CCTV footage shows the horrifying moment an elderly cyclist was sent flying through the air after a driver ploughed into her.
The 71-year-old woman was left with a bleed on the brain after being hit by a Citroen C3 Flair being driven by Thomas Freeman, 29, in Coventry.
Freeman is seen pulling out in front of the cyclist, sending her into the air before she slams into the ground.
West Midlands Police have released the footage, with the agreement of the victim, to “highlight the responsibility drivers have to more vulnerable road users”.
The incident happened on Wildcroft Road, Coventry, on 6 May. Freeman admitted causing serious injury by careless driving and was jailed for a year.
He was also banned from driving for two years.
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16 Comments
I know 2 cyclists personally who had a crash with similar brain injury. Drivers need to be very careful to look out for cyclists. They can literally hide behind your A pillar and then pop out from (seemingly) nowhere. If you hit them it will usually be your fault for not paying attention to the road.
In additional, she wasn't wearing a helmet. Honestly, I've seen that one piece of equipment take such a bunch of force away from the brain in my profession.
Prison for this is madness. That person clearly didn't intend for it to happen, the car in the other direction obscured the view and that 'elderly' cyclist was shifting. I say this as someone who cycles on roads around 50 miles a week.
Yes a fine and a ban, but prison makes no sense unless they were drunk or already banned.
Prison!!! the driver isnt a criminal… the cyclist seem to be going quite fast, not sure if she had all the safety gear on, dont seem to have lights on..id say considering most cyclists go on the road without insurance, lights, safety gear, turning signals and so on.. they are taking a risk, if a cyclist doesnt have all these, its on them to make themselves visible and slow down at intersections or such situations… im not saying the driver doesnt take any blame for not paying extra attention, but come on.. prison is too much! Our uk roads arent for cyclists really, they are too tight to accomodate all the vehicles that use it already.. seen busses, trucks, cars of all sizes, motorbikes…considering that the size of those roads was originally built for horse carriages and now expecting it to be good enough for all these vehicles is wrong…
Some motorists simply do no observe the highway code, I was today as a pedestrian almost knocked down on a pedestrian crossing by a motorist who was not stopping. There is NO excuse.
Cyclist fault! Did not proceed with caution!
build the road with bike lanes..
Elderly people should not be cycling, we motorists are at risk of prison for a minor mistake if we connect with one. It was hardly a reckless act.
The crash was drivers fault but at least he and his passenger got out immediately to try and help the cyclist, the worst thing for me was seeing the silver taxi driving around the cyclist to cross the junction, the taxi driver should stopped where they were when the collision happened, by carrying on they left the cyclist exposed in the gutter, when a lorry might have come through behind the taxi and may have driven over the already injured cyclist. The taxi driver should be prosecuted, utterly disgraceful.
Impressive speed for a biddy…
For an elderly cyclist he was shiftin it seems 30 mph .?? But car in the wrong .. think bike ? Mmm
Typical foreigner driver
I would never dare cycle this reckless in that kind of intersection. Showed this to my dad, as yet another reason for him not to get an electric bike. Excellent cautionary tale!
Take a good look at the speed at which that elderly cyclist is speeding down the road!
Keep in mind that a 71-year-old person reacts much slower.
The car has almost no speed!!
It's crazy that it hasn't been allowed to drive for 2 years now.
That elderly person should be banned from cycling!
And yet a guy who chased a motorcyclist via dangerous driving and purposefully crashed into him got 8 months. This country's justice system is utter dogshit.
Many of the comments on here relate to the speed of the cyclist, so I decided to establish that. A process I'm sure the police will have undertaken. I've downloaded the video and then taken a snapshot of each frame from the point where the cyclist appears to the point of impact.
In the first frame, only the front wheel of the cyclist is in view and the back half of the silver car and the front of the red car was on the give way line. The bike then takes 4 frames to cover one bike length (about 6') and as the video is 15fps this is 4/15 of a second. That means the cyclist is travelling at 22.5 ft/s which is just over 15mph.
Another more approximate way of determining the cyclist's speed is to consider the distance the cyclist travels through the air. The maximum distance would be achieved if the cyclist went upwards at an angle of 45 degrees, in which case at 15mph, they'd travel about 31'. The cyclist actually travels no more than about 3 bike lengths (or 3 car widths) which is about 18' before hitting the ground. This lower distance is presumably because some of their speed was lost in the impact.
I'm therefore believe the cyclist's speed was actually fairly average and not excessive and certainly below any speed limit.