Accident in Richmond park today

Gabbo

Did anyone else manage to see it? Cyclist with a black Specialized Tarmac had a nasty crash (I assume) and had to be stretchered off into an ambulance. Hope he's okay!

What's the worst accident you've guys had? Touch wood, it is yet to happen to me.

Again, hoping he makes a quick recovery!

wheeledwidewebb

Whilst riding around the cliff top in Margate this morning (generally horrible experience anyway) my mate was blown a full five feet sidewards and into the cliff top fence - whereupon he fell off.

I didn't laugh.

Was chuffin windy though.

Gabbo

Mind you, the winds today were awful! Nearly got blown aside a few times myself!

chrisaonabike

I was up there this morning, didn't see it. Got overtaken by an ambulance tho, which took me by surprise a bit (lights no siren), possibly his one.

Windy, for sure. My first experience of significant crosswind - as I came out of the wood coming down the hill to Kingston gate I got blown sideways a bit. Nothing drastic, but enough to move me a couple of feet over. Quite enough as in introduction.

TakeTurns

All the best to him, I'm assuming it was with a car?
Was there yesterday. Wanted to set a PB so I took the deep sections. I first noticed there was hardly anyone about. As I went up Sawyers Hill the wind got so strong, luckily it was directly blowing towards me. If it were sidewind I'd have been blown off. As I went down onto the drops, there were leaves flying midair into my face.

My worst accident was when descending, not too fast, about 28mph. A parked car pulled out and sent me flying over. Broken collar bone, nasty road burns and my recently built Bianchi ruined. Was taken on a stretcher with a neck support on, turned out it was fine though. Left with scars and permanently clicking left foot when I rotate it.

SwainsL

Ouch! Hope he lives to ride his bike again. Nothing worse than not being able to do something you love.

ugo.santalucia

SwainsL wrote:

Ouch! Hope he lives to ride his bike again. Nothing worse than not being able to do something you love.

I very much doubt one can have a life threatening accident in Richmond Park... cars go at 20 mph and the roads are as safe as roads can be, virtually everybody wear a helmet. You can hit 40 mph on the descent, but even there, one needs to be extremely unlucky to have a serious accident...
I would assume it's a collar bone or bad bruises

adam0bmx0

ugo.santalucia wrote:

SwainsL wrote:

Ouch! Hope he lives to ride his bike again. Nothing worse than not being able to do something you love.

I very much doubt one can have a life threatening accident in Richmond Park

Er, I very much reckon you can, you can fall off at 0mph and die.

Hope the chap is ok!

madmole

Just remember Richmond park is one of only 3 places in the UK that the speed limits apply to cyclists as well as cars and they do give tickets to cyclists (Richmond park has its own traffic laws as its a Royal park)

Gabbo

I don't believe the accident did involve a motorist. It was immediately after the steepest descent in Richmond Park so from my logic I'd say he lost control.

Anonymous

I reckon those dragon's teeth on the main descent could f you up if you hit them

TakeTurns

madmole wrote:

Just remember Richmond park is one of only 3 places in the UK that the speed limits apply to cyclists as well as cars and they do give tickets to cyclists (Richmond park has its own traffic laws as its a Royal park)

How fast do you actually have to be going over the speed limit to be breaking the speed limit...I know the answer may seem obvious, but cars overtake me even if I'm going at 20

chrisaonabike

TakeTurns wrote:

How fast do you actually have to be going over the speed limit to be breaking the speed limit...I know the answer may seem obvious, but cars overtake me even if I'm going at 20

I think in reality, no one's going to get hauled up before the Beak unless they're doing well over 20, and something dangerous as well.

There are a few stretches in the park where I'm capable of doing over 20 (not many, admittedly), and that's involved whizzing past police cars (parked off-road) several times. Similarly in the car, I don't worry too much if the speed creeps up to 25 occasionally. As a local, I've driven through the park hundreds of times and never been stopped.

But I'm careful - I leave plenty of space going past bikes, I don't accelerate hard to get past something and then cut in in the face of oncoming, and I keep a damn good lookout for deer. I expect any of that would get the attention the constabulary if they happened to be there.

I expect the cyclists that scream past the slow cars and then cut in, scaring the oncoming cars would attract attention too.

AchillesLeftKnee

Gabbo wrote:

What's the worst accident you've guys had?

In my teens...

I was riding into Bournemouth on my "racer" in the summer of 1987. Passing a parked car at about 20mph, a car passed me and clipped my bars. The ensuing wobble saw may right foot pop out of the loose toeclips and into the front wheel, stopping me dead. I landed on chin, fracturing my jaw, a bone-deep gash in my chin, and doing a lot of damage to my teeth. Didn't damage my wrists as it happened to quick to get my hands forward, though did manage to take a load of skin of the back of my hands. The bike suffered a broken right fork leg, and a large number of broken spokes in the front wheel.

Net result was a jaw that barely moved for about two months and both top and bottom sets of teeth encased in resin until the jaw was mobile enough for the dentist to do about 20 hours (over a couple of weeks) of reconstruction.

I was not best pleased.

hstiles

You can easily hit 35mph on the stretch from the star and garter hill entrance to kingston gate and 45mph if you go down sawyers hill. The police often park on one of the side roads on the Sawyers Hill descent so that they are out of sight as you start your descent.

Descending Broomfield Hill can be treacherous. There's usually plenty of dirt and gravel on the road and if a traffic is coming up the hill and you don't judge your position properly, you can quickly run out of road.

The issue hazard in Richmond Park is the deer, that have a tendency to run out. Actually, to be fair, the issue isn't deer, it's inattentive riders or drivers behind you that aren't prepared for your sudden stop.

ricky1980

Gabbo wrote:

What's the worst accident you've guys had?

got taken out by a car door when i was going along the off-side of the car. flew across and landed on the kerb...luckily felled well (tumbled) and no broken legs/arm just a huge bruise on my entire arm and a massive kerb rash on my side and back

beams87

I have not posted about this yet, for fear of being ridiculed, but I was pretty sure there were splodges of snow on the road in RP yesterday morning. Unless this was an elaborate hoax...

That made for some pretty hairy descending, especially down the corkscrew... Interestingly, my speedo had me peaking at 46.9 mph (cannot speak for the accuracy mr polieceman). Catch one of those snowey slipery patches (especially with a near sligh rear tyre) and your going to have a serious problem.