2013-03-07 - Rider Down, Victoria Street

Passing in a car, so I have few details. Rider down, man, about 30, riding a an old MTB. Seen standing on the corner of a side road off Victoria Street opposite the DTI building. He was holding a hankie to a cut above the left eye, delivery van stopped halfway across the corner.

Looked like a left hook resulting in a fall and head injury. Seemed to have JUST happened, no emergency services yet. Rider was mobile and standing, so hopefully it just needed a couple of stitches.

This was at approx 3.30pm today. FWIW, he had no helmet, was dressed in black on a dark bike, and it's a dull, poor visibility day today. Not saying they were contributory factors, it's just that someone may compile statistics on these things at a later date.

^ the police crash reporting form, STATS19, has an option to record a contributory factor:

**507 Cyclist wearing dark clothing at night **To be used in accidents where, if the cyclist's clothing had been brighter, then they would have been seen in time and the accident would not have occurred.
so they are only meant to record it when they think the crash wouldn't have happened if the cyclist was wearing light colours.

Dont want to derail thread but how much weight do they give to clothing colour? Seems like subtle victim blaming.
Hope rider ok in this case.

I give no weight to the clothing, I didn't see the accident happen. It was just an afterthought in case someone uses the rider down threads to look at stuff like percentages of hi-viz vs low-viz in accidents at a later date. It was intended as a statement of fact about the rider's equipment and the conditions, no blame attached.

That post had been deleted now, because it bordered on conjecture. Probably best to leave it that way.

^ the police crash reporting form, STATS19, has an option to record a contributory factor: so they are only meant to record it when they think the crash wouldn't have happened if the cyclist was wearing light colours.

Where did that come from?

^^ sorry, didn't mean you were victim blaming - I meant the police way of looking at it.

Only 2% cyclist involved in serious injury RTC's were due to lack of lighting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/15/cycling-bike-accidents-study