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Police tape (CC licensed by freefotouk on Flickr)Police said cyclist was doing 38mph when he was involved in fatal collision with pedestrian
The inquest into the death of a pedestrian hit by a cyclist in Derbyshire has been adjourned after the cyclist questioned the police’s calculation of his speed. A forensic collision investigator said that Craig Bond had been riding at 38mph in a 30mph zone when he hit 79-year-old John Beach when the latter stepped into the road to cross.
The Derbyshire Times reports that Beach died in hospital on April 18, two days after he was hit.
Bond and his friend James Holmes had been cycling on Nottingham Road, Ripley, at around 5pm when the collision took place.
"He stepped out in front of me,” said Bond. “He came out of nowhere. I couldn't have done anything to prevent it."
Holmes, who was travelling in front, said he saw Beach emerge from in front of a stationary car.
“The pedestrian came out with his head down,” he said. "I shouted to him 'watch out'.
"I managed to avoid him and Craig attempted to go around the pedestrian but he continued to walk into Craig's path. Craig tried his best to avoid him."
The man who had been in the car at the time said Beach, “had his head down and at no point did I see him look.”
PC Lee Simpson, a forensic collision investigator with Derbyshire Constabulary, analysed CCTV footage and calculated that Bond had been travelling at an average speed of 38mph.
The speed limit on the road is 30mph.
"I can't believe that – it's got to be incorrect,” said Bond. "I can't imagine doing 38mph on my push bike."
Holmes estimated that the two cyclists had been travelling at about 20mph.
Bond's wife said Strava indicated his speed 'at the point of impact was 18mph'.
Coroner Sarah Huntbach adjourned the inquest to allow police to carry out further investigations.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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54 comments
Not really. There's good and bad police, and this sounds like a bad example. It's worrying that it would be presented as forensic evidence without someone at least querying whether it was accurate or not.
I didn't realise Andrew Mitchell was a poster here.
Couple of options:
It was 38 kph (not mph)
Someone's time stamps on their CCTV aren't correct so they've got a picture of the rider going through CCTV1 and then arriving at CCTV2 3 seconds later by the timestamp but it's wrong.
Someone doesn't know how to do distance/speed/time calculations - maybe failing to do a base60 calculation for seconds/minutes or something. Seen it done loads of times.
Anyone want to do a quick rpm calculation on say a 700c 28mm, 50 driving an 11?
Just wondering.
And of course my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of John Beach.
About 105 RPM.
Dont forget that speed limits only apply to motorised vehicles anyway so the cyclist was not doing anything wrong even if they could prove that speed.
There is still dangerous cycling or careless and inconsiderate cycling which could apply.
Depends on the type of road, width, traffic volume , mix etc
Except they could do him for furious riding.
I don't agree, 38mph with all due respect is not one that would be considered safe given parked vehicles/urban environment. Too many things can happen that you can't account for at 20mph never mind almost twice that which cuts down thinking/reaction time before you come to the point of no return because you've travelled much further before being able to act. At that speed you'll have gone approx 30metres in 1.5seconds of reacting to an unknown hazard/situation, that time is given by crash investigators to reaction time.
At 38mph in most urban situations I would classify that as dangerous, that speed on a road you can see clearly to both sides, does not have multiple entrance/exits, low chance of interaction with pedestrians crossing especially from hidden points, but that hardly ever is the case, with parked vehicles either on one side or both plus all the usual urban jungle stuff 38mph on a bike isn't acceptable as safe cycling IMO.
It's not some units thing and it was 38kph?
What a surprise, that the speed in itself should have rung alarm bells as to accuracy with the investigator or are they thinking that the accused is an Elite level sprinter unloading in the last 100m of a race??
This should call into question the accuracy of the 14-10mph estimate for Alliston, their recreation was a disgrace, not even remotely similar and should never have been allowed to be given as evidence in court it was so flawed/misrepresented the scenario.
The police will do everything they can to stitch this por sod up and won't back down, hopefully the beyond reasonable doubt should come into play and the defence can request CCTV of the accused being passed by motorists.
This shit is scary as because one second you're doing all you can to not get killed/hurt and the next someone has quite literally stepped right into your path and you've little if any time to avoid a collision all whilst you are doing nothing wrong, and yet all of a sudden the police/CPS are saying you were doing xxmph when you know absolutely that that is wrong yet the weight of evidence from plod will be held much higher with jurists and make you out to be a liar!
I hope justice is done here, it sounds like the cyclist is going to be held to a different standard of law compared to other road users both pedestrian and motorist alike ... natch!
Different police forces. SO why would one cast doubt on another separate investigation ?
Hopefully they were recording every second so that can look at the raw data to identify actual speed to the second just prior to impact.
It's easy enough to look at the raw data with something like Golden Cheetah as a first port of call to establish a speed.
It's more complicated than that, from the buildup to my civil case (which didn't happen in the end), the GPS device was extensively tested by TRL to prove how accurate the GPS data actually was and whether it could be relied upon, what were the margins of error before a conclusion about the data can be made.
I did say as a first port of call to establish a speed (for a defence), and I wouldn't be relying on a spreadsheet from Golden Cheetah as evidence. It's just an example of how people can access the raw data from their activities.
Just as the accuracy of police devices may be brought into question it's only right the accuracy of devices used by the public should be tested to the same standards. In this case, if they intend to use the Strava data as evidence then it would be right that the device it was measured on should be tested.
I would hope an independant company would do that and not the police as frankly I wouldn't trust them not to doctor the results. They prove time and time again to lie, manipulate, coerce, stitch people up to cover their backs (and indeed others) or to carry out an agenda.
Why don't the police do a simulation like they did with Alliston? In this case, they could use a motorcycle.
The cctv needs to be cross checked with another expert. Gps data is usually pretty good especially if speed doesn't fluctuate too much
A quick street view look at Nottingham rd Ripley seems to indicate a slope with a hill at one end glasshouse hill. If there were two riders then hopefully there are two corroborating pieces of evidence.
To average 38mph means traveling faster for most of the recorded section. I wouldn't be riding side by side at nearly 40 mph.
Someone must be able to pull strava speeds from that section of road
So why are they using estimates rather than GPS data? (unless there was a problem with it?) 38mph is either a downhill speed or a full on very strong tailwind sprint speed for most people.
Erm, isn't the driver stating the pedestrian walked out with head down not looking? So is in fact not laying the blame on the cyclists.
And the road does have some steep hills. I could easily hit 40mph if on a free run down them. However guessing that the unfortunate man stepped from the bus stop to cross, (as there isn't many other places a pedestrian would be on that stretch), and there were stationary cars, I would be guessing that the lights were on red or at least had just changed and there would be traffic queue. So either they were slowing because of the conditions hence the 18-20mph Strava bit, or they were stupidly going too fast. If it is the latter, then I hope they do get some punishment.
Good spot - I read it as the motorist said the cyclist had his head down - my bad!!!
Independent evidence?
If it was calculated correctly which seems rather in doubt.
Turns out they did go on to look at the GPS data, and it confirmed the initial estimate of his average speed (no mention of speed at the point of impact). Coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.(Derby Telegraph 2019-12-24)
Absolutely not a stitch up - the police love cyclists and do everything they can to protect them.
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