Tuesday 23 March 2010

Woman cyclist crushed by lorry on Gracechurch Street

I was startled to read this account by Jack Thurston, since this was news to me, and this incident happened so soon after the previous week’s two cycling fatalities:

Last Thursday, on what felt like a warm, sunny first day of Spring, I was witness to the immediate aftermath of a collision involving a cyclist and a 32 tonne articulated lorry. It was a truly horrible, chilling sight. The lorry was stopped in the middle of the road and the crushed remains of a bicycle were clearly visible under its wheels. The cyclist, a woman in her twenties, was on a stretcher, receiving treatment from the fantastic and heroic paramedics of the London Ambulance Service. I gather the woman was taken to the Royal London Hospital with serious leg injuries. I don’t know the extent of her injuries and whether she’ll ever be able to make a full recovery, but while she was desperately unlucky to be hit, she was probably very lucky to have survived.

The collision happened on Gracechurch Street EC2, in the City. There’s a fuller podcast version of Jack's account which is well worth listening to, here.