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Cyclists may have "vital information" on Victoria Boris bike rider fatal crash, say police

Renewed witness appeal over death of Claire Hitier-Abadie

Detectives investigating a collision in London last Friday in which a female cyclist died have renewed their appeal for witnesses and say they'd particularly like to hear from cyclists.

Detective Constable April Cummins said: "I am specifically appealing to those from the cycling community especially those who may have posted witness accounts on cycling forums. The information you have may be vital to our investigation and I urge you to come forward and speak to us.”

The incident happened just before 8am on Friday February 20 in Bressenden place at the junction with Victoria Street.

The 36-year-old cyclist, later identified as Claire Hitier-Abadie, a French national from Marylebone, Westminster, was pronounced dead at the scene despite the efforts of the Metropolitan police, London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade.

Ms Hitier-Abadie was the fourth cyclist to die in London this year. All four fatalities have involved HGVs, three of them construction vehicles.

The tipper lorry involved in the collision is owned by haulage contractor Gordon. In 2013 a tipper lorry belonging to the same company was involved in the death of hospital porter Brian Holt on Mile End Road.

The collision in Bressenden Place was just a few metres from the spot where Katharine Giles, 35, was killed by a left-turning HGV in April 2013.

It’s the second fatal Boris Bike collision in London. In July 2013 Philippine De Gerin-Ricard, 20, who was also French, died in Whitechapel.

The driver stopped at the scene and no arrests have been made.

DC Cummins said: “The collision took place during rush hour traffic and there were a number of people within the area who may have witnessed the incident who can assist us with our investigation."

A vigil and die-in for Ms Hitier-Abadie will be held on Monday 2nd March, meeting from 6pm for 6.30pm outside Westminster City Hall, Victoria Street.

The incident is being investigated by the Serious Collision Investigation Unit based at Merton Traffic Garage.

Anyone who witnessed the collision or has any information is asked to call the Serious Collision Investigation Unit on 0208 543 5157 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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17 comments

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antigee | 9 years ago
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or he might have been crossing at a junction where as a pedestrian he would've had priority. But he hasn't given any detail so we don't know.

Highway code 170
Take extra care at junctions. You should.......

.....watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way

not a must but a should and rule that doesn't work too well...here in Victoria, Aus the wording doesn't include "started to cross" so drivers (and cyclists) do give way....except during commuting/school run times and any turning from a road with an elevated speed limit, etc

I think he's a rather sad character to be honest.

and if he did witness this death I can't believe could possibly be considered a reliable witness

public stocks and mouth washed out with soap and water?

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matthewn5 | 9 years ago
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That little a******e trolled me for a while on Twitter until i blocked him.

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bikebot | 9 years ago
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You couldn't make it up....

A blog post pinned this morning.

http://rabbit2020.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/james-nash-medical-mission-fund...

And his gofundme page just in case anyone is feeling sympathy for his plight (not sure why lozenges are so expensive).

http://www.gofundme.com/l9o38c

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OldRidgeback replied to bikebot | 9 years ago
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bikebot wrote:

You couldn't make it up....

A blog post pinned this morning.

http://rabbit2020.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/james-nash-medical-mission-fund...

And his gofundme page just in case anyone is feeling sympathy for his plight (not sure why lozenges are so expensive).

http://www.gofundme.com/l9o38c

He says that the cyclist 'came from nowhere' and hit him. Now as far as I know, Klingon cloaking devices have not yet been invented, which makes a cyclist appearing from nowhere a physical impossibility. It rather suggests that he stepped into the roadway or somehow changed direction without first stopping to look, in other words causing the incident he's so upset about.

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mrmo replied to OldRidgeback | 9 years ago
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OldRidgeback wrote:

He says that the cyclist 'came from nowhere' and hit him. Now as far as I know, Klingon cloaking devices have not yet been invented, which makes a cyclist appearing from nowhere a physical impossibility. It rather suggests that he stepped into the roadway or somehow changed direction without first stopping to look, in other words causing the incident he's so upset about.

To be fair with him, I don't know why I should TBH, he doesn't say where, or I can't see where, this happened. He might have been legitimately walking across a zebra crossing and been hit by someone who didn't give way.

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OldRidgeback replied to mrmo | 9 years ago
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mrmo wrote:
OldRidgeback wrote:

He says that the cyclist 'came from nowhere' and hit him. Now as far as I know, Klingon cloaking devices have not yet been invented, which makes a cyclist appearing from nowhere a physical impossibility. It rather suggests that he stepped into the roadway or somehow changed direction without first stopping to look, in other words causing the incident he's so upset about.

To be fair with him, I don't know why I should TBH, he doesn't say where, or I can't see where, this happened. He might have been legitimately walking across a zebra crossing and been hit by someone who didn't give way.

True, or he might have been crossing at a junction where as a pedestrian he would've had priority. But he hasn't given any detail so we don't know.

I think he's a rather sad character to be honest.

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adscrim | 9 years ago
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It's been suggested that the odious little twat from the "Cyclists are their own worst enemy. They deserve to die!" story is a chap who writes the Rabit2020 blog. If it is, he claims to have seen the incident so the Police may want to speek to him. Although the chances of him providing a fair and balanced account are pretty slim.

http://rabbit2020.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/what-is-connection-between-fred...

I quote :-
"I saw the crash at Victoria station when a cyclist was crushed by a tipper truck and yes, as expected the cyclist was weaving in and out of traffic with ''no care for other road users and paid the penalty and another one bites the dust.'' "

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Huw Watkins replied to adscrim | 9 years ago
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He's a twisted little bugger, isn't he.

Once hit by a cyclist when in the middle of the road and now hates all cyclists.

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atlaz replied to adscrim | 9 years ago
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He's pretty easily found on LinkedIn. Unfortunately for him he's looking for a job at the moment which I can't imagine will be made easier with that sort of attitude.

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Joeinpoole replied to adscrim | 9 years ago
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adscrim wrote:

It's been suggested that the odious little twat from the "Cyclists are their own worst enemy. They deserve to die!" story is a chap who writes the Rabit2020 blog. If it is, he claims to have seen the incident so the Police may want to speek to him. Although the chances of him providing a fair and balanced account are pretty slim.

http://rabbit2020.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/what-is-connection-between-fred...

I quote :-
"I saw the crash at Victoria station when a cyclist was crushed by a tipper truck and yes, as expected the cyclist was weaving in and out of traffic with ''no care for other road users and paid the penalty and another one bites the dust.'' "

That link doesn't seem to work however I've found this on London24 with a video of the idiot;

http://www.london24.com/news/cycling/video_cyclists_are_their_own_worst_...

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zanf replied to Joeinpoole | 9 years ago
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Joeinpoole wrote:
adscrim wrote:

It's been suggested that the odious little twat from the "Cyclists are their own worst enemy. They deserve to die!" story is a chap who writes the Rabit2020 blog. If it is, he claims to have seen the incident so the Police may want to speek to him. Although the chances of him providing a fair and balanced account are pretty slim.

http://rabbit2020.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/what-is-connection-between-fred...

I quote :-
"I saw the crash at Victoria station when a cyclist was crushed by a tipper truck and yes, as expected the cyclist was weaving in and out of traffic with ''no care for other road users and paid the penalty and another one bites the dust.'' "

That link doesn't seem to work however I've found this on London24 with a video of the idiot;

http://www.london24.com/news/cycling/video_cyclists_are_their_own_worst_...

Although he has now deleted it, citing abuse from commentors (which you can see is non-existent), here is a screengrab from his blog. I posted it at Imgur as someone had it on their Google+ page and Im not sure if it is public or not.

//i.imgur.com/nyROk5i.png)

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Colin Peyresourde | 9 years ago
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Ah! But are there forums about walking on pavement?! What was it that drew you here? What is a community?

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therealsmallboy | 9 years ago
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A bizarre way to address people who can ride a bike. Are people who regularly fly called the 'flying community'? Ha!

It's like we're actually a seperate race. Maybe that's what we need to push for in order to become a bit more protected/respected. If 'cyclist' became a discriminatable characteristic like gender, age, race etc......

Perhaps some football fans would end up in the papers for being cyclist-ist and pushing a man on his fold-up brompton off the tube whilst singing anti-velo songs.

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Joeinpoole replied to therealsmallboy | 9 years ago
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therealsmallboy wrote:

Perhaps some football fans would end up in the papers for being cyclist-ist and pushing a man on his fold-up brompton off the tube whilst singing anti-velo songs.

You mean some of the "football supporting community" surely?

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Username replied to therealsmallboy | 9 years ago
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therealsmallboy wrote:

It's like we're actually a seperate race. Maybe that's what we need to push for in order to become a bit more protected/respected. If 'cyclist' became a discriminatable characteristic like gender, age, race etc......

It's worth a try.

I believe the anti-racism law is written to define a racist incident as: any incident which the victim feels is racist.

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ibike | 9 years ago
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“appealing to those from the cycling community”

Interesting turn of phrase from the Detective Constable, as though when you choose to ride a bike you’re treated like a member of a religious minority.

She would never, for example, say “I’m appealing to those from the pedestrian community”!

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bikebot | 9 years ago
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I think they were specifically trying to reach a witness on the CTC forum, who has now responded.

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