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news
metal wire - via Flick Creative CommonsCyclist seriously injured as wire strung across Edinburgh cycle path
A cyclist in Edinburgh has been seriously injured after falling off his bike due to wire being strung across a popular cycle path – the second such trap found at the same location in the past fortnight.
Police were first alerted to metal wire being strung across the path at Newcraighall Public Park in the eastern outskirts of the Scottish Capital on Sunday 7 March, reports Edinburgh Live.
No-one was hurt on that occasion, but on Wednesday 17 March, a 47-year-old man was seriously injured when he crashed into the wire and fell from his bike.
Sergeant Kirsty McArthur of Police Scotland said: “Tying wire across a path is a completely reckless thing to do. It would have been almost impossible for anyone to see the wire, particularly cyclists approaching at speed.
“This careless and selfish behaviour will simply not be tolerated and I am appealing to anyone who may have information in connection with these acts to come forward.
“If you were travelling on the cycle path at these times, please think back to try and remember if you saw or heard any suspicious behaviour.
“Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting reference number 1559 of 17 March.”
She added: “I would also take this opportunity to warn those cycling on the path to be cautious of potential similar incidents and to report anything to 101 as promptly as possible.”
Earlier this month we reported how Malvern Hills Trust had said that it is “gravely concerned” over the discovery of barbed wire strung across cycling trails at the Worcestershire beauty spot.
> Barbed wire strung across Malvern Hills cycling trails
We’ve seen increasing numbers of reports of such traps, as well as tacks and drawing pins, branches and planks of wood, sometimes studded with nails, being laid for cyclists over the past year or so.
Despite the fact that serious injuries can and do happen as a result of such criminal behaviour, the idea of setting traps for bike riders is one that now and again crops up in the press, although complaints are typically waved away.
Last year, for instance, Sunday Times columnist Rod Liddle wrote that he found it “tempting” to “tie piano wire at neck height across the road” to target cyclists – although the Independent Press Standards Organisation said in response to complaints that the article did not infringe the Editors’ Code of Practice.
> Press watchdog rejects complaints over Rod Liddle “piano wire” column
The Sunday Times itself said that the column “was not meant to be taken seriously” – the exact words that the charity Cycling UK, when it complained to the newspaper, had said would be an “inappropriate” defence of it.
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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24 comments
What would happen if I placed a stinger across the A1? hmmm...
You'd have a flat stinger; you'd need a massive bunch of stingers to have any effect and where would you find that many? and you'd probably end up getting stung yourself as you picked them.
Maybe not the Bristolian "stingers"?
Personally, I hope that the 47 year old male cyclist makes a good recovery from his injurys and hope that he will not be put of from cycling. I beleive that we all live in a real sad society when humans set obstacles/ traps, for what ever reason, may it be deliberate or just for a prank that can then cause injury, or worse to other people. I often wonder how we have evolved as a species into this sort of irresponsible behaviour.
Clearly it was only meant as a prank and we should all just laugh about it...
"This careless and selfish behaviour..." What, like dropping litter?! If the police are going to characterise attempted GBH (at minimum) with dropping litter then they are part of the problem. Absolutely gobsmacked!
Does Rod Liddle have a plausible alibi for those two dates?
And Matthew Parris?
REckless?? how about attempted murder? GBH with intent?
This assault was utterly successful regarding the intent, which was to cause serious injury.
The only real question remaining is whether it would be reasonable to assume that the intent was only to cause serious injury, or was it to end a member of the public's life?
Depends on the height of the wire. Doubt it would be attempted murder.
Certainly conceive of life changing injuries.
The height of the wire is irrelevant. At anything over a metre, it would be at neck height for someone, and riding into it at speed would result in a serious throat injury and possible death through loss of blood. Lower than that and the bike could flip, with the rider being impaled on a tree branch.
The possibility of death is real and the crime should be treated accordingly.
Best wishes for the victim and a speedy recovery.
A similar thing happened to me as a child. I was riding on a farm track with a friend ahead. He noticed that bailer twine had been stretched across the track and ducked under it. I didn't see it and rode into it.
It hit my chest and rode up to my neck, causing a cut right across it, and some bleeding. I rode home; a passing adult said that I really ought to get it seen to. In the end it was not too bad. No A&E trip, but I still have the scar, and my BCG Heaf test a few years later was quite reactive, indicating at least an acquaintance with bovine TB.
The farmer was carefully sympathetic - ie not to the point where compensation would be likely. The twine was there to get herded cattle to turn off the track into a field, and they'd forgotten to take it down. Whilst the track was a footpath, he argued that I shouldn't have been cycling on it and wouldn't have been hurt if I'd been a walker. So nothing doing.
The point of sharing this ramble is that even with twine, which is far less sharp than wire, and the slow speed of a child's bike, I got a pretty nasty flesh wound. Wire, at adult commuting speed, would have been terrible.
I tend to expect traps on cycle paths that are out of sight of roads. Ambushes with fireworks, broken glass, muggers, dog shit, fly tipping, you name it. So I'd usually rather mix it with the traffic. But this path (if it's the one I think it is) is a very useful short cut to Queen Margaret University, probably cutting a mile off the road route if you're avoiding the A1 (which is parallel and not a good choice).
IIRC there was a very similar incident which was gone over with a fine toothed comb over on the Cycling UK website last year (it went on and on). A farmer had put baling twine to guide his livestock and not exactly thought about any other users of the public highway...
Out of interest, I tried to find out when people throw bricks off bridges onto vehicles, what they get. I only found two definitely caught. A 20yo who denied Murder (acepted by court as he was only "larking about") but accepted manslaughter (6 year sentence) when the brick he threw smashed into the chest and caused heart failure of a lorry driver. And a SEVEN yo boy who threw a brick off a bridge to impress his friends and was too young to be responsible. (Although the parents should have been charged with something in my eyes).
There was a report of a 12yo boy and 14yo girl who might be charged with property destruction leading to life endangerment but couldn't find anything to follow it up.
Here's a case from Germany. Three 22 year old men threw stones at a minibus. Four pensioners and the driver were slightly injured. They were charged with attempted murder and got 4 to 5 years in prison.
It's a bit more complicated as they were also charged with arson (they had set fire to an empty house), but the attempted murder charge refers to the stone throwing.
https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/schleswig-holstein/Angeln-Steinewerfer-mu...
Incompetence ≠ lack of intent
It's a pretty high bar for attempted murder though.
I wonder what the police would charge someone with if they, for instance, cut the brake hoses on a police motorbike.
or strung wire across the exit to the police motorcycle pound....
It was a wire, not a bar, and in any case, you just said it was too low.....
Dear Police Scotland. It's not "reckless", "careless" or "Selfish". It's "violent", and an attempt at "assault".
Until violence against cyclists is treated as violence, rather than anti-social behaviour, then we will have this problem. I'm fed up with the police playing down violence against cyclists.
What would the stance be if this discrimination/anger/threat was directed towards other minority or vulnerable groups?
What that odious idiot did in "humour" has proven to be anything but and should now be taken as incitement to harm someone.....
I'd go further and suggest this as attempted murder. Travelling at speed and hitting razorwire could easily be fatal, and it's clearly premeditated. Of course, the police aren't going to do anything about this other than put out a tweet.
Maybe, but there's no indication that it was razorwire. Road.cc have chosen to illustrate it with a picture of barbed wire (which is not the same thing as razorwire), but both their report and the source report they've taken it from simply refer to 'wire' being strung across the path. That could be razor- or barbed wire, but if so it seems likely that that detail might have been included. It could have been a low gauge plain wire that would be hard to see and also pose a significant risk of cutting injury (though less so than razorwire), or it could have been something heavy gauge like fencing wire, that's more likely to just cause a fall if you hit it - we don't really have any way of knowing.