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Cyclist’s bike ‘snapped in half’ in fatal collision, inquest hearsLucy John (via South Wales Police)

Cyclist’s bike ‘snapped in half’ in fatal collision, inquest hears

Lucy John was killed in a crash involving the driver of a Honda Civic near Bridgend earlier this month
by Ryan Mallon
Wed, Oct 26, 2022 13:43
7

A cyclist’s bike was snapped in half during a fatal collision with a motorist earlier this month, an inquest has been told.

Lucy John, a member of Pen-y-Bont Triathlon Club and Tondu Wheelers Cycling Club, was training on the A48 near Laleston, Bridgend, on 16 October when she was killed in a crash involving the driver of a black Honda Civic.

The BBC has reported that the 35-year-old suffered spine and pelvis fractures in the collision, while a post-mortem examination found that her death was caused by blunt force trauma.

Pontypridd Coroner’s Court has heard this week that the impact of the crash also caused Ms John’s bike to ‘snap in half’.

“I am led to suspect that the death could have been unnatural and police are looking into this,” assistant coroner for south Wales central, Rachel Knight, said.

The inquest, as is usually the case with road traffic collisions, has been adjourned for four months while police investigate the tragic incident.

> “A giant shining beacon of energy” – tributes paid to cyclist killed in crash in South Wales 

The coroner also offered her condolences to Lucy’s family, who have described her as “a giant shining beacon of energy”, the “beating heart at the centre of our family universe”, and an inspiration to others.

“Lucy John was painfully taken away from us whilst doing what she loved and what helped fuel the energy of what was the brightest life,” her family said in a statement released by South Wales Police shortly after her death.

“Lucy was an enormously loved mum, wife, daughter, sister, granddaughter, cousin, auntie, niece, triathlete, CrossFit athlete, work colleague and friend to many, many people across the local community. She was a giant shining beacon of energy, positivity with a passionate zest for life, not just for herself but all around her.

“The outpouring of love and support from all who knew her, both far and wide is a great source of comfort to all of her family at this painful time.”

A fundraising page set up by Pen-y-Bont Triathlon Club and Tondu Wheelers Cycling Club to help support Ms John’s family has so far raised almost three times its original target of £5,000, while the hashtag #SheWasJustRidingHerBike has been shared on social media to call for safer roads for people on bikes.

Lucy John
South Wales Police
Ryan Mallon

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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7 comments

Avatar
eburtthebike | 2 years ago
5 likes

It might sound like a strange form of words, but it's probably a pro forma for the circumstances.

I am heartened that the police are taking this seriously and doing a proper investigation.

Avatar
AidanR | 2 years ago
3 likes

Is it natural to be killed when cycling if the bike doesn't snap in half?

Avatar
Bentrider | 2 years ago
4 likes

"Could have been unnatural..."

No shit, Sherlock!!

Avatar
Brauchsel replied to Bentrider | 2 years ago
10 likes

I think it's just the formalities of it, the coroner hasn't made their official finding but has to state a reason for the inquest and its adjournment. It is, although rather unlikely, possible that she had a heart attack immediately before being hit for example. 
Due process is important even when it seems ludicrous, and the coroner's job is to determine the cause of death not who is responsible. 

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael replied to Brauchsel | 2 years ago
2 likes

Brauchsel wrote:

I think it's just the formalities of it, the coroner hasn't made their official finding but has to state a reason for the inquest and its adjournment. It is, although rather unlikely, possible that she had a heart attack immediately before being hit for example. 
Due process is important even when it seems ludicrous, and the coroner's job is to determine the cause of death not who is responsible. 

This hits the nail on the head. 

Section 1 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 requires a senior coroner to conduct an investigation "if the coroner has reason to suspect that —
(a) the deceased died a violent or unnatural death,
(b) the cause of death is unknown, or
(c) the deceased died while in custody or otherwise in state detention."

So in using the word "unnnatural" here, the coroner is simply setting out the legal grounds upon which she is conducting the investigation.

As Brauchsel said, it is possible that the cyclist had some fatal medical episode immediately prior to the collision — and however unlikely that may be, I seem to recall that we have seen a couple of cases like that over the years, and one of the jobs of the investigation would be to rule that out, ie "natural causes".

A coroner's inquest aims to determine the cause of death rather than apportion blame, and in cases in which a cyclist has been killed as a result of a crash involving a motor vehicle, the conclusion will almost always be "road traffic collision".

Coroners do, however, have other powers, with the one we see most often in cases we report on here on road.cc being to issue a Prevention of Future Deaths report, typically to the relevant highways authority.

Last month, for example, we reported on a case where a coroner ordered East Sussex County Council to review its procedures for inspecting and repairing potholes.

https://road.cc/content/news/council-ordered-mend-road-defects-after-cyc...

Previously, we've also seen a coroner order Transport for London to review the blue paint used on some of the city's older cycleways after a motorcyclist was killed after skidding on the road surface.

https://road.cc/content/news/219036-coroner-urges-transport-london-revie...

To go back to the article here, legal language is of necessity precise, with meanings defined by statute, case law etc and while it may strike some as ... well, unnatural ... to refer to an "unnatural death" here, the coroner is simply setting out her terms of reference, as defined by law.

 

"

Avatar
IanGlasgow replied to Bentrider | 2 years ago
4 likes

"...killed in a crash involving the driver of a black Honda Civic ... I am led to suspect that the death could have been unnatural"

So the police are suggesting it wasn't a member of one of the herds of Honda Civic drivers that live in the woods near Bridgend?
It might've been a domesticated or even genetically modified one.

Avatar
bertisfantastic | 2 years ago
5 likes

"Could have been unnatural" hmmmm

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