Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Bath hit and run victim named as 19-year-old Jake Gilmore

Police appeal to mechanics to look out for damaged car

Avon and Somerset police are appealing to local mechanics to help find the driver who left the scene after hitting 19-year-old cyclist Jake Gilmore in Bath on Saturday night. Jake later died of his injuries.

The police are asking garages and home-based mechanics to look out for someone who has asked for urgent repair work to be carried out to their car during the past 36 hours.

Jake Gilmore was seriously injured in a hit and run incident on Bath's Midland Road Bridge. The driver left Jake lying in the road with serious head injuries. He was found by a passer-by at 9.30pm and was taken to the Royal United Hospital in Bath but died later.

According to the Bath Chronicle, the scene of the crash has been marked with tributes including a bouquet from the Lamb and Lion pub, where Jake worked as a chef.

A spokesman for the pub said: "We are shocked and deeply saddened to hear of Jake’s passing.

"Our thoughts go to his family and friends."

The card from pub staff said: “Jake, you’ll be missed. Love always, the team at the Lamb and Lion.”

The police are appealing for the public's help to trace the car, which is thought to have been damaged in the incident.

They would like to hear from anyone running a small garage business, or car body repair workshop, or a home-based mechanic who has been approached to carry out work to a damaged car sometime since Saturday night.

DI Charlotte Tucker, who is leading the investigation said: "We would also like to appeal to friends and family of someone who may have been involved in a road traffic collision which damaged their car on Saturday night.

"They may know of someone who is acting suspiciously or withdrawn, especially if asked about the damage to their car.

"We would urge these people – or the driver – to contact us urgently.”

Police also want to hear from anyone who was in the Midland Road Bridge area around 9-9.30pm on Saturday night.

Anyone able to help is asked to contact Bath CID on the force number 101.

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.

Add new comment

9 comments

Avatar
Neil753 | 10 years ago
0 likes
Avatar
WolfieSmith | 10 years ago
0 likes

Can't your phone signal records place you at an accident scene within a few metres at the time? I suppose 'I left the phone in the car that was then stolen' would be the answer but it would still be a useful ploy for a confession.

Avatar
tomascjenkins | 10 years ago
0 likes

The vehicle allegedly involved in the incident has been found as has the driver. If you can put up with the awful pop up ads on the Bath Chronicle website its on there

Avatar
VeloPeo replied to tomascjenkins | 10 years ago
0 likes
tomascjenkins wrote:

The vehicle allegedly involved in the incident has been found as has the driver. If you can put up with the awful pop up ads on the Bath Chronicle website its on there

http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Jake-Gilmore-hit-run-death-update-52-year...

By the way - get the AdblockPlus extension if you're using Firefox or Chrome as your browser. Gets rid of all that Pop Up crap.

Avatar
VeloPeo replied to tomascjenkins | 10 years ago
0 likes

Double post

Avatar
dts3_1999 | 10 years ago
0 likes

Unfortunately even finding the vehicle doesn't seem to help that much these days. It seems far too easy for suspects to deny that they were driving and it can be very difficult for the police to prove who was actually driving. Hopefully in this case the driver will be brought to justice... unfortunately I don't have much faith in the British Justice system.

RIP

Avatar
IanW1968 | 10 years ago
0 likes

Another person lost to an "ultimate driving machine" or perhaps it was "the power to surprise" either way someones son is needlessly dead, what a waste RIP.

Avatar
ironmancole | 10 years ago
0 likes

Hit and run should be instant loss of licence when caught. It is an utterly selfish and callous act. Of course there are plenty of incidents where other factors confuse things even more such as having no licence at all or already being disqualified.

See no reason why this shouldn't be treated with custodial sentencing to rival a murder charge based on the initial collision not being premeditated, it is the act of then leaving a potentially unconscious and incapacitated person on the carriageway where any reasonable person would agree they are likely to be run over.

You know if you've hit someone, just no excuse to leave any chance of recovery to fate.

Avatar
Karbon Kev | 10 years ago
0 likes

tsk poor kid, hit and run is so bloody ridiculous and cowardly

Latest Comments