Mr Thomas' cycling passion stemmed from raising thousands of pounds for the British Heart Foundation through charity rides, having suffered a stroke and a number of heart attacks.
"What happened to Mark is life-changing and devastating for the whole family," wife Andrea said. "Mark is doing the very best he can, but it is unlikely he'll be able to return to his job as a plumbing and gas engineer and will have to rethink his future because of the severe injuries to his leg and shoulder.
"He's a fighter, though, and extremely strong-willed so I know he'll be determined to recover as best he can. We're so grateful to the emergency services and the hospital who saved his life – and his leg. We've been raising funds for the air ambulance for many years and they came to his rescue."
The section of the A40 where Mr Thomas was hit, opposite Vanguard's Greenford premises, is a shared-use path segregated from the dual carriageway by a protective barrier and a narrow grass verge.
Nearby sections, closer to Acton and passing Park Royal tube station have, admittedly far from perfect, dedicated segregated cycling infrastructure as part of Cycleway 34, but the section the driver smashed into was after it had returned to a shared-use route.
A spokesperson from Scotland Yard confirmed the investigation into the crash is ongoing and the "male driver of the car stopped at the scene", but no arrests have been made.
"His actions will form part of the ongoing police investigation," they said, while a solicitor confirmed she is in contact with the insurers of the driver and both parties are "working together to get Mark the rehabilitation he needs to prepare for the future".
The family has launched a fundraiser to support with his ongoing care and adapting their house for when he is fit enough to return home.
Anyone with information has been asked to contact the authorities via 101 and quote CAD 1766/29Jan.
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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31 comments
I hope the rider recovers from this. I am curious how fast the vehicle was going at the time of impact.
It is worth noting though that some stretches of road in the UK have crash barriers placed poorly. If the barrier is immediately behind the kerb, there is a risk of a vehicle striking the kerb and then being vaulted over the barrier, even if the vehicle was travelling within the speed limit. I don't know which section of the A40 this happened on. But I have noticed some sections of the A4 and A40 do have barriers that have not been placed appropriately, meaning they won't do their job properly.
I expect the police will know to a reasonable degree of accuracy what speed the vehicle was travelling at but this information has not been revealed as yet.
This occurred not far from Park Royal station where a Range Rover driver lost control at over 100mph, smashed through the barriers, took out the front of a Tesla and ended up on the tube tracks. One of the Range Rover passengers was killed. The video of the barrier crash is very disconcerting if you travel that way on foot or bike, as I have done.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/man-charged-woman-dies-a40-west-lo...
The A40 is a 40mph road, but despite the cameras along its length, there are plenty of drivers who drive well over the limit. I do wonder how many are on cloned plates.
Horrible. Most of the infrastructure (cycle lane) on the A40 and A406 is very close to heavy traffic. If I have to use it I try to use the side that is facing the traffic so at least I can see what is coming.
I wish Mr Thomas well.
Hi there,
My Dad was riding towards the traffic but he didn't have time to react. He said there was just a car in the air coming towards him
Please wish your dad all the best.
Hi there,
My Dad was riding towards the traffic but he didn't have time to react. He said there was just a car in the air coming towards him
Wishing Mark the best possible recovery, followed by the best possible financial outcome from the drivers insurance.
If they haven't done so already, I'd urge the family to contact legal support now, and get that ball rolling - if they haven't already done so.
Getting legal involved now will help with Mark's recovery, especially with things like advances on the future payout, so the immediate financial needs can be taken care of, through to obtaining psychiatric care on the other insurers dime (NHS Trauma are brilliant at fixing bodies ... not so good for the grey matter).
My wife started the legal ball two days after the driver hit me, and while I was still in HDU. I had 4 months of no income and a further year of reduced income while phasing back to work.
Having legal on board that early meant that we could get an advance and not have to worry about cash for the bills.
Hi,
Thanks for the advice. We have a solicitor working on the case at the moment
Wishing Mr Thomas all the best.
It's quite possible, for example, that the car went up the initial rising section of the barrier like a ski jump at a slower speed.
We can't tell, and don't know.
How 'separate' does cycling infrastructure have to get before drivers are denied the chance to maim or kill us?
How about 9 nautical miles (from the car-free island of Sark to Guernsey)? Of course you can still be run over by a tractor. And they might get you with rising sea levels if you waited long enough...
I am lucky to be far enough from cars in Edinburgh for some journeys that I'm not worried. Although I have caught the odd one or two there - whether by sheer incompetence or some sinister motive... Plus motorcycle bandits - sometimes there to give a viking funeral to a stolen scooter. Oh and the council do grit and maintain the paths so there are very occasional small trucks, if you were really unlucky...
Couple of months back, downtown central Caversham, crazy driver took out four or five bollards (and a pedestrian crossing light) protecting the pavement. Pedestrian hit, and sustained life changing injuries. Metal ones, sunk into the pavement. Had a look at what was left. Hollow, cast, about 3/4 inch thick. Hit with such force they just broke off at the ground. Replaced with seemingly something similar. Added reflectives though. Like that will help.
The security shack at work is protected with many of the oval stainless things, one of which, from the videos that I have seen, can stop a truck. But only in one plane.
As I recall, these things are designed to snap off at the base, so as not to injure the driver, thus offering little protection for the pedestrian; maybe it's time to re-think that approach.
At least there is a barrier.
Heading north-east from Guildford there's a section of shared-path with just a kerbstone protecting you from 3 lanes of adjacent motorway-speed traffic.
A little further on there's a few feet of grass verge.
There is an occasional bit with a barrier. Notably to protect a phone mast and a sign rather than pedestrians & cyclists!
From this morning. Now I know you're thinking "luxury! It's the countryside where most places would be grateful for a track in the grass or broken tarmac overgrown with oily vegetation!" In defense of this over-provision I can only say that this was one of the better bits where the path was wider (3ft) and there was as much separation from oncoming vehicles as the width of the path. And speed derestricted, country road with no lighting etc.
Far better than average first post.
Also "comments?" - but on a more general topic we've got a multi-lane (3 in places) 40mph "urban motorway" here. For parts of this there are paths next to this - I'd guess a metre or less from the carriageway - without any barrier. The barrier here (if the picture in the article represents the location) looks reasonable but is rather low. The path is narrow and too close to the road.
In fact - there are residential properties whose street access is onto this road, it has side-streets and parking adjacent to it.
So it's a very busy UK "stroad". Looking at it from a safety perspective this looks inadequate in lots of ways. There are the contradictory functions of "place + parking" and "large traffic throughput between distant locations". Looking at the map the area may be lacking adequate provision for non-motorised road users. If this route is it then this is awful as it's a narrow "shared use path", so close to the path and indifferently protected.
That seems to be a very accurate comment.
It's also a 40 mph limit through the residential sections shown.
Wishing you a speedy recovery.
Not knowing that bit of road does make me pose the questions, What is the speed limit where this rtc took place and if it is (say) 30mph how come this barrier buckle/collapse?
The driver was blinded by the sun light.
Will walk off from the court with three points and £200 fine.
Also I wish Mark the recovery. It's absolutely terrible to be robbed of passion of his life.
Until the full facts are established this is not very helpful.
It may be that the driver has done something stupid and should see the full force of the law but it could also be that the car had a problem, like a blow out, which the driver was not able to control. What if another vehicle made a stupid manouver and cause the car to head onto the verge through evasive action and lose control.
What this does highlight though is that a crash barrier while meant to stop this type of incursion obviously is insufficient when having a path running parallel to a fast rmoving dual carridgeway.
Wishing Mark the best, and that he gets back home to his loving family soon.
The car went airborne when it hit the barrier. So the barrier did do it job. How fast was that car going to fly over the barrier. At least we know why the driver never fled the scene
I'm pretty sure the speed limit is 40mph and the barrier will have been engineered with that in mind. The car went airborne and cleared the barrier, so it's a pretty safe assumption that the driver was breaking the speed limit.
Problem with cases like this - there is nothing that this guy could have done to avoid this
At 8am the sun would have been behind the driver.
But then it would have reflected off a screen...
The driver admitted to my Dad and the Police that he fell asleep at the wheel. He also went on to say that he was doing 40mph... not sure how he knew that when his eyes were closed.
Thank-you for the clarification.
Presumably he knew he was driving at 40 mph at the point he fell asleep...? Awful.
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