Video: Cyclist collides with headphone-wearing runner

Having looked at the video several times, I think that while there may be fault on both sides, the main fault lies with the runner, who caused the collision.  The cyclist starts out on the right, and there is a demarcation line, so presumably that side is intended for cyclists, and the left is for pedestrians.  The cyclist moves well over to the left to pass the runner, who is on the right, and without warning or checking whether anyone was coming, the runner does a 90 degree turn into the path of the cyclist.

Perhaps the cyclist could have been more careful and reduced his speed, but his speed is essentially irrelevant, as it wouldn't have mattered if he was going much slower, he would still have hit the runner if the runner had crossed as he was passing.  If another runner had been there and running in the same place as the cyclist, they would have hit the turning runner.  The cause of the collision is the stupid manouvre by the runner, and the fact that he was wearing headphones and was therefore unable to hear the warning shouted by the cyclist.

I am a bike mechanic, and I've had to replace the front wheel of a customer's bike because a runner ran straight off the footpath into road and into the bike.  And they weren't wearing headphones.  This situation has happened to me several times, when a pedestrian, asuming the road is clear because they can't hear a motor vehicle, steps out into the road in front of me.

Should we all slow down to walking pace just in case some crazy heaphone wearing pedestrian decides to throw themselves into our path?

Enough self-flagellation, this runner takes most of the blame.

Guess the difference is that rules (anything with out a 'must' in front of it) within the highway could are often disregarded in court, judges have been reported to tell jury's to disregard the Highway Code if it helps the defence of a motorist. I wonder if a cyclists would get the same "benefit of the doubt" as motorist would in these circumstance. 

I was walking on a very wide pavement yesterday and stopped because Id seen something I wanted to photograph, and got a grumbling cyclist say "huh I almost got you" as this guy pushed his bike passed me, and I thinking hold on why are you so close to me one this 5 metre wide pavement anyway,dont blame me for your poor capacity to think ahead.

but wasnt the worst I saw yesterday, guy riding his bike on a much narrower pavement, pushing past pedestrians with no warning or bells...next to a complete empty full width cycle lane on the road that even went in the same direction he wanted to go in.

just accept some cyclists like some people are complete d*****bags

I've been thing about this again, have we been overly harsh on the cyclist ? Are the rules around a shared use space that much different to a road ? If you put the runner on a bike and the cyclist in a car most of us, me included would be saying it was a dumb move by the cyclist(the runner) 

not a court in the land would question the motorist right to over take in there own lane or question there speed as long as it was below the limit ( and even if they were over the speed limit they would be unlikely to lay much blame on a motorist in similar circumstances. 

Do we as cyclist hold ourselves to a higher standard than most people hold motorist too. These were just a few things I was thinking about this morning as car after car pass by me with inches to spare with out lifting there foot off the throttle. 

I fear headphones. Simple as. I fear them on pedestrians and jogger who assume that it's the rest of the world's responsibility to avoid them, and I fear them on cyclists. 

Never mind whether I have the energy to get angry about them, or to get angry about the people who think you can go through life in a bubble relying on others to get out of your way - I need all my energy just avoiding getting caught up in their disasters.

Who knows why that jogger suddenly hooked a left and decided to run up a grass bank? It's like trying to predict the flight of a butterfly - the only choice I have is to make sure I've got distance and time to avoid him. It's why I don't ride busy shared paths if I can avoid them - I get brain strain from trying to work out which risk is greatest - the prize winner was once going up a shared path, overtaking a mobility scooter, when the scooter rider suddenly lobbed her dog off her lap onto the path, complete with the devil's own bike destroyer, an extendable lead....

It's not just joggers though. Out on a little ride yesterday I caught up to a group of leisure cyclists out on what looked like prep for a group ride in the future. They were riding two or three abreast on a twisty stretch of busy road (Dogger Bank to Mitford, if you know Morpeth) so I decided to sit on the back and wait for a clean chance to pass. The tail gunner in their group was a bloke on a mountain bike, full suspension, full knobblies, camelback drinking system and all, lost in the music he waslistening to through his earbuds, who helped me make my mind up about dropping back by taking a drink then spitting it out to his right just as I was thinking about going past.

Safety comes from controlling the things you can control, and mainly those are speed and proximity to the road user in front. Everything else is gambling.

Totally agree with @unconstituted and @only1redders it's a bit stupid to shout "on your left" anyway. On a path like that he should be going slow. It's not a racing track. If that runner had been a toddler or an elderly person the scenario could have been much worse.

Cyclist at fault, travelling way too quick to overtake a runner/pedestrian and whilst the runner should be looking before turning ( I assume he heard the cyclist approaching and was trying to get out of the way) the cyclist is clearly asking for trouble with the speed he's travelling at. I'd like to know what happened next ie what were the injuries, as I reckon the runner could be seriously injured/broken bones 

Too fast, and reckless. If it had been in the UK on a shared use path it would have been the cyclists fault without doubt. Probably guilty of "inconsiderate cycling", which frankly is putting it mildly.  

As it says in the code of conduct:-

"When coming up behind pedestrians, always pass them at a safe distance, and slowly enough so that you could avoid them if they made a sudden change in direction

Remember that some pedestrians may be hard of hearing or visually impaired and hence might not be aware of you. If in doubt, give a gentle ring on your bell or say 'Excuse me'.

Always respect pedestrians even if they stray onto the cycling side (if there is one); they are entitled to do so. Always thank people who move out of your way.

Ride at a sensible speed for the situation and ensure you can stop in time. As a general rule, if you want to cycle quickly, say in excess of 18 mph/30 kph, then you should be riding on the road."

It's the cyclist's fault for sure. The speed and passing distance were inappropriate for the shared use path. The cyclist should have slowed down. Not everyone understands what, "On your left means," anyway. If I was the runner and injured by this, I'd be taking legal action.

Yes, the runner should've looked first so is say 30% responsible.

I was running on a shared use path a while back and nearly had some dimwit ride into the back of me. I was running in a straight line but there was an oncoming cyclist and the idiot on the bike behind had way too much speed and not enough awareness to realise he couldn't manage an overtake. He braked hard and locked up his back wheel and was swearing at me, just because he'd carried too much speed and not seen the potential conflict earlier. I was running where I was entitled to be and had no idea what risk I was at until I heard him skidding to a rapid stop.

When I'm riding on shared use paths I ride fairly slowly, because that's what you do.

If you want to push yourself on a shared use path, click into a really low gear and aim for the highest cadence you can achieve and push yourself as far as you can, but without causing risk to others, and just forget about Strava.

I run, a lot, and I would fully expect to get run over if I made a change of direction like that without checking over my shoulder, same on a bike really.

Yes, cyclist could have been more cautious, but it's only the runner who has caused the collision. Would you change lanes on the motorway without looking and blame the car you'd pulled into because it was going a bit faster than you?

On this sort of path, there is no separation between bike and walker. The pedestrian can quickly forget that they're sharing a path with other road users and behave quite unpredictability. I know, because I darted into the hedge to look at a shrew once and was 'nearly' killed by a bike. From then on I treat every pedestrian as if they could veer anywhere at any moment. I guess this cyclist has now learnt that lesson. Quite painfully by the sounds of it.

I use the sustrans cycle paths a bit and getting ready to hit the brakes is always wise. My greatest gripe is that all the other users seem to view YOU as the one that's not supposed to be there or something. It's a marked cycle route WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?!? The joggers with headphones in aren't the worst though. Dog walkers. Dog walkers with long leads taking up the entire path, that then look at you with disgust that that have to reign their dog in. Don't worry though, they soon get their own back by letting the dog shit wherever (like in the middle of the gate). 

One day I'm going to boot one of the yapping little bastards in the head (if I could unclip in time).

The cyclist is behaving towards the runner the same way we complain about car drivers behaving towards cyclists. 

Too fast, too close and without regard to the more vulnerable user. 

Loved the post crash orgasm sound, was sexy.

As somebody who occasionally cycles on shared use paths near my house and use those same paths for running on, I would say that it is equal blame. From my runners perspective, I tend to wear earphones and listen to music nowadays, however, I stick to one side of the path and stay there and will only move across after looking up ahead and checking behind me (Mirrors, signal, manouvere I suppose). I probably won't hear a shout from behind and may or may not hear a bell, so I assume somebody could be passing me all the time. Runner should have looked over his shoulder before changing his line (and why on earth did he suddenly do a 90 degree turn anyway?!?). From my cyclists perspective, I would be looking to see if the pedestrian has seen me (which he didn't in this instance) and if he hasn't, I'd shout when within range. If he doesn't hear the shout (i.e. because he's wearing headphones), I would pass slow and wide so that I don't surprise him and if he does move across, I have time to brake and avoid hitting him.

Cyclists have a responsibility not to hit pedestrians on shared use paths, just as drivers have that same responsibility towards cyclists on the road.

The idiot runner was 100% at fault, the earphones weren't the problem, it was because he didn't look behind before turning and moving across most of the path width, and his turn was so sudden and sharp that the cyclist had no chance to brake or turn, so pain!

This is probably one of the reasons why the AirZound (love the metal air can version) was invented, nothing like a 100dB+ air horn to cut the BS.  Normally I use a loud cycle bell because I prefer not to kick people in the Ears with an Air Horn, but some people really do need it!

On any path, all users have a responsibility to maintain spacial awareness, leave enough space for other users, not hog the centre, not zombie wander across paths or lay "trip-wires" with near invisible wire dog leads across most the width of a path, including cyclists.  I've even had to wake up some insane cyclists with these wire dog leads recently, WTF!

I think things are seriously FU when people are so stupid that they need pedestrian crossing lights in paths and obstacle detection mobile cases!

This depends a lot on the context we haven't been provided with in this story. It isn't even mentioned which continent it is on, although the date format suggests it could well be in the United States. If the entrance to this path/lane is clearly signed or painted with cyclists on one side of the centre line, and pedestrians on the other, then the jogger is at fault. Either he was in the wrong lane to start with and foolishly tried to switch at the last second, or was in the correct lane and was too self-absorbed to check over his shoulder before cutting across on to the grass. If there were no such signs, and the cyclist's speed was excessive, the cause was still the jogger's abrupt direction change and (possibly) impaired hearing, but the severity of the impact could have been greatly lessened had the cyclists shown some appropriate caution, for what would in that case have been a non-lane-designated shared space, and slowed down. However, it is not clear how fast he was going. The lens is quite a wide angled one, which can give a false sense of speed (the man very quickly goes from being a tiny dot in the distance to filling the frame, but at least some of that is due to the optical compression necessary to have a large field of view.)

Worst thing about this is that it's using FLASH player! It's 2016 haven't we moved on.

I'm not sure it is a random left turn from the runner. It looks as if he has heard the cyclist coming from behind and moved over to allow them to pass, but cyclist is going too fast.

Headphones is a red herring, I wear them all the time whilst riding and no issues. 

As others have said this is about the cyclist taking caution and just slowing down and predictiong moves.

Headphones irrelevant to this issue, cycles are pretty quiet anyway. Cyclist should be more careful when passing and runner should look before changing direction. I often get pedestrians stepping out into the road without looking (checking for cars with ears only I guess) I haven't hit one yet.

Neither is completely without blame here... But... Opening the can of worms:

What if the cyclist was going half the speed, barely faster than the runner, and the runner turns across as suddenly. Given similar time to the runner, it would still have been a collision.

Either you cannot overtake at any speed on a shared narrow path, or everybody needs to take the responsibility that is theirs, which does involve not shutting out the world with headphones and checking for other users when turning across a shared space.

I've got to say I had plenty of similar curcumstance on my ride today, I was going at less than half the speed of this guy when over taking peds on shared use paths. 

It does piss me off because you just know that ped will happily get into a car after their 100 yard walk and pass me at 70mph 3 inch away and then wonder why I might be upset. 

I hope he got his computer back. 0:29

Going far too fast. Whenever your cycling you've got o be prepared for 'anything could happen now, do I have somewhere to go'.  Shared spaces are that, he should cruise by slowly. Even if the runner went straight, doubt he'd be happy with a bike appearing from no where in his head passing a 20mph about a footwawy.