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That is good news, phew.
Although still pretty grim, poor woman.
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I cycled (well, pushed my bike) past this this morning too. Looked truly terrible, with the girl's handbag and scarf strewn all over the road - really upsetting to see. I can't believe it's the second bad looking collision I've seen at the Old Street roundabout in a week - awful. My thoughts are with her.
On a slightly more positive note, it looked like the police were already interviewing several drivers and two cyclists who had dismounted and propped their bikes up against the underground railings, so at least there seem to be many witnesses to whatever may have happened, and the police showing initiative about it.
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I hope the IG is right, and it is less serious than it seemed to me. I really hope she is recovering well. I've been feeling pretty shaky all day as the outlook appeared so grim (not that feet injuries aren't bad), so this has been a piece of good news.
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I cycled past this within a couple of minutes (I'd say) of it happening - paramedics had only just arrived and the road hadn't been shut yet. It looked so awful (even though I didn't look directly) that it made me cry. There were two buses pulled over (the police were using them as columns as they were in the process of taping shut the road), but there was also a long truck with scaffolding poles on it pulled over - the mangled bike was right by this - so could have been either. I didn't look at the cyclist, but there were paramedics everywhere, and it sounded like they were using a defibrillator(?) - not a good sign. Awful, awful. My thoughts are with the cyclist.
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This is very sad. Surely the primary problem here though is that no witnesses came forward? From my experience of accidents on building sites (a bit dfferent I know), without witnesses it can be very difficult for expert opinion alone to carry the necessary weight for the coroner to apportion blame.
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I cycled by right after this happened, police were just taping off the road an diverting everyone round by Gt Ormond Street - it looked terrible and I feared the worse. Really hope she recovers well.
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It was as a psychologist, so involving crimes a little bit more 'high end' (as it were!) than bike theft. However, I'm just surprised they don't stick these details in their existing system. I was trained to use CRIS, which is the Met's crime referencing database, and it would be incredibly easy to create a databox to write in someone's frame number on their CRIS report if they reported their bike stolen. Then it would take an officer, literally, 40 seconds to a minute to run the frame number through CRIS and see if it flagged it as a stolen bike. My incredulity at their lack of interest was more to do with the fact that this software is already in place, so I can't believe they don't use it!
I've never had my bike stolen, or my home burgled (touch wood); but I do know with burgleries it's very hard to recover goods. But that's because they're not clearly, individually marked, surely? Bike frame numbers should be a gift to the police in terms of making them easy to find / track, so I'm just surpised (and very disappointed) they're not more 'on it'.
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Sorry to hijack this thread, but as I've never posted before (only read and absorbed / lurked) I am not priviledged enough to start my own post...
My friend wants to buy a bike from Brick Lane market - she has never cycled in London before (she's Canadian) and just wants something cheap and cheerful until she gets the hang of things, when she will upgrade. She asked my for guidance as I live on Brick Lane, and I did warn her that a lot of bikes round here are stolen. However, there's an old guy (Keith?) who's here every week, and also will fix your bike for you for a v. reasonable price, so I thought his stall might be legit(?)
To get round this problem, I decided I'd ring Brick Lane police station, as I assumed they'd have some log of frame numbers of (reported) stolen bikes. My thinking was we could then look for the bike's frame number and check with the police prior to purchase. The guy I spoke to was like "Um....no, I don't think we have anything like that". After I assured him they did, as I had 'signed up' to it, he put me on hold and consulted a mystery source. When he came back on the line he said "Um...so, it might have a post code stamped on the frame. That's the only way we can track it. So don't buy a bike with the post code on the frame." When I asked if he would like me to notify him if I did encounter any bikes with post codes on them his response was: 'Well.... I suppose you could do."
I know this probably sounds naive, but having worked with the police (as a consultant) before, I was genuinely surprised at this complete lack of organisation / concern for the stolen bike trade going on under their noses. Surely it can't be that hard for them to keep a database of stolen bike frame numbers?!? My grandmother is an antiques dealer and they have pretty decent systems in place at the big fairs (Newark, Ardingly) to stop people from inadvertantly fencing / buying stolen goods - and antiques don't even come with handy frame numbers. You think they'd make it a bit easier to stop unknowledgable people buying stolen bikes!
Also, his totally unsatisfactory response negates the fact that some people might want to legitimately sell on their post code marked bikes.
Obviously the answer to the question is just don't buy bikes from Brick Lane market, but it's a bit annoying to have to write-off a whole market which probably does have some genuine and non-stolen second hand bikes for sale, so all feedback and suggestions are welcome...
Undoubtedly insensitive journalism. Although, having said that, it was all the stuff in the road that made it particularly forcefully awful to look at this morning, it just really highlighted for me that this person has a life and a routine just like me, and they chose which scarf to wear this morning, and put all their bits and bobs in their handbag then... In a way it brings it home more; I guess if the picture means the article has a similar effect that actually seeing this in person did on me this morning, then it might encourage everyone (cyclists, drivers) to be a bit more careful - even if it's only for the next couple of days. Poor woman. The two accidents at the roundabout these 10 days have made me feel really upset as this is my regular commute. I really hope both people make a full recovery.