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Pedestrian dies following collision with cyclist near Harrogate

Cyclist remains in hospital after incident yesterday morning in North Yorkshire

A pedestrian has died following a collision with a cyclist near Harrogate yesterday morning.

North Yorkshire Police say the collision happened at 7.40am on Saturday morning in Dacre Banks.

The pedestrian, named as 79-year-old George Redpath from Darley, had parked his car opposite the shop and was crossing the road when he was involved in a collision with what police described as a “red racing cycle” that was being ridden towards Summerbridge.

He was taken to Leeds General Hospital, with police confirming this afternoon that he died as a result of his injuries.

The cyclist, a 62-year-old man who also comes from Darley, sustained a serious shoulder injury and was taken to Harrogate District Hospital, where he remains in a stable condition.

Police have appealed for witnesses and have asked anyone with information to call 101, select option 2, and ask for Rob Roberts quoting reference 12190156187.

Alternatively, he can be contacted on Rob.Roberts [at] northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk.

Road traffic incidents in Great Britain in which a pedestrian is killed following a collision involving a cyclist are thankfully rare – around two a year on average, compared to more than 400 in which a motor vehicle is involved.

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.

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20 comments

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ktache | 4 years ago
2 likes

There is this one

https://road.cc/content/news/228969-reading-cyclist-died-after-pedestria...

And his brother maintains that the police told him had Ben survived he could have been prosocuted

https://road.cc/content/news/229584-cyclist-killed-when-pedestrian-stepp...

Odd, this is all quite rare and didn't make the national news (local only as I am aware) and no knee jerk legislation desperately proposed.

Avatar
Robert Hardy | 4 years ago
3 likes

A great deal is made of these cyclist kills pedestrian stories, but rarely is it pointed out that the pedestrian is usually in the carriageway, often having failed to adaquately perform the observational checks necessary when crossing the road. That is no defense for that tiny minority of cyclists who assert their perceived right of way to the abandonment of their duty to do everything in their power to avoid a collision, but it does seem that cyclists are being held to a much higher standard than motorists. And are there no cases where the pedestrian's actions have killed the cyclist?

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Htc replied to Robert Hardy | 4 years ago
0 likes

Robert Hardy wrote:

A great deal is made of these cyclist kills pedestrian stories, but rarely is it pointed out that the pedestrian is usually in the carriageway, often having failed to adaquately perform the observational checks necessary when crossing the road. That is no defense for that tiny minority of cyclists who assert their perceived right of way to the abandonment of their duty to do everything in their power to avoid a collision, but it does seem that cyclists are being held to a much higher standard than motorists. And are their no cases where the pedestrian's actions have killed the cyclist?

Equally it's a hell of a lot easier to perform an emergency stop in a vehicle with a seatbelt on than it is on a bike. An emergency stop on a bike comes with a good chance of crashing.

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kil0ran replied to Robert Hardy | 4 years ago
0 likes

Robert Hardy wrote:

A great deal is made of these cyclist kills pedestrian stories, but rarely is it pointed out that the pedestrian is usually in the carriageway, often having failed to adaquately perform the observational checks necessary when crossing the road. That is no defense for that tiny minority of cyclists who assert their perceived right of way to the abandonment of their duty to do everything in their power to avoid a collision, but it does seem that cyclists are being held to a much higher standard than motorists. And are their no cases where the pedestrian's actions have killed the cyclist?

Not aware of any fatalities, but certainly life-changing injuries can result. Bloke I used to work with was knocked off by a ped (this was 20-odd years ago so before smartphone zombies) and broke his arm in so many places he only had partial use of it afterwards. Which kind of sucked as he was a computer programmer.

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OldRidgeback | 4 years ago
2 likes

This incident was a fatal one. I don't think it's appropriate to discuss how this might or might not have happened. The family of the person who died would probably rather not have specualtion on the case, at least until the police have carried out an investigation.

RIP

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Spangly Shiny | 4 years ago
2 likes

FWIW and to aid in your speculation, the shop is where the road flattens out after a long downhill section (in the direction of Summerbridge). The road is straight with good lines of sight. Not much moving at that time of day in Dacre Banks either.

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Mungecrundle | 4 years ago
18 likes

Nobody should be going with anything at this stage, unless they witnessed the incident and in which case their comments should be addressed privately to the investigating officer.

Condolences to the bereaved. Best wishes to the injured party for a full recovery.

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brooksby | 4 years ago
9 likes

Quick show of hands, here: who is going with the "it's early in the morning and I can't here anything coming so I'll walk out without looking" theory?

It's awful that the guy has died, but it also illustrates a point made many times before - the bloke cycling has been taken to hospital with broken bones.  It rarely happens that a motorist is injured *at all* if they hit a pedestrian.

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srchar | 4 years ago
15 likes

Funny how "the news" describes someone who steps out of a car as a pedestrian, but someone who steps off a bike is usually still a cyclist.

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Griff500 replied to srchar | 4 years ago
2 likes
srchar wrote:

Funny how "the news" describes someone who steps out of a car as a pedestrian, but someone who steps off a bike is usually still a cyclist.

Not funny at all! At the time of the incident he was walking not driving, the reporter is merely stating the facts.

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srchar replied to Griff500 | 4 years ago
9 likes

Griff500 wrote:
srchar wrote:

Funny how "the news" describes someone who steps out of a car as a pedestrian, but someone who steps off a bike is usually still a cyclist.

Not funny at all! At the time of the incident he was walking not driving, the reporter is merely stating the facts.

I agree. It's the double standards I was commenting on. See also: racing bicycle. Surely it's only a racing bicycle if it's being raced? And let's not speculate on how a 79 year old man who can't see a bicycle when he's out of the car at walking pace would see the same bicycle when he's at the wheel of his car at speed.

It's unfortunate that someone has died - and I feel just as sorry for the cyclist, who will have to live with it - but looking at the road, this is how a SMIDSY turns out without the protection of a ton of metal.

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Griff500 replied to srchar | 4 years ago
1 like
srchar wrote:

And let's not speculate....

This!

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to Griff500 | 4 years ago
8 likes

Griff500 wrote:
srchar wrote:

Funny how "the news" describes someone who steps out of a car as a pedestrian, but someone who steps off a bike is usually still a cyclist.

Not funny at all! At the time of the incident he was walking not driving, the reporter is merely stating the facts.

 

But if 'cyclists' who arrive at that Velolife place by car or on foot are still 'cyclists' (according to the council's proposed injuction) then the same logic means a driver who gets out of their car remains a driver?

 

Reminds me of readingl a newspaper report of a punch-up between two motorists, that described the defensive party as a 'motorist', but not the aggressor.  And a number of reports about a US road death that called the killer driver a 'surfer' because they went surfing a lot when not driving.

 

[I have nothing to say about the event in the article.  But the media does seem in general to make strenuous efforts to not call anyone who does something bad a 'motorist']

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Griff500 replied to FluffyKittenofTindalos | 4 years ago
0 likes
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

[I have nothing to say about the event in the article.  But the media does seem in general to make strenuous efforts to not call anyone who does something bad a 'motorist']

So would you have preferred the headline to read "motorist dies after collision with cyclist"? Not sure that would help our cause.

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to Griff500 | 4 years ago
7 likes

Griff500 wrote:
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

 

[I have nothing to say about the event in the article.  But the media does seem in general to make strenuous efforts to not call anyone who does something bad a 'motorist']

So would you have preferred the headline to read "motorist dies after collision with cyclist"?

 

I'd say "touche" except, on reflection, that point doesn't actually relate to what I said.  Indeed, in the case of the motorist-vs-motorist violence, my point was the media _did_ refer to the victim as a motorist, even though neither party was driving at the moment of fisticuffs.  But not the perpetrator.  I'm merely asking for consistency.  Are you opposed to consistency?

 

  Face it, if a gang of bank robbers arrived and fled a bank job using bicycles, some of the media would almost certainly have headlines about 'cyclists rob bank', but will never say 'motorists rob bank'. 

And even when a motorist does something bad while actually driving a car, they usually won't be referred to as a motorist (as with the case of the 'surfer').  I'm saying there's a double-standard and the media doesn't like calling perps 'motorists' even when they clearly are.

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Muddy Ford replied to Griff500 | 4 years ago
6 likes

Griff500 wrote:
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

 

[I have nothing to say about the event in the article.  But the media does seem in general to make strenuous efforts to not call anyone who does something bad a 'motorist']

So would you have preferred the headline to read "motorist dies after collision with cyclist"?

A person has died after a collision with a bicycle, the cyclist also suffering grevious injuries. The person who died was crossing the road after exiting their car.

No paper ever says "pedestrian/cyclist killed/injured after collision with driver". The manner in which any incident involving a bicycle is referred to as 'cyclist' is intentionally done so to direct focus on the person riding the bike whereas any incident involving a vehicle is referred to as a vehicle to focus on the inanimate object away from the driver.

 

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Griff500 replied to Muddy Ford | 4 years ago
0 likes

Muddy Ford wrote:

No paper ever says "pedestrian/cyclist killed/injured after collision with driver". The manner in which any incident involving a bicycle is referred to as 'cyclist' is intentionally done so to direct focus on the person riding the bike whereas any incident involving a vehicle is referred to as a vehicle to focus on the inanimate object away from the driver.

 

So what you are saying is no paper would ever say something like this newspaper quote from a recent incident:

“Motorist drove away from crash after cyclist knocked off bike” (Aug 2nd)

or this:

“Driver kills 3 in head on collision” (Apr 14th)

or this:

“UK driver not wearing seatbelt crashes into oncoming traffic” 

 

 

 

Avatar
burtthebike replied to srchar | 4 years ago
1 like

srchar wrote:

Funny how "the news" describes someone who steps out of a car as a pedestrian, but someone who steps off a bike is usually still a cyclist.

Now I'm totally confused; what am I when I get off my bike and drive a car?

Avatar
Rick_Rude replied to burtthebike | 4 years ago
0 likes
burtthebike wrote:

srchar wrote:

Funny how "the news" describes someone who steps out of a car as a pedestrian, but someone who steps off a bike is usually still a cyclist.

Now I'm totally confused; what am I when I get off my bike and drive a car?

A Nazi?

Avatar
burtthebike replied to Rick_Rude | 4 years ago
0 likes

Rick_Rude wrote:
burtthebike wrote:

srchar wrote:

Funny how "the news" describes someone who steps out of a car as a pedestrian, but someone who steps off a bike is usually still a cyclist.

Now I'm totally confused; what am I when I get off my bike and drive a car?

A Nazi?

Shouldn't trolls be banned?

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