Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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661-Pete
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Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by 661-Pete »

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10872743 ... ?ref=var_0

The poignancy, for me, is that I know that stretch of cycle path well - although I have tended to avoid using it! Very sad. I don't know any more about it than what is said in the article, but I'm minded to take a discreet look at the locality tomorrow. Relatives may have left flowers to mark the spot - which I suspect was somewhere around here. Notice how the path 'chicanes' around the fences delineating the private entrances, and how one resident has added to the hazard by placing their waste bins directly in line.

Now, as I said, I don't know where the accident happened, but I have my suspicions about those obstructions, so I feel like checking out (hopefully without upsetting anyone). Nor do I know how the cyclist came to go down. Bear in mind, it was after dark, and this road is not well lit. Perhaps no-one will ever know.

This cycle path was opened ceremonially, with the local council dignitaries in attendance, and all the razzamatazz, several years ago - presumably it was represented as the shining 'answer' to all our cycling needs. I was very dubious even at the time (easy to say this with hindsight). I don't think it's much used - certainly on the odd occasions when I've passed it, I've seen only the very occasional cyclist on it.

Now this has happened - right in my area. The victim was only three years older than I am, and, like me, a lifelong cyclist. What a tragic waste of a life!

Sorry, I feel extraordinarily angry about this. :evil:
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
Grandad
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by Grandad »

More about this sad event on the yacf forum
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=78536.0
including this
"I Bob McHardy died suddenly on his way home from marshalling an audax in Sussex . The cause of death is at this point is not clear as he was on a cycle path on his own very near home. Bob was one of our most travelled members have done cycling trips over years in places like Mongolia , Alaska , USA and Eastern Europe . I spoke to him about a week before his death and he told me of plans to cycle back to the UK from the southern tip of Sicily next year. He was also well known in the RSF for his distinctive self built small wheeled bike which as they were a mass of triangulated struts and painted red were nicked named forth road bridge bikes . In recent years he made many trips to Scotland to ride with the vagabonds and features in many of their recent ride reports and articles. By trade an agricultural welder and for many years resident in Burgess Hill , Sussex he was a quietly spoken man highly respected with the RSF , Audax UK and the CTC."

Although he had restricted himself to BPs in recent years, he last completed a SR series in 2008 and rode Boston-Montreal-Boston in 2004, though his modesty meant that you would never have guessed it. A man of idiosynchratic bicycles and riding attire, like Frank Sinatra, he did it his way. RIP."
eileithyia
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by eileithyia »

So sad to hear that Bob has had such an untimely end to his life, a modest and softly spoken gent.
I stand and rejoice everytime I see a woman ride by on a wheel the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. HG Wells
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661-Pete
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by 661-Pete »

Well, I knew nothing of any of this - and it makes it doubly sad that he had such a commitment to cycling and to working with other cyclists. I didn't know him though we lived in the same town for years.

I don't visit YACF as a rule, but I followed the link on this occasion. One contributor says:
indeed. there is no good in this. At. All.

I can't dispute that of course, but I'm wondering - is there any way some benefit may come of this? Some way the powers-that-be in West Sussex can be persuaded to have a re-think about their idiotic cycle infarcestructure policy - which is just about as bad as it gets? I know it's not possible to definitely attribute this death to the cycle path design, but my suspicions are still there...
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
snibgo
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by snibgo »

Very, very sad, especially for such a well-respected cyclist and bike builder. RIP.

Regarding that cycle path, I often ask, "Would they build a motorist facility like that? If not, why not?"

Would they build a road that had to give way at every side turning, and build chicanes to encourage motorists to slow down at every side turning, placing lethal obstructions if the driver makes a mistake, and not illuminate this at night?
tyreon
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by tyreon »

Sorry to hear of this mans death.

Sad to say,some cycle paths are more dangerous than the roads!! You've got sudden blind corners,very narrow tracks,sudden(unsigned)entrances to other roads or cycle tracks. The lot.

As the population increases and more people get on their bikes,cycling accidents will rise. On restricted(narrow)cycle paths sometimes there's barely enough room for two cyclists to pass,I mean oncoming cyclists. At the same time around blind corners or on some stretches some cyclists are going like the clappers. I've met 3 oncoming cyclists each vying with one another to be the fastest,to get to work because they're late. I'm oncoming. They might be chatting,or with ear phones. Whose to give way? At the same time out there,there's people just taking up the past-time unsure of themselves or their bike. Add in greasy surfaces,ice...you've got broken bones and stuff.

At a snickel I know two cyclists met together head on. Taken to ICU. Think one died. Not sure. Everyone in a rush,roads crowded,cycle paths crowded,pressure on local councils to build more,better,faster infrastructure...the government telling us the higher the population the better for all. Well,you get the picture.
iviehoff
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by iviehoff »

Bob was an extraordinarily modest man, modest not just of his achievements but in his requirements of life. For the last few years he has been doing seasonal agricultural labour in the fields, picking work and the like, which as we know is terribly badly paid. He didn't do it all year by any means, but just enough to tide him over. He ate very little, and you could see that from his figure. And had absolutely no luxuries he sought, except perhaps to stay in a hostel rather than wild-camp in poor weather. Few people these days know how to live on so little money as he lived on. And yet he would save up money for the plane fares to go on his long distance cycle trips, where he would whenever possible wild camp and so forth.

Several people have been saying that his home-made bicycles were generally red, but actually they came in several colours. I most often saw him on a blue bike. He freely admitted that they were not of a design he would recommend to anyone else, far too stiff. Though the fact that he could dismantle them with the turn of a few butterfly nuts no doubt made them easier to get on transport.

When he went to Mongolia, he went with a friend and they lost 4 stones weight between them. Quite how he himself lost a stone I don't know as he didn't have a stone to lose. They were trying to be vegetarian and there wasn't much apart from dry pasta and meat available in remote places.
ANTONISH
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by ANTONISH »

I'm very sad to hear about this - he was a lovely chap. I think I last spoke to him on the "Worthing winter warmer". He was one of those memorable characters one encounters who make cycling so worthwhile.
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bikes4two
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by bikes4two »

Mr McHardy may of course, just have died from natural causes - nobody else involved, nothing to do with the cycle path etc., just an untimely end ?

My sympathies to his family and friends for their loss - RIP Bob
Without my stoker, every trip would only be half a journey
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661-Pete
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by 661-Pete »

This is the spot:
Hassocks path 01.jpg

Hassocks path 02.jpg


Just the police appeal sign and a couple of yellow paint lines on the grass, presumably put there by the police, marking the line that the Mr McHardy is thought to have taken. You can see the mark on the fence rail where he hit. :(

Yes - it could have been natural causes - or he might have had a blackout whilst cycling (it happened to me once). But look at the layout of the path.
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
irc
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by irc »

Not an ideal design of cycle path at all but as already said we don't know what caused this accident. I once dealt with a one vehicle RTA where a car had left the road on a twisty section and gone through a fence.. Cause of death - heart attack.

Whatever happened here - condolences to the friends and family o the deceased who seemed to have been one of those remarkable characters who enrich the lives of others. A life well lived.
Chris the Sheep
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by Chris the Sheep »

Without wishing to imply that there's a connection - the reflectors on those posts are the wrong way round. Red should be on the left, white on the right.

These are wrong for both car drivers AND cyclists - and anyone who knows that rule MIGHT therefore aim to the RIGHT of the red reflector - straight into the fence. I would have done just that.

Sorry, but the more I think about it the more it might have something to do with it - this road looks unlit and at 5:15pm it's already dark.

If those reflective posts were put there by the council then somebody deserves a good kicking.

[EDIT: And the cyclepath sign is to the right of the reflector - which would reinforce a decision to go that way because you expect the signs to be in line with the path]
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meic
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by meic »

It is easy to see that failing to see that railing in the dark is a possible scenario here.

When Carmarthen County Council installed some barriers on a local Sustrans track, one of the old boys (who actually rode at night) suggested to me (the local ranger) that they should be covered in something reflective. So I got some supplies from Sustrans and made reflective patches.

The County Councils spend a fortune on reflectives to prevent cars from hitting roadside furniture but they only see cyclists as daytime creatures.

I may go back and refresh those patches after seeing this, not everybody has B&M's finest for headlights.
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by ScotchEgg »

That is terribly sad. I have a problem with my local bike track. Theres a very slippy bridge which has been covered with chicken wire type material supposedly to give more grip. The opposite is now true and its lethal at any kind of speed, have reported it over six weeks ago and no change.
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mjr
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Re: Another sad fatality - on a cycle path

Post by mjr »

meic wrote:The County Councils spend a fortune on reflectives to prevent cars from hitting roadside furniture but they only see cyclists as daytime creatures.

I'm sure I've written this before, but it's almost a shame that bicycles don't destroy what they crash into, because then these horrendous mistakes would only injure one rider, unless the council was really evil.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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