- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Tubeless valves
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
Vernon Street, Bolton (credit: Google Maps)11-year-old boy died cycling home after bus driver "beeped and startled him" before collision — but coroner concludes driving in line with Highway Code
A coroner concluded that a bus driver was "overtaking in a manner within the Highway Code" and an 11-year-old boy cycling home died in a collision when they "without warning, veered to the right", that after the inquest had heard from a witness who suggested the child was startled by the driver beeping his horn which caused them to lose control.
The events leading to Lucas Ashton's death were the subject of an inquest at Bolton Coroners' Court last week. The 11-year-old boy was cycling home along Vernon Street in Bolton when he was hit by the driver of a bus on 30 December 2022, the Bolton News reported from the inquest.
CCTV clips were played, one from the bus and another from a care home, footage showing the driver of the bus turn onto Vernon Street where Lucas was riding his bike on the left-hand side of the left-hand lane. As the driver overtook he beeped his horn before Lucas turned right sharply and a collision occurred.
A senior paramedic with the North West Ambulance Service, who was the first member of the emergency services to arrive at the scene "shortly after 1pm" said she "immediately recognised" that it "would not be possible to save Lucas", the coroner subsequently confirming the cause of death was a "traumatic head injury suffered in a road traffic collision".
Coroner Peter Sigee concluded the driver was "overtaking in a manner within the Highway Code" but "Lucas suddenly, and without warning, veered to the right so that a collision occurred".
However, the events around the collision were subject to conflicting accounts, the inquest hearing from PC Martin Davies, a forensic collision reconstruction officer who investigated the scene and footage, who told the court there was "no evidence to support that it was a loss of control" from Lucas that caused him to turn into the driver's path.
"In this particular case, I was able to establish that if the bike carried on in a straight line it wouldn't have happened," the police officer said. "In regards to why or how Lucas turned the bike, I wasn't able to establish why. There's no evidence to support that it was a loss of control. There was no reaction from Lucas and no indication that Lucas had heard the horn before it happened."
The police officer also claimed the driver's exact speed "wouldn't have much of a difference" after establishing that the bus was being driven at a speed between 20 and 24mph along the 20mph route when the collision occurred.
However, one passenger on the bus at the time of the collision, Victoria Lester, who was sitting "right behind the bus doors" reported Lucas's riding was "absolutely fine" and recalled seeing the 11-year-old "jumping at the sound of the horn" before he "seemed to be losing control".
Ms Lester reported that the driver was extremely upset following the collision, saying "what the f*** have I done?" before she told him there was "nothing you could have done".
A second passenger, David Spencer, told the inquest he was "happy with the driver's skills" and "felt safe as a passenger" as the vehicle was "being very careful driving into Vernon Street".
A vehicle examiner deemed that the bus was in working order and would have passed an MOT at the time of the collision.
The coroner read a statement from Lucas's mum, Sarah Heaton, who said "people flocked to" her son and that his sense of humour was "so lovely to be around".
On 30 December, the family had visited Lucas's grandad, Lucas travelling by bike and on the way home he had gone ahead.
Coroner Sigee said: "You gave him the keys to the house, said you loved him and went on, expecting to see him at home.
"You said you feel empty, your whole world seems empty, and you tell me about the things you miss. The quietness in the house is the worst, you miss the chaos he brought, and his giggles were missing – he had the best laugh, it was contagious. He's left a gap in the lives of everyone who loved him."
The coroner concluded that the collision occurred when Lucas "suddenly, and without warning, veered to the right" and that the driver had been "overtaking in a manner within the Highway Code".
"I recognise how distressing a situation like this is for everyone involved," he told the inquest. "While the grief of the family exceeds that of everyone else, I recognise the impact this would have on the bus driver as well. Lucas was unseated from his bicycle and he suffered an unsurvivable injury. Before I close this inquest, may I reiterate my condolences to everyone involved."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
Latest Comments
- dubwise 40 min 30 sec ago
Chapeau to PFP for a great victory....
- mdavidford 55 min 27 sec ago
... and then conspired to present it in such a way that you can't really see it.
- No Reply 10 hours 13 min ago
Nothing new. Cyclists are public enemy number 1. I was minding my own business yesterday on a very narrow single track lane with passing places. As...
- IanGlasgow 12 hours 43 min ago
Indicators for bikes are still with us. The best/least bad I've tried are:...
- IanGlasgow 12 hours 48 min ago
Indicators for bikes are still with us. The best/least bad I've tried are:...
- redhanded 17 hours 11 min ago
I had 2 bikes stolen from bike shed outside my flat in London last year. They ended up for sale in Russia. A cycling club I'm a member of tweeted...
- Deac 18 hours 12 min ago
I tried the footrest on the way home, it's a great idea, you can keep on the saddle making it easier to get away from the traffic lights, and being...
- ktache 21 hours 6 min ago
Not that they would be as technical, or maybe quite as grippy, but does the skate industry provide any solutions?
- Rendel Harris 21 hours 48 min ago
Sorry to be a killjoy but it doesn't amuse me at all, I hope the idiot gets caught and punished. Putting yourself on the same road as pros...
Add new comment
59 comments
They can't rule out that the driver wasn't over the limit at the time the collision occurred either. However they have also established that at some point the driver was exceeding the speed limit, haven't they. If he was approaching Lucas in excess of the speed limit that could well be a contributory factor to the incident, whether or not he had slowed to within the speed limit at the time of the contact.
Policeman plod couldn't establish why Lucas lost control, that's because he died. He also ignored Lucas seeming to lose control after the driver beeped the horn, despite a witness stating this. Lucas family have been badly let down by this
That's one of the astonishing things, isn't it, the police officer saying there is no evidence when there is literally an eyewitness contradicting that.
Don't know the ins and outs here - and none of this brings the child back.
No doubt some coroners are more "searching" than others. Ultimately they have to work from facts / statements and their opinions of them. Example: the case in Grimsby where the forensic collision investigator seemed to focus on or assert some things which sounded dismissive of the responsibility of the driver (at least to some here) - but the coroner went with the expert.
But - is part of the process lacking in the UK? For road deaths specifically we only seem to focus on "accident or are other persons potentially at fault?" *
We obviously have to examine legal responsibility but I think we can / should address a "safety and public wellbeing" aspect. Not just "accident/whodunnit" but "why did this happen? Has something similar happened before? Could this reasonably be prevented and if so how?"
That is what "safe system" approaches do. And we do have those ... for "accidents" which do not even result in death. But not for roads - for our air, rail and marine investigation e.g. the bodies AAIB, RAIB and MAIB.
But ... we don't a Road Safety Investigation Branch. One was announced years back but nothing has come of this as far as I'm aware. Meanwhile several other countries have versions of "safe systems" approaches which cover this function - most familiar to me being the Dutch Sustainable Safety framework.
* Yes, coroners can issue "Reports to Prevent Future Deaths" - but essentially these are just "please answer a question this one time". A specific road safety body ought to be able to given some more expert analysis, set these in context and track trends over time. (Although that doesn't necessarily prevent motornormative "they should have stayed out of the way of the car" / "they must have not been visible" biases...), And (hopefully...) isn't just e.g. National Highways marking its own homework.
Hell, we explicitly removed the ability of the coroner to require changes be made to prevent reccurance.
Literally its now on the council to do a design inquiry and decide if changes should be made;
So the people responsible for the original design and paying for any necessary safety changes are responsible for determining what are necessary safety changes... Really strong motivation for them to recommend changes rather than only offering contracts to review design safety to companies with a history of going 'yep, this is fine' regardless of what happened (/sarcasm)
There is also an argument about when a horn was used.
If you think the cyclist needs to be aware of your presence, then the horn needs to be used at a point they can look and aknowledge it, before any manouvre is made.
I wish I had kept my rear cam footage of an ambulance demonstrating how to use audible warning correctly - switched on siren when approaching me cycling, with enough time for me to look round, ride a decent distance to next junction (30-50m), pull in and do a u-turn before the ambulance came past without having slowed down for me at all; (The audible warning being necessary because had I not pulled in they would have been behind me on a blind, narrow humped bridge with no opportunity to pass safely...)
Irritatingly, the first thing that jumped into my head upon reading this headling is that dim prick Ashley Neal. He could not fathom why we were upset with the video where he just pointlessly lays on the horn when passing two cyclists travelling in a straight line with no hazards in sight (and even came here to double, triple, and quadruple-down on it). Sounding the horn “as a warning” is totally pointless if you’re not actually warning anyone of anything tangible that they can do anything about. Turns out startling the hell of a cyclist can make them lose control of the bike, which was everyone's whole issue with that video.
But no, he’s taught his 170K subscribers that a healthy horn blast is the correct course of action when overtaking cyclists. Maybe this bus driver was one of them…
I see you have entirely the wrong perception of his advice - apparently it's in no way "get out of my way" or "once I've let you know I'm there, it's all on you". No, it's a "friendly toot"!
I think what makes it disappointing is not just "from a driving instructor" but he's mostly sound. Though he does sometimes have takes which (from a vulnerable road user perspective) sound tone-deaf - including a couple of really strange ones with regard to cycling.
To his credit he has reviewed at least one of his opinions following some feedback (in the case of a collision at the dangerous Edinburgh layout around the tram construction at Picardy place). And he does actually cycle. Although that may just mean the standard car-centric view and "as a cyclist myself..."
On my cycle commute between Farnham and Guildford the only vehicles who consistently gave me safe space when overtaking were Stagecoach bus drivers, probably not the expectation of many but that was my experience.
In Oxfordshire, Stagecoach bus drivers seem to be a lot better with cyclists than those who work for other companies. I know a few well enough to chat from time to time, and they all take pride in being considerate to vulnerable road users - it's part of their professionalism.
Ok but that is of marginal if any relevance to this case.
Condolences to the family.
What a tragedy.
I've noticed the bus drivers here in Nottingham are far more aggressive with both the use of their horn and general driving style than they were pre-Covid.
Surely there would be no need to be travelling between 20 - 24mph on a 20 limited road. As in many instances on here, a tragic accident, but some rather large presumptions made.
😮 I thought they'd be quite good. Edinburgh Buses are still a arms length council owned business and there great. I thought Nottingham and Blackpool were similar.
Lothian buses? Most of them are pretty good, but I can confirm that the odd one is indeed arms-length (away).
Simply cannot imagine what the family have gone through since that god awful day.
Then, to have their faces shoved into sh*te beggars belief. No reason for Lucas to swerve, really? Talk about covering up for yet another idiot driver. The police officer and coroner should resign immediately.
Ah yes. Because some random on the internet has a better view of events than the Coroner who trained for a minimum of 5 years and does this for a living, and directly viewed both the footage and the police report and actually spoke to the witnesses under oath. 🙄
Just give your head a wobble.
Blind respect for authority figures is not a sensible or good look.
The evidence given was that the victim showed both 'no reaction' to the sound of the horn and also that he 'suddenly [...] veered to the right'. The witness and the coroner seem to have taken it as an article of pure faith that the response and the stimulus weren't connected despite the obvious interpretation that someone jumping after a loud noise was indeed jumping *because* of the loud noise.
You might remember that several years ago a police officer shot an innocent person in the head multiple times for no better reason than he'd been told to, and the corroner decided that wasn't unlawful killing, not because there was any lawful basis for it, but simply because they didn't want it to be.
Just because a coroner rubber stamps something that doesn't mean it's true.
Tangent alert: that still makes me absolutely furious and the memory of it has been brought back by the news that there is going to be a new TV drama about those events. I still find it absolutely astonishing that a coroner is permitted to tell the jury that they are not permitted to bring in one of the verdicts allowable by law. I hope if I ever find myself in such a situation on a jury I would refuse to return a verdict, or if I believed the evidence merited it that I would return the verdict that I believed to be correct whether or not the coroner had said it was permissible.
So coroners, police, drivers are never wrong are they? The death of Lucas has been swept under the carpet, filed "nothing to see here, move along".
I just hope no-one in your family is ever killed by a motorist and it is dimissed as nothing, as according to you coroners/police are always right.
There are many aspects to this that don't add up.
Why did the bus driver beep his horn whilst overtaking? Surely they do not do this habitually when passing cyclists?
Did the bus driver leave 'as much room as you would a car', i.e. the 1.5m minimum safe distance? Which in this instance the bus ought to have been fully in the opposing lane whilst passing.
Why does the police report emphasise: "In this particular case, I was able to establish that if the bike carried on in a straight line it wouldn't have happened.", when cyclists often cannot maintain a straight line, due to road defects, gusts of wind, etc.
No mention of the fact a cyclist will often drift slightly to the right as a consequence of looking over their right shoulder. Something that you might expect them to do should they hear a horn behind.
I'm also quite curious why the bus needed to be doing 20+ mph to overtake an 11 year old cyclist, that seems like it would be a huge speed differential.
Its not about adding up - its about not speculating and trying to second guess the result of a coroners court.
Except he's not speculating, is he? All he's doing is suggesting there are things that don't add up according to the report of proceedings. They may have done in court, though.
I've been travelling by bus a lot lately. My bus route between home and work is invariably a double decker.
And I have not yet seen a cyclist overtaken at 1.5 metres or greater distance
I was on a First bus in Colchester last year, if the driver gave the cyclist he overtook more than 1ft I'd be surprised.
The First buses, same company different depot, round here are better than that at least, largely as the result of riders lodging formal complaints with them till they got better.
I'm still wary of our borough buses but don't encounter them that much.
From what information we have, this just sounds like a tragic accident. It does hopefully bring home how dangerous motor vehicles are and how much care and attention drivers need to pay around cyclists. It also perhaps explains why the only really safe infrastructure for cyclists is separate from cars. I would love to see a world where most children get to school on a bike or their two feet.
Ironically its often the people who are the danger that won't let their kids bike or walk to school or around their local area because its so dangerous.
I was astonished the other day when a woman came flying around a bend in a 20 when there was a single lane due to parked cars. Must have been doing close to 40. Had 2 kids in the back of her car. Its OK though, she was in a massive 7 seater SUV so no doubt had she crashed, her kids would have been OK.
Awful.
Remind me again - how loud is the horn on a double-decker bus?
Pages