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Passers-by pull cyclist to safety after tram fall

Good Samaritans help a woman who hit her head and sustained scratches after falling on wet roads avoiding another rider

A cyclist was pulled to safety by passers-by after falling off her bike on wet tramlines in Croydon.

Georgina Bowden, who was cycling home from work on Friday at around 5.30, says she moved to avoid another rider, and ended up slipping in the rain onto the tram tracks.

She told the Croydon Advertiser: "I do this route often so I know the tram tracks are there and to be careful when I'm cycling over them but it was raining and one thing led to another and I don't know if my tyre got caught or I just slipped, but basically I just went over."

Passers-by blocked road to protect cyclist after collision at Bank junction

She says she opened her eyes after the fall and saw a crowd around her.

"They helped me move out of the road and made sure I was okay and were pointing out bits of me that were bleeding, which was nice,” she said.​

"I was lying there for a bit trying to work out if I was okay. I knew I'd bashed my head twice pretty badly. My helmet is cracked in two places.

"I was really thinking 'I hope someone is going to help me because I don't know if I'm injured or not and I don't know when the tram is coming.' It might sound strange but I didn't know if I could move or not. I wasn't sure if I could have made it worse."

"My skull hurts and my whole right side hurts but I think I'm fine," she told the Advertiser. I've done quite a few first aid courses so I know what I'm looking out for.

"I spent a lot of time last night thinking about how lucky I was, both in terms of the lack of head injury and also that those people helped me and made sure I was okay before they let me carry on home."

After establishing she wasn’t badly injured, Bowden walked a safe distance from the tram tracks before cycling slowly home.

She extended a message of thanks to the people who stopped to help her.

In 2014 a cyclist died after hitting the tram tracks in Croydon. The coroner at the time said the tracks had caused Roger de Klerk to fall in front of a passing bus

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5 comments

Avatar
A V Lowe | 7 years ago
1 like

Should have chatted about this on 15th after Road Danger reception.

There are 5 basic ways that rails can bring down 2 wheelers and other rubber tyred traffic  as well and riding too slowly across the rails at a shallow angle is one of the main ones - ride faster, and with firm control of the 'bars deals with one issue. The other is do not make any powerful demands on the tyre contact patch  as there are conditions where you have no resistance to sideways forces applied by steering and braking  as you cross the rails.

The levels are another detail - badly installed track has the same effect as a dropped kerb if hit at an oblique angle. If you do fall take pictures and measurements as quickly as possible as the trace of your tyres in the road grease on the rail is a very transient piece of evidence and rapidly gets erased

 

Avatar
bialbero124 | 7 years ago
0 likes

I have come off 3 times in the last 6 years and every time it has been on the tram tracks. Always at low speed in the rain. The tracks are a danger in the wet.

Avatar
A V Lowe | 7 years ago
3 likes

Unlike trucks and buses, trams are all fitted with proper lifeguards and will push any fallen cyclist along the road in front. They are driven line of sight as all other traffic on the road but with track brakes will stop very fast as the magnets stick the steel tram to the steel rails.

Croydon has an appalling flatness profile acros the rails and in many places it will be the extruded of missing chunks of tarmac either side of the rails that bring a cyclist down rather than the groove itself. This is, in places,  being addressed but the fundemantal design is badly flawed since repairs will be destroyed, as the original installation, by the tyre forces applied by large and heavy vehicles.

If you fall - check the flatness profile, secure pictures of the transient evidence (the marks in road dirt on the rail where the tyre skidded, which will disappear with first tram passing) and try to analyse in which of 5 basic ways the skid was induced. Remember anything over 6mm is recognised as a ridge that can bring down a cyclist whether its a smooth steel rail edge or concrete of a dropped kerb

Trams on reserved track or in the centre of the street was the normal system when we first had trams. This avoided the major issues, especially the tram pinch with a special road sign, which is now created where tram system designers decide (wrongly IMO) to put tram stops at the sides with elevated kerbs and not in the middle of the street.

Rubber inserts in the groove have never worked, this is a naieve concept in engineering terms, as the rubber has nowhere to go and must then spring back to its original shape. The problem has been solved for level crossings but trams on tight curves need grooved rails.

As the tram tracks are 'premises' of the tram system, injuries are reported as if the system was a workplace and Heaklth & Safety law applies.

One caveat - I do hope that a head trauma check was carried out. In 2007 a cyclist fell and banged their head, but went home, and 12 hours later the blood clot delivered a fatal outcome as his headache rapidly worsened

Avatar
WillRod replied to A V Lowe | 7 years ago
0 likes

A V Lowe wrote:

Rubber inserts in the groove have never worked, this is a naieve concept in engineering terms, as the rubber has nowhere to go and must then spring back to its original shape. The problem has been solved for level crossings but trams on tight curves need grooved rails.

I admit that my engineering knowledge is primarily electrical based, but perhaps a rubber tube would collapse into itself then spring back?

 

Avatar
WillRod | 7 years ago
1 like

I am glad she isn't that injured. Seeing the number of tram incidents on this website and others, something needs to be done. I still think tram tracks should have a rubber filler in the gap so that your tyre doesn't get stuck, yet the weight of the tram pushes it out of the way. Even then, the metal rail itself is slippery when it rains making it twice as dangerous.

I reckon the only other solution is dedicated tramways that run away from the roads and cross at right angles. It would be too expensive though and in established towns/cities it is damned near impossible. 

 

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