Heartbroken mother of 12-year-old killed during first cycle on road bike urges parents to supervise new riders

Ryder wrote:

A nightmare for everyone involved, so sad.

Might have been kinder if Road CC had mentioned at the start of the article that it wasn't the van drivers fault as it was half way through before it was mentioned that the young lad lost control and hit the van.  Naturally I just assumed it was the driver who killed the lad.

At the start of the article they have written "hit by the driver of a van" - you didn't assume anything the article is poorly written - unless the driver actually got out of his van and hit the child, following the collision.

What Corey shoud have expected is his father not to have put him in a position he was not equipped to deal with as a 12 year old child with no experience of riding an adults road bike with thin tyres.

100%

Rick_Rude wrote:

Messed up situation. On one hand this kid was inexperienced but how do you build up experience? Feel for the parents. By the time I was 10 I'd already done some bmx races and my riding skill set was pretty much in place. I lived in small village so riding on the road wasn't the hell of constant traffic it is now. Our parents just left us to it, I don't think I ever rode a bike with my parents only my friends.

Same, except at not much older than this I was riding my bike into central london and there was plenty of traffic.

Although there is a change in moving from a mountain bike to a ride bike, they handle differently, and go much faster without any effort on descents. Some familiarisation with the bike before taking high speed downhills is probably required.

Speaking from experience as my own son crashed on a fast downhill the first time on a road bike, luckily it was windsor great park, so no other vehicles were around. But the crash and subsequent injury put him off cycling completely.

One of the problems round here is that the flat roads tend to be the main roads, with the small country lanes being quite hilly, so you seek to avoid traffic and end up on the steeper roads which carry different risks.

However, it seems the boy did want to ride on the road and did want a road bike, so eventually he would have bought his own ride bike and gone out without any training or supervision. Which would also bring a risk.

The boy did not want a road bike.  His father had not taken him cycling for over two years.  When his father found out i was taking Corey to Dinton pastures on his mountain bike he wanted to compete.. He would push Corey far out of his comfort zone beacuse he wanted to go out and have fun and a child got in the way of that.

Experience is not built up by sending a child down a steep hill on a bike he had never ridden before.  Perhaps gain experience on a new bike on normal roads and not be left on your own to deal with a situation you are not equipped to deal with.  To be taken out on steep roads on a bike you have no experience of and then be left on your own when your father races down a steep hill. What did he think was going to happen? Sadly he didnt think he never thought that was the issue.. he never though about anybody but himself.

My 29 year old daughter has just started going on bike rides with her husband and their one year old in a child bike seat...it scares the daylights out of me!  However, she used to ride with me in a club 15 years ago, has ridden horses on the road most of life and is acutely aware of the dangers so she'll do all she can to make it safe and fun...

Thats what a loving parent does.  Whenever i took Corey out.  I would stay with him by his side so that cars had to come out further to pass us.  If they were ever too close they were close to me not my son.  A loving decent parent puts their child first .  However Dan Caton wasnt that type of parent he did everything he could over the two years prior to Coreys death to cause us as much pain as possible,  he terrorised us in our home to the point Corey would ask me if i had put the alarm on before we went to bed.  I know if i had stopped Corey from seeing his father he would still be alive today.  That is were i didnt protect him, i let him down.

His Father bought a sports car a week after Coreys funeral and then got his Solicitor to request i give him another 30K from the house.  As you can see Coreys death clearly affected him.

Yep I agree. An awful, tragic accident. I live not far away and climb the hill regularly, wouldnt consider descending it unless I had to.

Absolutely, why then would any parent take a 12 year old child out on an unfamilar road, an unfamilar bike and then leave them on their own... There was a saying i had for him.  Nothing gets in the way of Dan Caton having fun.  You see this was not an isolated incident.  A few months prior he brought Corey him on the back of a motorbike wearing Sandals.  He laughed at me when i got upset.  Being reckless with Corey was a frequent occurence, i just did not realise how bad as i would stop him from doing stupid things when we were together.

I agree which begs the question why send an inexperienced 12 year old child on an adults road bike he had never ridden down it?  Did it have anything to do with the fact he wanted him out of private school as refused to pay half his school fees and maintenance.... or was it an accident?

The Dad was not banned from the Funeral, he chose not to attend and decided on a seperate service.  No doubt because he could not face me after what he had done.  Anyone that knows the hill well as did his father, knows how steep it is.  Why then would you take a 12 year old child out on an adult road bike, something he had never riden before.  It was bought off ebay two days prior.  Take the child out on narrow country roads and then race the child down a knowingly steep hill? The child was my son just 12 years old.  His father had not bought him a cycle helmet and gave him his own.  Corey suffered a massive head injury but there was no damage to the helmet... 

The father didnt even stick arond at the John Radcliffe while my son was dying, he went home.  He didnt call me when my son had the accident, what kind of father does that... What kind of human being does that?