2011-11-04 - Rider Down, East Smithfield / Dock St Junction

It's a bit of a pity the East London Advertiser calls it a 'smash'. Maybe just me but it seems a little crass...

thats my point. it weren't no 'accident'.

horrible news,

I saw the truck from my office window. yeah it looked like she got left hooked poor thing

Just to agree that it's not always cyclists not being careful. The only time I ever got into a mortal danger was in Wandsworth, York Road. An articulated truck overtook me and then made immediate left. I didn't realise it was articulated, so braked and the truck cleared, but the trailer than came literally into me. Luckily, I bunny hopped onto the pavement and avoided being swept under...

any news ?

is the girl ok ?

The girl's a friend of the dude from Milltag; he just tweeted; “News of Mary in hospital: after operations on legs, lungs, & sedation over wkend, docs say she'll fully recover eventually. #saveacyclist”

She is a Times journo, so News International are getting involved...
http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.com/2011/11/news-international-will-tell-mayor-to.html

If she was heading for Thomas More Square where News International have a lot of offices she might not have been turning left.

I daily cross the same junction and the temptation to try and pass vehicles is high as the wait at the lights is fairly long and for me it comes just after what often feels like a long wait at Cable Street.

the main building would require her to turn left and head for the big complex, I think there's only sun offices on the tms side

The woman involved is a friend of a friend, and is still in a coma in hospital and apparently took a turn for the worst yesterday :-(

That sounds more than serious indeed, what bad news. :(

praying for a full recovery.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article3251633.ece - Posted today. I believe that this is the same incident

Thanks for that, MrDrem.

Mary Bowers, still in a coma five weeks after the crash.

That Times article is so deeply sad. Seeing the picture and reading all the facts about her life - university, music, and stuff - somehow brings home the senselessness of it even more. I can't believe more and more of these keep happening. I really, really hope she recovers, if I was the praying type I would be praying for her and for her family and friends now.

behind paywall - can someone post the text of the article?

strange - i didn't have to login to see it yesterday, but today i can't see it

A very talented young woman. I hope that she (and all others so afflicted) recovers fully and swiftly.

I also hope that her suffering might catalyse The Times into campaigning for better safety for cyclists. We should also not forget that the relatively low but totally unacceptable number of cycling deaths is the mere tip of the iceberg. There are many times more life altering injuries.

A reporter from The Times is in a critical condition in hospital after a collision with a lorry while cycling across a notoriously dangerous junction near the newspaper’s Wapping offices.
Mary Bowers, 27, a news reporter and feature writer at The Times, was only 100 yards from arriving at the News International building on the morning of November 4 when the collision happened.
A 39-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of careless driving and bailed while investigations continue, the Metropolitan Police confirmed. Ms Bowers was conscious when emergency services arrived at the scene within three minutes of the accident, but was heavily sedated immediately and taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition, with serious injuries to her legs, pelvis and arm.
Though her condition is now deemed “critical but stable”, she has yet to regain consciousness, having been in a coma in intensive care for more than four weeks. Her family and friends are at her bedside.
Her accident comes as the number of cyclist deaths on London’s roads rose to 16 so far this year — six more than the whole of last year.
Ms Bowers first joined The Times as a graduate trainee reporter in September 2009, though she had already spent time at the paper as a freelance researcher in the Foreign and Comment departments. She had previously worked as a news reporter at The Times of India in Delhi.
During the two years of her traineeship, she excelled as a news reporter and arts journalist, showing a particular flair for feature writing and a passion for social affairs investigations into domestic abuse, women’s prisons and care homes. After finishing her traineeship in August this year she was taken on as a full-time news reporter and recently covered the London riots, the Julian Assange extradition hearings and investigations into nightclub safety standards.
She has also written numerous witty and colourful features for Times 2.
After graduating in 2007 from Queen’s College, Cambridge, with a degree in History, Ms Bowers went on to study journalism at the prestigious Columbia University in New York, where she was an O’Hara-Forster scholar, having previously been editor of the renowned Varsity student newspaper at Cambridge. She also regularly volunteered at the Brent-Eton summer school for teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds and worked for a development charity in Lesotho on an Aids education programme.
She is a guitarist and singer-songwriter, performing with Mary Bowers & The Wrong Collective and, more recently, playing solo on the London folk circuit. Her musical talents have made her a key part of The Times’s music coverage, and she is already a veteran reporter of Britain’s biggest music festivals, filing reports from the quagmires of Glastonbury, Latitude, Bestival, Green Man and others.
Though cyclist deaths on London’s roads have fallen in the past five years — from 19 in 2006 to 10 last year — there have been an average of 402 serious injuries per year for cyclists during that time.
Two of these accidents – the deaths of Brian Dorling, 58, and Svitlana Tereschenko, 34 – took place recently at the roundabout in Bow where the junction is crossed by the Cycle Superhighway, leading cycle campaign groups to call for greater measures to protect cyclists and to make life easier for motorists trying to avoid them.
Eleanor Carey, 22, a student from Guernsey, was killed while cycling by a lorry on Friday, December 2, at the junction of Tower Bridge Road and Abbey Street. She is the 16th cyclist to be killed in London this year.
Any witnesses to the accident on the corner of The Highway and Dock Street, East London at 9.30am on Friday, November 4, are asked to contact police on 020-8597 4874.

I was wondering if anyone had any further updates on Mary's progress? I was at the scene at the time of the accident. I was in the middle of the road when this happened and when I heard the crash I turned straight around and ran over to her.....truly sadden and I hope that she is going to be ok! Any updates would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

There's this update on CITC that I spotted this morning.

"Mary is still not conscious and remains in a trauma unit"

That Times article is so deeply sad. Seeing the picture and reading all the facts about her life - university, music, and stuff - somehow brings home the senselessness of it even more. I can't believe more and more of these keep happening. I really, really hope she recovers, if I was the praying type I would be praying for her and for her family and friends now.

We all know with current road layouts these accidents are inevitable. As soon as it starts happening to folk with strong connections to big organisations then things will appear to move quicker.

(a sad) FACT

c'mon mary pull through love.

we are all praying for you.

My hopes and wishes for your recovery Mary x

David Sanderson
Last updated at 11:00PM, December 10 2012
A lorry driver who knocked over a cyclist was “too engrossed in a telephone conversation” at the time and then failed to put the handbrake on when she was trapped under his wheels, a court was told yesterday.
Petre Beiu had been using a hands-free mobile for ten minutes before his four-axle Lynch Haulage tipper lorry drove over Mary Bowers, a Times reporter who was cycling to work.
Witnesses described hearing “bloodcurdling screams” from Ms Bowers and seeing other people with “their hands in the air” as the incident unfolded.
Jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court were told yesterday that Ms Bowers, 28, suffered “life-changing injuries” and is still “ill” following the incident in East London on November 4 last year.
Babatunde Alabi, for the prosecution, said Mr Beiu, 39, initially denied to police having been on the telephone at the time of the incident, but later admitted it, saying he had been too “shocked” to confess at first.
Jurors heard that Ms Bowers, on a Raleigh bike and wearing a helmet, had stopped at a red traffic light in a cycle box, up to 4 metres in front of Mr Beiu’s lorry, which was going to turn left.
Ms Bowers, who was going to travel across the busy junction, was in front of him for between 10 and 14 seconds while stationary, jurors were told.
Mr Alabi said that the driver failed to check adequately to see the cyclist in front. “The defendant did not give her sufficient time to go ahead,” Mr Alabi said. “Instead, he turned into her path . . . Although she shouted out at the time, it appears that the defendant did not hear her. He did not stop until he was alerted to some trouble by other members of the public.”
One witness, Eammon Barrett, a taxi driver, said he then saw Mr Beiu “jump out in an absolute panic”. Mr Barrett added: “Then, unbelievably, the lorry started to move forward.”
In a witness statement read to jurors, Jamie Rudkin, a van driver, said he heard a “crunching” sound and then an “almighty scream”. As he ran towards the lorry, Mr Rudkin said that he saw the vehicle continue to move and shouted at the driver to put his handbrake on. “He had gone really white,” Mr Rudkin said of Mr Beiu.
Mr Alabi said that it was not a case where there was “sustained and continued bad driving”, adding that the lorry was travelling at a maximum of 10mph when it hit Ms Bowers’s bike. He added, however: “The standard of the defendant’s driving fell far below that which would be expected.”
Mr Beiu denies one charge of dangerous driving.
The trial continues.

Link