Non-cycling crashes that deserve attention

Another crash that occurred during a police chase:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/kempton-park-crash-man-killed-in-horror-crash-during-police-chase-in-early-hours-a3461026.html

A pretty serious crash out in Essex:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/a12-crash-lorry-plunges-from-bridge-onto-major-road-in-essex-a3461971.html

No word on what happened to the driver yet, hope they're OK.

Looks like the driver died RIP.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-38916776

Yes, I completely missed that there was already an updated Standard story:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/a12-crash-driver-dies-after-lorry-plunges-from-bridge-in-essex-a3462281.html

It's been a very bad week for fatalities. Not only were three cyclists killed, but also several pedestrians:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/euston-crash-female-pedestrian-dies-after-being-struck-by-lorry-a3464271.html

And as previously posted by coshgirl:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/limehouse-crash-man-dies-after-being-hit-by-lorry-a3459326.html

The East London Advertiser reports that this happened outside the Troxy Theatre:

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/pedestrian_80_killed_on_a13_commercial_road_involving_lorry_in_rush_hour_1_4878790

This is close to where Joanna Reyes was killed last year, although it's unlikely that the circumstances were similar or the same--the crashes happened at very different times of the day, and Joanna Reyes was killed when standing on a traffic island, which is extremely unusual and heartbreakingly bad luck:

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/witness_appeal_woman_dies_at_midnight_in_a13_accident_in_commercial_road_by_the_troxy_1_4782269

(An imperfectly updated web page that still states her condition is 'non-life threatening'.)

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/18/joanna-reyes-dies-hit-by-car-shoreditch

No idea why the Guardian story describes the location as 'Shoreditch'.

Another death was of a car driver on the A406 North Circular Road:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/north-circular-crash-man-killed-after-crashing-car-into-lorry-in-early-hours-a3464386.html

Also, this driver appears to have been very lucky, if we can trust the reported prognosis that his injuries are not life-threatening or life-changing:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/mile-end-road-crash-dramatic-scene-after-car-ploughs-into-tree-and-lamppost-in-bow-a3463211.html

Crashes like this very often result in serious or fatal injury. While nowadays drivers rarely seem to be injured when crashing head-on into a wall, the same crash-proofing on cars doesn't seem to have caused collisions with trees to be less risky.

It may be unrelated to this but over the past few months I've noticed a significant increase in cement trucks heading southbound on Hampstead Road. Not sure what the reason for it is.

Well, construction work somewhere. With hundreds of tower blocks in the pipeline, that's going to continue for some time.

Yet another crash involving a mobility scooter user:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/roads-closed-off-after-elderly-woman-struck-by-car-in-serious-collision-in-hackney-a3470701.html

More crashes in which drivers mounted the footway:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/bmw-mounts-curb-before-ploughing-into-teenage-girl-in-apparent-hitandrun-a3475896.html

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/bellingham-crash-witnesses-describe-carnage-as-mercedes-plows-into-five-people-a3476341.html

Some of the victims are in critical conditions.

Also:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/26/essex-bus-driver-gets-year-in-jail-after-causing-death-of-man-82

Metro headline today claiming the Bellingham crash was deliberate :(

Nothing in the Standard yet that I can see. I hope it doesn't prove true, horrible to think it might be.

Here's a fatal crash in which the victim was thrown off a motorbike while riding pillion.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/pictured-manager-of-chelsea-hair-salon-killed-riding-pillion-on-motorbike-a3476741.html

I think (am not sure, though) that the vast majority of (fatal/serious) motorcycle crashes involve single riders, so this is awful bad luck. I don't want to speculate, but I imagine it would most probably have been the impact of how far she was thrown rather than the actual crash itself. Very sad.

Greek millionaire's son, Porsche doing 200mkh, 4 dead:

http://neoskosmos.com/news/en/Four-dead-in-tragic-accident-on-Greek-highway-Porsche-crashes-onto-family-car

I'm not sure why this driver wasn't charged with attempted murder, which is what it looks like to me, but it's probably a harder charge to make stick:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/jailed-hitandrun-driver-who-left-man-fighting-for-life-after-using-car-as-a-weapon-a3479591.html

it is - for attempted murder you have to show intent to kill (actually a higher standard of intent than murder) and GBH has a max sentence of life (in theory) so why bother?

Ah, thanks. I didn't know GBH had such a high maximum sentence.

Also:

theguardian.com/uk-news/2017­/feb/26/essex-bus-driver-gets-year-in-ja­il-after-causing-death-of-man-82

The circumstances of this are eerily similar to the Glasgow bin lorry incident. How did they manage to get a conviction in this case but not in Glasgow (well beyond the fact that they never even charged him with anything in the first place)

I can't see too many similarities--which ones do you mean? The Glasgow driver (Harry Clarke) said he had passed out at the wheel. As far as I remember, poor eyesight didn't come into it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Glasgow_bin_lorry_crash

He had previously passed out behind the wheel of a bus, and lied to the DVLA regarding the incident and also his employers at the time of the incident.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-33702639

I see, I didn't realise you meant the lying.

Yes, two medical conditions which they were both aware of and were the direct cause of the incident which resulted in the deaths of incident people. both should be locked up for a long time, so what's the difference?

At least it looks like they might now be able to nail fatty for being caught driving a car whilst band. What's the going rate for that these days £80 fine and another couple of months on the driving ban!

Well, there's no point being forensic about the differences, but from the point of view of how the crashes played out they were very different. Perhaps I focus on that too much. I do agree that the backgrounds to them show similarities.

The other fatal crash of which I'm aware in which poor eyesight appears to have been a significant factor was Eilidh Cairns' death, with a very disappointing judicial follow-up so far, too.

In Germany, drivers who drive the wrong way along a motorway are called 'ghost drivers'. They result in few serious crashes, as the motorway police are usually all over them very fast, warnings are issued on the radio, etc., but here's one with a tragic outcome.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/m20-crash-orpington-man-arrested-after-londoner-dies-in-horror-headon-crash-on-motorway-a3481566.html

I've always found it interesting that the effective one-way operation on motorways makes people who have missed a junction try to get back to it by turning around. Even the act of turning around would seem to me to be extremely difficult, let alone driving against a stream of oncoming traffic. I certainly can't understand why people take the risk.