Dean Downing says that he could have been killed following a recent incident involving a traffic management van on a road near Blyth in Nottinghamshire.
Downing, the recently-retired racer who was twice national circuit race champion, was riding with training partner, Leigh Holmes, on Friday July 17 when they were overtaken by the van. As the vehicle was passing, it cut back in towards them to avoid a bollard in the middle of the road.
Holmes, who was leading, was hit, but managed to stay upright. Downing swerved to avoid the van, but in so doing lost control of his bike and veered into the bollard, subsequently hitting a lamppost as well.
“I could have been killed, as I hit the bollard and lamppost and landed in middle of other side of road. I was very lucky there was no oncoming traffic or I could have been more seriously injured,” he said.
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The van driver didn’t stop and is still to be identified. Downing has contacted law firm Leigh Day through his British Cycling membership to make a claim for the repairs to his bike and other losses resulting from the crash.
Andrew Bradley, head of the cycling team at the firm, said they would be in touch with police to try and track down the driver and to establish what happened.
Following the incident, Downing was taken to hospital, where he was found to have sustained knee ligament damage, for which he will require surgery, as well as grazing to his arms and legs.
Showing commendable good humour, he posted the following on Twitter.
In a separate tweet, he wrote: “Thanks to my mates for looking after me today. No thanks to the driver who ran me off the road.”
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4 comments
It's all just so depressing. I've just got back from a couple of weeks' cycling in Italy and France - day in, day out, on the bike, on the roads. This sort of shit just doesn't happen there. What's wrong with people over here?
Firstly, speedy recovery Dean.
Secondly, from my personal practical experiences of reporting cases where motorists have driven straight at me I can say that generally my opinion is that the Police are absolutely not interested.
You only have to look at the sentences handed to drivers who injure or kill cyclists to see how important your life is when on a cycle and that "triviality" filters down from the CPS to the front line police.
Absolutely about time that got changed and all it takes is for a motor vehicle to be reclassified as a "deadly weapon". Then killing a cyclist will carry the same penalties as if you thrust a knife in their chest.
It should be easy to find the driver - I'd expect he's driven past CCTV at some point. Sadly it's unlikely that the investigation will be particularly thorough.
It's for precisely this reason I do my commuting with two Go-Pros attached to the bike. A sad state of affairs when you feel it's necessary.
Nah, it's got to the point that we need to carry an AK47.