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Police witness appeal after Grantham cyclist death Sunday

Driver arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving

A cyclist in his thirties has died after a collision with a car near Grantham, Lincolnshire on Sunday morning.

Emergency services were called to the B6403, High Dyke at Barkston Heath at about 0915 on Sunday April 12 where a blue Mercedes car had been in collision with a cyclist.

The cyclist, a man from the local area believed to be in his thirties died and the driver of the car, a man in his fifties, was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and later released on police bail. 

Lincolnshire Police are appealing for anyone who was in the area of the High Dyke near Barkston Heath about 0915 on Sunday morning and saw either the blue Mercedes or the cyclist before the collision or saw the collision itself to get in touch via the 101 number.

Constable John Parkhouse from the Roads Policing Unit is dealing with the incident.

Update, April 17: Police have named the victim as Timothy Alan Smith, 32, from Grantham

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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11 comments

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Exasperated | 9 years ago
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Maybe he was being sarcastic about the legal system but I just can't justify or accept sarcasm as my friend lost his life needlessly and most likely it was probably totally avoidable, and now his family & friends have to make sense of it and given the nature of his death this will be an ongoing ordeal and source of distress to his loved ones until conclusions are drawn and Justice is served (well hopefully) but it will never be enough because he will never come back, it's tragic, it's about time all road users started driving sensibly, paying attention and showing each other some respect, because too many lives are being lost due to wreckless behaviour! I've seen drivers pass too close and too fast to bikes, they do the same with horses! Give them all the space they need, pass when it's safe to do so and slow down as you pass as that makes the difference between life & death if something unexpected occurs!

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Exasperated | 9 years ago
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Mrchrispy can I just say this man was my friend and there is nothing 'acceptable' about this, were you present at the accident? Do you know what happened? It may well have been an accident I don't imagine for on minute the driver intended to go out and kill him.....however he did, and whether it was 'unavoidable' as you put it remains to be seen but that will be discovered in due course my thoughts are with his wife and children at this devastating time!

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OldRidgeback replied to Exasperated | 9 years ago
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Exasperated wrote:

Mrchrispy can I just say this man was my friend and there is nothing 'acceptable' about this, were you present at the accident? Do you know what happened? It may well have been an accident I don't imagine for on minute the driver intended to go out and kill him.....however he did, and whether it was 'unavoidable' as you put it remains to be seen but that will be discovered in due course my thoughts are with his wife and children at this devastating time!

The comment made by MrChrispy was most likely intended sarcastically, given the way cyclist deaths are treated by the British legal system. Cyclist who are victims of poor driving are often considered at fault even when they haven't been while the actual offenders regularly receive minimal penalties.
I'm sure most people on this website, and MrChrispy included, actually sympathise with the victim in this instance.

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JonD replied to Exasperated | 9 years ago
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Exasperated wrote:

Mrchrispy can I just say this man was my friend and there is nothing 'acceptable' about this, were you present at the accident? Do you know what happened? It may well have been an accident I don't imagine for on minute the driver intended to go out and kill him.....however he did, and whether it was 'unavoidable' as you put it remains to be seen but that will be discovered in due course my thoughts are with his wife and children at this devastating time!

I wouldn't be sure that's what was intended
I rather suspect he was being ironic(edit - sarcastic mebbe more accurate), given that the first 3 lines are the the usual excuses that are trotted out in other incidents.
Very sad either way.

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Matt eaton replied to Exasperated | 9 years ago
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Exasperated wrote:

Mrchrispy can I just say this man was my friend and there is nothing 'acceptable' about this, were you present at the accident? Do you know what happened? It may well have been an accident I don't imagine for on minute the driver intended to go out and kill him.....however he did, and whether it was 'unavoidable' as you put it remains to be seen but that will be discovered in due course my thoughts are with his wife and children at this devastating time!

I've got to jump to Mrchrispy's defence too.

Clearly a sarcastic comment about the effectiveness of our legal system and it's bias towards drivers.

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CXR94Di2 | 9 years ago
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Dangerous 60mph road which is used to connect quieter side lanes connecting back from Sleaford to Grantham. I use small sections of it, you need to be positive in position to ensure no one tries and squeeze by. Sorry for the families loss!

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mrchrispy | 9 years ago
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sun blinded him.
cyclist suddenly swerved in front of him.
just didnt see him.

doesnt really matter what he picks, it was just an accident. totally unavoidable, just the acceptable cost of our affair with driving.

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Matt eaton | 9 years ago
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Quarter past nine on a Sunday morning on a B road.

Good luck with that witness appeal.

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Airzound replied to Matt eaton | 9 years ago
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Matt eaton wrote:

Quarter past nine on a Sunday morning on a B road.

Good luck with that witness appeal.

The sort of people out at that time on a sunday morning are either the God Squad or kids being ferried to sunday morning football by fat parents in Man U or Liverpool football shirts in huge people carriers. Either way they will claim SMIDSY and the driver will get off and drive home.

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balmybaldwin | 9 years ago
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I doubt he'll walk, he'd still have his license so he'll drive away

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Russell Orgazoid | 9 years ago
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Guilty or not, the driver will walk.

RIP buddy.

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