Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
More on the story of a local bike crash!
Some of you may remember that in April last year I was involved in a serious bike crash while crossing Seven Sisters Road. This was when I was knocked down by another cyclist who was riding at speed across a red light. I was hospitalised with a smashed collar bone that had to be reconstructed and this whole experience disrupted my life for months. Although my assailant admitted that he was at fault, I felt I had been seriously let down by the police who, although they were at the scene, failed to take any witness statements or any action against the cyclist concerned.
I was so angry about this I raised a formal complaint against the police, which was essentially that they had failed to take a bike crash (not involving a pedestrian or a motor vehicle) sufficiently seriously. I also wrote up the story and this created some interest on the ‘Haringey on Line’ forum and elsewhere. I referred to my assailant as “Vlad the Impaler” so as not to give the real culprit any grounds for saying he was being victimised. The story as at June 2013 is still viewable on the HoL website – see http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/story-of-a-local-bike-c...
The formal response from the police to my complaint was evasive and unsatisfactory. With some help from on our local MP Lynne Featherstone I pursued this with the Haringey Borough Commander (the very impressive Victor Olisa), and I met with him in December – he understood my concerns and promised to raise the matter with senior collages. However, by this time Vlad the Impaler had left the country and there was no prospect of any action against him. Supportive as he was, I was not convinced that the Borough Commander could bring about any change in police attitudes.
In April this year I discovered that Vlad had returned to live in north London and I again opened the case for some police action. It was evident from Vlad’s facebook pages that he was still bragging about cycling at high speed in London on a bike without brakes and there was every prospect of further victims to his recklessness. Another police officer, Natalie Shaw, who had been assistant to the Commander was very helpful in eventually getting the police to confront him – she emailed me on 4 September with the following message:
I can confirm that on the 4 th August officers from the Borough Tasking Team located Mr (‘Vlad’) at a new address. He was spoken to by police at length regarding the accident that involved you and the subsequent impact this has had. The bicycle was examined by police and he was instructed to fit brakes to it. Officers stated that he was genuinely very apologetic. He was also given words of advice relating to bicycle road safety and his use of social media.
My reply included the following:
I am pleased that Vlad has been contacted and reprimanded. I note that you say he was apologetic, but I am not over-impressed by that. He was apologetic to me when I confronted him last year, but it was after that meeting that he was bragging on Facebook about high speed runs across London and taking part in the London Alley Cats Race.
Also pleased to see Vlad "was instructed" to fit brakes. I wonder if he will - hopefully an officer will check up on this. I am tempted to! Also, I hope the "words of advice about social media" weren't simply guidance to avoid posting incriminating stuff.
I would also like to think that there will be some action by the police to stop any further Alley Cats Race. With or without brakes these events are seriously dangerous. (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWum-yZBJws )
In my original write-up of the story I concluded with the following:
My messages to fellow cyclists (and pedestrians too) are:
- Beware riders of “little-fixies” (fixed wheel bikes) with no or minimal brakes - they could do you serious damage and think it’s all part of their culture
- have no confidence in the police in cases like this – they seem to regard cyclists as willing victims
- if you are involved in a crash, injured as you might be, try to get details of witnesses and be prepared to take your own legal action
- don’t rely on lawyers who offer to act on a “no-fee-no-win” basis (such as the one on the LCC lists) – they quickly lose interest when the culprit has no assets and there is no money in it for them.
I am sorry to say I think those conclusions are still valid.
I should add that I am motivated to write this story because I am a passionate advocate for cycling and I strongly object to the antics of the lunatic fringe who give us all a bad name. Also to explain that in trying to get the police to take at least some action against my assailant I said that I intended to lock up his bike (I know where he works) and call the police to talk with him before the bike could be released. I think this helped push them into meeting him. There was also the threat that with a cordless cutter I could disable his bike for good – I am pleased it didn’t come to that!
Colin
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Alison P on
-
Good for you for pursuing this so far Colin. I'm a keen cyclist too and stories like this just make me furious. Vlad is an absolute idiot. I'd love to think there was some follow up on the brakes issue but I'm not holding out that much hope if I'm honest...
-
Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
-
Morning Colin
Well done in pursing this and glad to know you're now fully recovered.
The brake-less fixies are a menace.
I believe that the authorities need to take more seriously offences by the 'lunatic fringe', some of whom do indeed tend to give cycling a bad name.
-
Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
-
No! The lunatic fringe are there to give them ammunition to treat all cyclists like criminals.
-
Permalink Reply by Bob Hare on
-
Indeed, well done for continuing to pursue this Colin!
Not long after your accident, a very elderly lady in Highgate was knocked down by a cyclist while crossing a fast, downhill stretch of road. She was seriously hurt, but while she recovered physically, the loss in confidence was so great that she chose to move into residential care rather than continuing to live at home.
I raised the incident subsequently at our Highgate neighbourhood police panel, and asked the 2 or 3 police officers present if they would recognise a 'fixie' if they saw one. They thought they wouldn't, and added they thought most officers would not.
One answer would be to have a rule - perhaps piloting locally in Haringey - that any cycle involved in a serious accident should be photographed (officers' mobile phones would be fine), with close-ups of:* handlebars / levers
* front wheel hub (showing any hub/disk brake)
* rear wheel hub from both sides (showing any gears and hub/disc brake)
* location of brake pads at the top of front forks (whether present or not)
* location of brake pads near top of rear seat stays (whether present or not).
These would be part of a proper report of the incident.
-
Permalink Reply by LSquared on
-
I assume you also explained the difference between a fixed gear bike and a single speed bike, and therefore how many brake levers should be expected in each case?
What about coaster brakes? Presumably you also gave instruction on how to identify those?
(I'm not even going to ask why you find this more important than the drivers who are killing and injuring more Londoners every day than cyclists could ever manage. But I will ask you to consider what the outcome for your elderly lady would have been if the idiot who hit her had been behind a wheel rather than a handlebar.)
I suspect the police don't know how to recognise a fixie because it's more important that they recognise someone who rides like a t*t regardless of what bike they ride.
-
-
In my experience Commander Olisa is a master of limp-dicked leadership. As far as I know he is am man who:
- When a dangerously overloaded skip is reported to police thinks it is OK for the police to turn up three months later. This skip was loaded to about five feet above the rim with evidence of masonry being thrown on to it and hitting nearby cars. ( Haringey Police response to my call "its a civil matter if you car has been damaged", Then three months later after my complaint "we got there and found no evidence". )
- He believes it is acceptable for his police officers to issue harassment warnings based on a pack of lies without his officers checking the evidence underpinning the allegations. The Met procedures state warnings should only be issued after a thorough investigation. What is thorough about not checking ???
- When I was unlawfully arrested for alleged harassment following the warning based on a pack of lies from a neighbour with a history of white collar criminality, the arresting officer had a an outbreak of amnesia and cannot recall who instructed him to arrest me. Olisa seems to find it quite satisfactory that people under his command don't have a clue about who told them to do what. (Or rather are trying to cover up their colleagues ineptitude and wrongdoing.
Personally, I think Commander Olisa needs to shape up or ship out. I should add I think are police are very thick and complacent. I saw a guy run over at some local lights by a car turning right. The driver claimed to be doing 30 mph and he probably was - BUT that is an excessive to go round a corner. The dim-witted officer concluded because the driver was in the speed limit, he could not have possibly been driving unsafely.
Incidentally, Olisa and Hogan-Howe come from up North, where it was found there was a jobsworth culture after they left. It is about time MOPAC realised perhaps our senior officers are not up to scratch and the problem reflects itself in apparent inertia.
-
-
I should add, who handled my complaint so unsatisfactorily? Inspector Natalie Shaw backed up Superintendent Presland !!!
I can almost see Commander Olisa promoting Inspector Shaw to Chief Inspector or even Superintendent. Inspector Shaw can talk her way out of difficult situations so convincingly.
In fact, when I raised this point in front of the Deputy Mayor, Commander Olisa's response was Inspector Shaw had foiled an armed raid in Muswell Hill. Sorry Commander, I can' t see this is relevant.
You can anticipate Inspector Shaw and Commander Olisa will play this incident down on the grounds of the police response was proportionate because you weren't killed. So this entitles them to do virtually nothing, even though your collar bone was badly broken.
-
-
BTW. You would think the police should have checked the brakes were repaired. Do you know if they did?
With overloaded skips, the police are supposed to tell the operator to move it or make it safe. If its not done in a reasonable time, like a few hours, then the police can impose a fine of up to £1000. However, our Haringey police under Commander Olisa are either reluctant or incapable of organising it. As far as I can tell, Haringey Police prefer high speed car chases after armed criminals that result in accidents. The fact is our gung-ho police are not interested in the hum drum minor accidents and pose a risk to the public equivalent to any armed criminal.
-
-
I think this is very harsh. He seems to be doing his best under quite trying circumstances. Whether his force are fitting up local politicians, spuriously issuing harassment notices or ignoring complaints involving cyclists as victims he still has to stand by them to a greater or lesser extent and I would point out that these issues are not specific to Haringey. Especially when it comes to investigating cyclists as victims of collisions. Just check out @beztweets on Twitter for some hair raising examples.
-
Permalink Reply by Colin Marr on
-
I want to get back to what I see as the real issue here, which is to do with cycling and safety, but I think I need first to comment on Borough Commander Victor Olisa and Inspector Natalie Shaw. My own experience of Olisa is really positive. I had been emailing him without any reply until I received the totally inadequate response to my formal complaint, which was dealt with by the London Safer Transport Command, and then out of the blue I had a phone call from Olisa in person. He explained that he was calling because he had seen the response and he did not think it did justice to my complaint, and he offered to meet me to talk about it, which I did. I thought it was quite extraordinary that he should take time out from what must be bigger issues on his agenda to take an interest in a minor case like mine. Similarly, Natalie Shaw answered my messages and I doubt if there would ever have been a police intervention with Vlad without her persistence. I am grateful for that.
-
-
Before this thread fades into the distance, I need to clarify a few things about ‘little-fixies’ and the lunatic fringe.
The term ‘little fixies’ refers to single-speed-fixed-wheel bikes, which means bikes that have no gears and no free-wheel. There is nothing objectionable about this, in fact they represent the most minimal and simple approach to bike design, and give the rider a close association with the bike so that it can feel almost like a natural extension of their body. There is nothing wrong with this and it’s entirely laudable, providing that the bike also has effective brakes.
On a fixed-wheel bike the rider can get some braking effect by putting back-pressure on the pedals while they are rotating and in this way they can reduce their speed, but this technique cannot achieve an emergency or abrupt stop, for which conventional brakes are needed. For this reason most little-fixies also have conventional brakes at least on the front wheel, which accounts for approximately 70% of a bike’s braking effect.
Unfortunately, the lunatic fringe of the little-fixie enthusiasts dispense with brakes altogether and rely on back-pedal pressure alone to reduce their speed. This is OK for bikes on a race-track where the need is only to regulate speed and not do emergency stops, but is totally inadequate on the public road. It may be only a few % of little-fixie riders who take this extreme no-brakes approach (the lunatic fringe), but it is this group that are the real danger and menace. The attached photo is of my assailant’s bike, the one he called his ‘destroyer’ – a little fixie - bare handlebars and complete absence of brakes:
And if you want to get an impression of how dangerous this can be, have a look at the following film clips. One is from the London Alley Cats Race in 2012 and the second one from this year’s event when Vlad the Impaler finished (brakeless) in one of the top three places.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqKIK2RPJq0
http://thefixedlife.com/2014/06/13/an-american-alley-cat-in-london-...
Colin
- Attachments:
-
-
IMG_1346a.jpg, 134 KB
-
-
-
Hi clin
i can understand your anger especially as you had such a major injury as a result. i also destroyed my collar bone last year needing extensive surgery to repair, initially from a bike accident but otherwise quite different circumstances- and yes incredibly painful, and months off the bike- thank goodness you have mended and hopefully no major longterm effects- i find sports massages seem to help the aches
But yes I too would be raging- it is totally outrageous, and as you say if a motor vehicle had been responsible, it would have been totally different story- how he didnt get at least a caution when they approached him is madness- yes the law should change, i have always got out lcc cover for last 30y to make sure I have 3rd party insurance, and it should be compulosry amongst lots of other things
I,m not sure about targeting fixies, although I dont know the difference- and I had always assumed they got good breaking from back pedaling like the bikes in the old days, but then i know nothing really. But I am surprised how often people cycle without good brakes- something i have noticed on the occasion I have borrowed friends bikes- outrageous
Bob, you mention the old lady who got run over going downhill by fast cyclist- but you dont mention whether she was at a crossing or not. personally i think pedestrians are a total nightmare, jumping out onto the road without looking etc- i had 2 episodes going through city rush hour on thurs and again on fri- thankfully i have excellent brakes and quick reaction, but My last accident last year was caused by a pedestrian running out on green lanes
So if this lady had walked acrossed my path when Im belting downhill at about 20-25miles/hour, sorry but she wouldnt be getting my sympathy, but sending her my bill- yes i know im harsh
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
