2012-01-12 - Rider Down, Garrett Lane

08:50ish this morning, and I was heading into work.

Passed a chap on his road bike just past Earlsfield Station, who passed me a bit futher up the road, going down the inside of some cars that I had decided to go down the outside of. He stayed ahead of me, running down the inside of the the cars, with me following (bck on the inside) until we got to the point where the road starts to narrow (about here http://g.co/maps/x9v5r) where I went round the outside of the cars, and he continued down the inside. Google streetview is no longer accurate here, as there are now traffic islands in the middle of the road, creating pinch points (they are visiable here though http://g.co/maps/fqjts).

The cyclist went past a Robert Wiseman Dairys lorry on the inside, just at the start of the turning into the industrial area in the above maps link. I was about 3/4 cars behind at the back of the pinch point, as I won't normally even filter down there, considering it far too dangerous. I heard a loud thump though, and all the traffic stopped. I carefully filtered down the side to find the cyclist on the ground, looking like he'd been thrown a fair way, and moaning, with blood pouring from his mouth. A skateboarder was attending to him, and someone else was calling an ambulance.
The lorry driver had stopped and put his hazards on, and got out to see if he could help the cyclist.

Given there was little that I could do, and a number of people who had actually seen what happened were still there, and not looking like going anywhere, I headed onto work.

I suspect that he will have been taken down to St Georges. Heal up soon speedy road guy.

I'm not going to place blame on either side of this accident, as I'm honestly not sure who was a fault, but will say that the cyclist was travelling at quite a speed down the left hand side of the traffic, which I personally wouldn't do at that point in the road.

Fuck sake, that's six downed riders in three days.
Wshing the rider a speedy recovery.

There was another cyclist down at the junction of Goldhawk Road and Chiswick High Road, with an ambulance in attendance. Can't find any more mentions of it tho...

Right, I've just had a call from the Dairy, who have been really good with this one. They have had a chat with their driver, and he has said that it wasn't him who hit the cyclist.

Looking at my video again, there is a 4WD thing that turns across the front of the lorry that I hadn't spotted, so they are totally right. this also fits with how far in front of the lorry the cyclist was.

Poor cyclist :(

The lorry driver is quite concerned for the cyclists welfare, so if anyone gets to know anything, could people let me know here, so I can pass it back to them.

Thanks all!

I still think that filtering on the left past a lorry is a big factor in this crash.

Right, I've had a chat with the police, and let them know that I have footage that might be relevant to them.

I asked the operator if she had any details about the state of the cyclist, and she confirmed that he had been taken to hospital with facial injuries, but was alive.

heal up fast!
i hate cycling down garrett lane
a dangerous stretch of road