Cyclist Killed in Newmarket

meanredspider

A1304 west of Newmarket - a straighter road you couldn't imagine. Cyclist in his 30's killed at around 06:30am - 22 year old BMW 525 driver arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. Depressing.

(Edited to correct driver age)

keef66

Holy sh1t! I was cursing the traffic chaos and praising my new TomTom in equal measure this morning, but just assumed it was the usual car on car type accident. Makes me feel quite sick to think that it was a cyclist killed on a stretch of road I've used hundreds of times.

I've always felt comparatively safe along there; as you say it's dead straight. It's also pancake flat, with good sight lines, and it's wide enough for cars to pass wide even with oncoming traffic. Maybe it was a bit misty at 6:30? I was dog walking 2 miles away at 7:15 and it was clear, but the mist can form there between the racecourse / heath and the golf course.

Although I suspect the main factor was the '25 year old BMW 525 driver'. Because the road's wide enough for 3 vehicles, I have seen some lunatic overtaking into oncoming traffic...

keef66

Press now reporting 22 year old driver in a BMW 525...

meanredspider

Yup - it's a stupidly open bit of road. I wonder if the guy was texting, tempted by the fact the road is so straight and easy?

I simply cannot believe how many cyclists there are around Addenbrooke's with absolutely no lights and many with terrible lights. I'm really scared I'm going to hit one of them. (I want to be very clear that I'm not suggesting that this has anything to do with this morning's tragic accident)

meanredspider

keef66 wrote:

Press now reporting 22 year old driver in a BMW 525...

It may be what was on the Suffolk constabulary site - just mis-remembered by me - sorry

keef66

I know it's coincidence, but I ordered a second rear light only yesterday....

Despite that I think the hardest thing is going to be persuading my wife that I'm still safer on the bike than in the car. Hopefully she won't catch the photo I've just seen of the remains of the bike - destroyed.

MrSweary

keef66 wrote:

Although I suspect the main factor was the '25 year old BMW 525 driver'. .

Indeed. Depressing beyond words.

fenix

Awful news. My condolences to the family.
Obviously we don't know what happened here yet - but as I walk to work past a busy traffic lights - the number of drivers on their phones is ridiculous. I just don't know how people can be so reckless.

MrSweary

Fenix wrote:

Awful news. My condolences to the family.
Obviously we don't know what happened here yet - but as I walk to work past a busy traffic lights - the number of drivers on their phones is ridiculous. I just don't know how people can be so reckless.

The number of cars I pass with a strong smell of weed coming from a window is ridiculous too (even for South London). Ditto the number of cars who jump reds at speed, or just speed. Makes me want to move country.

mattsaw

MrSweary wrote:

The number of cars I pass with a strong smell of weed coming from a window is ridiculous too (even for South London). Ditto the number of cars who jump reds at speed, or just speed. Makes me want to move country.

This has often struck me.

Pass any decent sized queue of traffic and you can almost guarantee that you'll pick up the smell.

Sometimes 2-3 times in the same queue.

When you start thinking about it it's genuinely scary how many people are on the roads under the influence of drugs.

keef66

@ MRS; almost daren't ask, but speaking of Addenbrooks, how's your daughter doing?

benws1

RIP to the cyclist. Horrendous news.

This isn't related to the death of the cyclist in this instance. However, I saw this worrying news article the other day. It seems that some people need something to do when piloting a tonne of metal doing many miles per hour:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38711931

meanredspider

keef66 wrote:

@ MRS; almost daren't ask, but speaking of Addenbrooks, how's your daughter doing?

Thanks for asking - she's doing very well on the treatment (doctors have described her as the "perfect patient") so we should be very grateful for that. She's now very neutropenic so hoping that she avoids infection (consultant reckons she's a better than 50:50 chance of no infection) then we just need to see how effective the chemo has been. Fingers crossed on that. My youngest son has been down from Inverness to get tested as a potential bone marrow donor - we hope, of course, that won't be necessary. So far so good.

The staff on the TCT ward are just fabulous - couldn't ask for better.

keef66

That sounds like good news!

Puts our worrying about our youngest son's tax return into perspective...

meanredspider

keef66 wrote:

That sounds like good news!

Puts our worrying about our youngest son's tax return into perspective...

Thanks.

Ha - yes, I rang the tax office a couple of weeks ago and told them to fine me if they must but they weren't getting my tax return in time... :twisted:

veronese68

meanredspider wrote:

Thanks for asking - she's doing very well on the treatment

Pleased to hear it. I'm also glad you asked Keef as I was wondering but didn't like to ask.

back on topic, horrible news about the accident. I don't think we know if the driver was on the phone, but the amount of phone use I see does scare me. When I'm passing traffic I can often tell when a driver is on the phone before I pass them, the poor driving gives them away.

meanredspider

Veronese68 wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

Thanks for asking - she's doing very well on the treatment

Pleased to hear it. I'm also glad you asked Keef as I was wondering but didn't like to ask.

Yes - sorry, I should have posted before now. I'll put a quick update on my original post.

ryan_w-2

MrSweary wrote:

Fenix wrote:

Awful news. My condolences to the family.
Obviously we don't know what happened here yet - but as I walk to work past a busy traffic lights - the number of drivers on their phones is ridiculous. I just don't know how people can be so reckless.

The number of cars I pass with a strong smell of weed coming from a window is ridiculous too (even for South London). Ditto the number of cars who jump reds at speed, or just speed. Makes me want to move country.

Couldn't agree more!

Nearly got squashed by same c**t in an Audi Q7 running a red Friday just gone.

So many cars / vans stinking off weed at 7am on my commute too. Why would you want to be mellow / stoned at that time of day?!

voodooman

Different area but...

Saw two range rover tanks overtaking this morning between Lyndhurst and Ashurst at about 0600. The fog was so dense I was pootling at half pace and with both lights could only see about 5 metres ahead. The few cars I saw were being really sensible and then these two f%*ktards hammered past.

I was on the cycle path and felt safer there than in a car. Normal 35 min commute took 55.

cycleclinic

horrible news. Poor lighting (as my lights are bright) does not explain why some drivers insist on passing me at speed with good space straight into the path on oncoming traffic. The number of near headons I have seen just so that driver can get passed me is not that funny.

Poor driving kills others bad cycling kills yourself.

benws1

voodooman wrote:

Different area but...

Saw two range rover tanks overtaking this morning between Lyndhurst and Ashurst at about 0600. The fog was so dense I was pootling at half pace and with both lights could only see about 5 metres ahead. The few cars I saw were being really sensible and then these two f%*ktards hammered past.

I was on the cycle path and felt safer there than in a car. Normal 35 min commute took 55.

This is what can happen when the f**ktards get it wrong:

http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/tra ... -1-7787236

gabriel959

Did anyone see this?

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cy ... y-12509316

keef66

gabriel959 wrote:

Did anyone see this?

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cy ... y-12509316

Sh1t, not a good week for cyclists around Newmarket. Hope the medics manage to save him.

My wife's not going to let me out of the house now...

meanredspider

Oh dear - that's right near to my brother's house (he's just on the other side of Turner's. Not good....

Again, not related to this but I took my son back to Queens' from Addenbrooke's last night and saw about 20 cyclists without lights and another 20 with totally inadequate lights. WTF are they thinking???

meanredspider

My brother says the road has only just re-opened and thinks the cyclist sadly died. He thinks the guy probably worked at Turners and my brother thinks he saw him just before the accident. You see a lot of guys cycling to and from Turners - not necessarily a great mix with an HGV distribution centre - not that it should make a difference but it certainly increases the risk.

keef66

That stretch of road is pretty narrow and can be very busy in the rush hour; not sure I'd want to ride on it at dawn / dusk or at night if I could avoid doing so. Lots of lorries and not many overtaking opportunities.

Driving home last night I watched in disbelief as a Saab made repeated manic overtakes as we were approaching the spot where Tuesdays fatal collision occurred. Oblivious to the 2 brightly lit cyclists ahead and the fact that cars were pulling out to give them plenty of room. When we got into town I was immediately behind him at the traffic lights :roll:

awavey

benws1 wrote:

voodooman wrote:

Different area but...

Saw two range rover tanks overtaking this morning between Lyndhurst and Ashurst at about 0600. The fog was so dense I was pootling at half pace and with both lights could only see about 5 metres ahead. The few cars I saw were being really sensible and then these two f%*ktards hammered past.

I was on the cycle path and felt safer there than in a car. Normal 35 min commute took 55.

This is what can happen when the f**ktards get it wrong:

http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/tra ... -1-7787236

he only got 2 years and plead originally not guilty FFS :shock:

warreng

Mattsaw wrote:

MrSweary wrote:

The number of cars I pass with a strong smell of weed coming from a window is ridiculous too (even for South London). Ditto the number of cars who jump reds at speed, or just speed. Makes me want to move country.

This has often struck me.

Pass any decent sized queue of traffic and you can almost guarantee that you'll pick up the smell.

Sometimes 2-3 times in the same queue.

When you start thinking about it it's genuinely scary how many people are on the roads under the influence of drugs.

This does seem to be a recent phenomenon though. I don't recall it 5 or so years ago. I can guarantee I'll smell it every day from a car a couple of times between Stockwell and Cheam on the A24. I used to be a heavy smoker and wouldn't be able to find my arse with both hands nevermind drive a car

meanredspider

The update from my brother was that the guy yesterday hadn't died but the head injuries were so severe (apparently no helmet - make of that whatever fits your view of helmets) that the police carried out the same investigation as they would for a fatality. I hope he recovers and in a good enough state for a good enough quality of life.

gabriel959

poor bloke

My wife has seen both of these and she is scared shitless of my riding to work.

keef66

Like most cyclist vs vehicle incidents, the helmet thing would depend on the nature of the collision. A helmet might have made a difference, it might not have. We'll likely never know, and I'm not sure I'd want to.

I hope he makes a good recovery, but 'life threatening serious head injuries' doesn't sound too promising...