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news
Richmond ParkRichmond Park cyclist crashes into car’s rear window after driver slows to let geese cross road
A cyclist crashed into the rear window of a car in Richmond Park yesterday after a driver slowed down to let some geese cross the road, according to police.
The incident happened on Boxing Day morning between Kingston and Ham gates, according to a tweet from Royal Parks police, accompanied by a photograph of the broken rear window of the Mercedes car involved.
Officers at #RichmondPark have been dealing with a road traffic collision between Kingston Gate and Ham Gate after the driver of a vehicle slowed to allow some geese to cross the road and a male on a bicycle collided into the rear of her vehicle and through the back window. pic.twitter.com/dNbWJPBDgY
— Royal Parks Police (@MPSRoyal_Parks) December 26, 2021
Officers confirmed that the male cyclist had been taken to hospital, adding that his injuries were not “life threatening or life changing,” and that they are continuing to investigate the incident.
*threatening
— Royal Parks Police (@MPSRoyal_Parks) December 26, 2021
News of the crash has reignited calls for motor vehicles to be banned from the 955-hectrare Royal Park which is hugely popular with cyclists from southwest London and beyond and is a national nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.
Among those responding to the tweet from the police was Rory McCarron, a specialist cycling lawyer at Leigh Day solicitors, who was riding his bike in Richmond Park yesterday and described how he had seen some “awful driving,” including motorists exceeding the 20mph speed limit.
Richmond Park was closed to motor traffic for five months from March last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the decision by The Royal Parks to reopen the roads to rat-running drivers from March was described as a “reckless and drastic” move by London Cycling Campaign. Access to the park for motorists is due to be reviewed in the New Year.
Footage of close passes on cyclists and other instances of irresponsible and intimidating driving is regularly posted to social media, and we have regularly reported on cyclists being injured in road traffic collisions in the park.
Last month cycling instructor and bike mechanic David Williams said he was knocked off his bike on purpose by a driver as he returned home from a training session at a local school.
> Driver deliberately knocks cyclist off bike in Richmond Park
The 53-year-old broke his collarbone and sustained severe bruising as a result of the incident, which is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.
"This one car, a blue BMW, went past me and was really close,” he said. “I slapped the boot to let the driver know how close he had been.
“He immediately braked quite sharply. I wasn’t able to stop but filtered along the road between the car and grass and ended up in front of him.
“Immediately, he then accelerated and came alongside me – about a foot away. I rapped on his roof to make the point he was too close and get him away.
“He accelerated again and swerved in towards me, knocking me off balance and I fell right onto my shoulder into the road. He then sped off down the hill.”
He added: “The people in the other cars behind me were shocked. This was not an accident. They probably thought they wanted to scare me, but the consequences are very serious for me.
“My head hit the floor quite hard and my helmet is now finished as it has a big crack in it.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 12 min 5 sec ago
Condolences to this young man's family....
- chrisonabike 26 min ago
Also don't forget - Sustrans are a charity *....
- chrisonabike 37 min 38 sec ago
Yes ... but (just due to the large numbers of people affected) this likely would only proceed in the UK at a very ... cautious ... pace....
- hawkinspeter 42 min 58 sec ago
A handful of acorns should be enough to keep you going
- hawkinspeter 50 min 4 sec ago
Pfffft! Tampico is so last-year. The best artisanal fibre for cleaning bikes is obviously free-range squirrel hair.
- EK Spinner 55 min 6 sec ago
Arsehole in the van not with standing, how did they manage to get a risk assessment allowing a race (a group not a TT) group to be competing on ...
- RafaDy 50 min 30 sec ago
I think reviewer completely missed the point here trying to match bike's name with what it can do. Ribble is namin git's bike weirdly, the...
- Moist von Lipwig 4 hours 16 min ago
Bit of googling gone wrong in the article - the JAT is the Junction Assessment Tool, the Joint Approval Team appears to be a coutner terrorism...
- HKR 5 hours 31 min ago
Can't believe that child threw his bike on the floor at the end of that. Young people today have no respect... ;))
- Griff500 4 hours 18 min ago
Its not the same stem fitted to the two bikes though, and we aren't talking about HTA we are talking about stem inclination or "stem rise" to use...
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104 comments
This simply is not the case. A following driver should only overtake where there is room safely to return to their lane without entering the safe braking zone of the vehicle they are overtaking. If the driver has to cut into this zone they should not have made the overtake in the first place and are culpable for any incidents resulting from them having to brake whilst in said zone.
A sage response Mr Harris...
I know my onions...
I hope they breathalysed the driver - around this time of year they might well have had a few and been totally goosed.
As per usual Road CC muddy the waters and post a story and regurgetate another story to get extra impact. The cyclist that went into the back of the car accidently, the hard braking incident is a totally separate story. The one you respond to happened last month, the incident in the park yesterday. The BMW he went into last month close passed the cyclist then when he got in front broke hard. How could this be the fault of the cyclist? How could he be travelling too close when the BMW had just passed him?
Assuming the cyclist was behind the car, reasonable, and that the car was not going backwards, also reasonable, this is the cyclist's fault; no matter how hard the driver applied the brakes.
Consider an alternative similar situation; You are behind a car approaching a roundabout and they appear to be entering the roundabout but then stop; if you collide with them it is your fault.
Not the same though is it? In your example the situation leading up to the crash hasn't abruptly changed. At the start, there is a car in front of you. At the end, same. Clearly your responsibility.
In an overtake and cut in situation you start with a car overtaking you (their choice / look out) and then end with them performing a sudden mavouever in front of you.
I've no opinion on what actually happened here and have indeed suggested that it's perfectly possible the cyclist didn't notice the car slowing down / was already following too close. However it is certainly possible for a car to rapidly overtake you, cut in quickly close to you and brake. In practice that may not give you sufficient time to drop back to create space (which the other driver has forced you to do if they've cut in close to you) / brake quickly and effectively enough to stop before hitting them.
If you're saying "legally the cyclist is on a sticky wicket unless they've got good evidence of a brake check" I'd agree. That's my judgement of how it's likely to go in a court though. Not the same as the law!
An alternative assumption which is also perfectly reasonable as it's one encountered by many cyclists in RP, including myself on more than one occasion, is that the driver misjudged the closing distance of oncoming traffic in overtaking and cut back in to avoid a collision (thereby breaking HC 163 on overtaking, "Move back to the left as soon as you can but do not cut in") then saw the additional hazard and braked for it. If the cyclist was behind the car throughout the incident and didn't leave sufficient braking distance, yes it's his fault. If he was left without sufficient braking distance because the driver cut into his braking distance, that's her fault.
There is an erroneous assumption that any rearend shunt is the fault of the driver behind in law; this is not the case, there is no such law and there is plenty of case history where the driver in front has been held partially or wholly responsible for the collision. If the actions of another driver (for example cutting in too quickly then immediately braking hard) mean that the driver behind could not be reasonably expected to anticipate or avoid the collision, fault lies with the driver in front.
Where is your proof of overtaking and then suddenly braking?
Just because it has happened to you in the past doesn't mean that every other event follows the same pattern. Yes, the driver might have braked hard but to go through a rear window you have to some momentum.
The point is a valid alternative explanation. See the current compilation video of driving in RP.
As it is, I think the balance of probability is that the cyclist is at fault although the driver being at fault is somewhat more than slim.
(Where is the proof of geese if you go down that route?)
Where's your proof that the cyclist was too close/inattentive? Neither of us know what happened, just putting forward an alternative explanation based on my forty years of experience of riding those roads and the way drivers often behave in the park.
If a rider is doing 20mph and a driver cuts sharply in front whilst simultaneously braking hard, clearly there will be considerable momentum involved.
I thought the wording about "slowed to allow.."was weird too. It sounds like some dappy idiot slowing and waving then across, rather than (and I consider this the likely scenario) a risk aware driver realising that geese by the road being unpredictable it was wise to slow down as necessary to avoid a collision.
Had the rider been maintaining a sufficient stopping distance and/or paying attention to the road ahead it is difficult to see how a collision would have occurred.
I'll concede that we don't know the full facts, but presumed liability(as rear enders are judged regarding liability) would without further evidence place the blame squarely at the rider's door.
That is true but on that stretch of road, which is always busy, it seems to me less likely that it was rider inattentiveness and more likely that the driver went to overtake the cyclist, realised the oncoming traffic was closer than she thought, cut back in on the cyclist then saw the secondary hazard of the geese and braked. The first part, being cut in on, happens regularly to me in Richmond Park, as the road between Ham and Kingston gates is too narrow to allow an overtaking car to pass a bike - even close pass - and avoid any oncoming vehicle. Impatient drivers frequently pull fast overtakes and dive back in far too early to leave a rider a safe braking distance if they (the car driver) suddenly were to encounter a hazard ahead. Obviously pure supposition on my part in this case but having had it happen to me plenty of times (fortunately without a hazard forcing the car to brake) I can see how it could have happened here.
Yes, this is a possibility, but we would be speculating. If it is the case, hopefully the rider was filming.
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