There's scant information at present, but it appears that a cyclist was sadly killed at Polsham between Wells & Glastonbury on Tuesday (08/04/25) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79334rr875o
I know that there are some locals on here and hope it's not one of us. Does anyone know what happened?
I've been riding that road for years, usually twice a week and had a few near misses and actually rode it Tuesday morning; my Wife's bus back from Wells that evening was re-routed via Shepton as the road was closed.
I'm a bit of a worrier and, for some reason, have been getting particularly nervous about getting killed recently (mechanical failure, lapse of concentration etc.) & wondering about re-routing rides.
The chap involved was 60 (I'm 57) my Wife (who worries about me when I'm out) and I are quite shaken up by this.
Take Care everyone!
I'm not surprised he was killed - I've read three reports of this incident and not once did they refer to the van being driven by anyone. Its crazy the way they let these self-driving vans get 'involved' with cyclists on major A roads.
Sad news. My thoughts go out for the deceased relatives and anyone affected by this.
Similarl to OP, my wife is a worrier. I plan carefully and try to avoid any roads where speed is realistically north of 40mph and send a beacon text via strava (it's free and keeps the wife happy by dot watching). I might also get one of the garmin units to tell me about approaching traffic. Everyone seems to rave about them.
As cyclists, we can try to optimise the following:
-Reduce risk (Quieter roads, lower speeds)
-See (Awareness, Radar)
-Be seen (Visibility, Clothing, Lights)
One of the reasons I'll never become a hardcore roadie is the fact I just don't like other car drivers!
I was in my friends modern car recently and was horrified to see her WhatsApp messages come up on a screen as she was driving. How in earth did anyone think that was a good idea.
I really go out of my way not to ride on the road anymore.
When we move I will be taking a 7 minute train journey to drop me away from the traffic.
The reporting of these incidents is terrible as you say. It's not the van that kills you, it's the driver.
I do about 100 miles a week on roads and I'd never risk it without lights, a helmet and taking up plenty of space forcing drivers to treat you as traffic. Having said that, I've been hit twice by vans and get numerous close passes all the time. British drivers are not too bad compared to other countries I ride in, but we still need a constant public awareness programme to remind drivers of their responsibilities. I don't know what they do in Spain, but the drivers there are far more considerate than anywhere else.
I was in my friends modern car recently and was horrified to see her WhatsApp messages come up on a screen as she was driving. How in earth did anyone think that was a good idea.
I haven’t tried but I suspect CarPlay might let me do that if I wanted to. But the clock lets me try to adjust it whilst driving and tuning the radio is much easier now than it was but I suspect many people are browsing Spotify playlists etc - the issue is not the technology letting you but the driver thinking it is OK (even if hands free it may be an offence if distracting) - did you challenge your friend on it being a good idea? It will certainly be possible for her to disable it. WhatsApp/car will actually read the messages to me if I want, and I can dictate the reply — I stopped doing that after it misunderstood something and several attempts to correct it I shouted **** off at it - which it then sent to my Wife!
I can guarantee that 9/10 time if I walk to the train station from my house (300m ish) that I will pass multiple people using their phone in their hand whilst driving - often with it on their knee sending text/whatsapp messages. Many of them have just driven out of the car park but couldn’t send the “on my way” message before moving off!
However wild speculation about what caused this death does no favours to either the driver involved, the cyclist, the families etc. if we assume it was someone on their phone then the rest of us who follow the rules tell ourselves it wouldn’t happen to us; if we assume that the van driver MUST have been at fault it means that cyclists think their mistakes don’t count etc.
so probably best to leave it to the crash investigators to piece together the cause.
@poly I suspect not as Signal doesnt show on my CarPlay unit. Messages do as an alert and ifone chooses to open the app the message is read out to me and reply is via Siri only.
However wild speculation about what caused this death does no favours to either the driver involved, the cyclist, the families etc. if we assume it was someone on their phone then the rest of us who follow the rules tell ourselves it wouldn’t happen to us; if we assume that the van driver MUST have been at fault it means that cyclists think their mistakes don’t count etc.
so probably best to leave it to the crash investigators to piece together the cause.
I think is the best course. None of us know, speculating just makes us more anxious and reinforces the driver/cyclist division.
Tragic for those affected
that makes the only course of action "oh." before pondering silently to yourself about the pointlessness of it all. so might as well ban these type of post, or demand that everyone can only reply "thoughts and prayers"
@PJay - i share your pain, there was a double fatality locally not too long ago, its a sharp reminder of the risks we take as well as the attitude of the press, the vast majority of other road users.
thanks for the lol tho, using signal, but dictating through your car and siri, classic.
that makes the only course of action "oh." before pondering silently to yourself about the pointlessness of it all. so might as well ban these type of post, or demand that everyone can only reply "thoughts and prayers"
There's an argument that posting these up before any sort of investigation or outcome is known doesn't serve much purpose. There's nothing to actually discuss, as anyone with any actual knowledge should be talking to the authorities, not spreading it on social media.
When there's an inquest or a trial, then we have a bit more to go on.
There's an argument that posting these up before any sort of investigation or outcome is known doesn't serve much purpose.
I do get that point and I do hate social media feeding frenzies, however I consider it perfectly valid to be saddened/shocked and to say so, & to be concerned that the victim might be someone that uses the forum.
Highlighting the police's request for footage/witness might also be useful as I know of a number of local forum users.
Equally I don't have an issue with using this to suggest caution to others and express my increasing angst at ridding the same roads.
Again, take care 👍
First of all, RIP. No matter what anyone writes, it won't make anything better for the family & friends that are involved.
In terms of driving culture, I believe that all of the publicity & social media posts over the lockdown year have polarised drivers into two camps:
1- Patient, and giving you plenty of room.
2- Not patient at all, and giving you as little room as possible (because of a peculiar belief that only cars/vans/lorries should be on the road). Collective bullying, to put other road users off.
The days of drivers being 'unaware' or 'uneducated' about vulnerable road users are mostly over IMO.
We can't speculate about what happened or who was at 'fault' - we'll have to wait and see.
I have to do a driving assessment every two years for work... each time, the assessor asks me if I ride a bike. They can pretty much tell from my hazard perception.
Still, it didn't help me day before yesterday when someone made a very close pass about 30 meters from where the road widened up to two lanes. Why not just wait a few seconds? 🤷♂️
Not to excuse the van driver, but the sheer volume of traffic makes motorists cut corners.
The Dutch have engineered a far lower mortality rate on their roads.
Encouraging more people to ditch the car has made the roads safer, not just for everyone else, but significantly safer for motorists too.
I don't want to detract from the death the post is about but the Netherlands have not reduced overall road deaths on either a per capita or per billion miles basis compared to the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rateNot to excuse the van driver, but the sheer volume of traffic makes motorists cut corners.
The Dutch have engineered a far lower mortality rate on their roads.
Encouraging more people to ditch the car has made the roads safer, not just for everyone else, but significantly safer for motorists too.
Poly is right, the UK has outstandingly one of the lowest road death rates in the world.
Poly
Is their cycling death rate not a lot lower?
Apparently that used to be the case but no longer. Measure per Km cycled.
"In 2023 in NL there were 15.66 cyclist fatalities per billion kms cycled. By contrast, the rate has fallen in GB from a high in 2006 to 15.07 "
More generally IMO cycling safety is very much road dependent. Most of my cycling is around the Glasgow area. I very rarely have any issues and haven't had a serious near miss for years. But I avoid some roads. For example the A82 east of the Erskine Bridge. Two fatals within 6 months. Balmore Road from Allander toll into Glasgow. I think the road has a few blind corners, carries fast traffic, and is that awkard width where it isn't wide enough to safely share a lane but it isn't obvious to every driver that this is the case.
The reporting of these incidents is terrible as you say. It's not the van that kills you, it's the driver.
Reporting isn't how cases are tried and investigated. Later there'll charges and trail and when that happens the reporting will focus on the person and their behaviour leading up to the incident but at this stage what needed is for witnesses to come forward that can support that charge and trial. Often whats important in the reporting at this stage is the information that will help lead to witnesses coming forward - and the size, shape, colour, make, model of the vehicle are the most recognisable and descriptive information in that respect. 'Cyclist' is also the most clear and memory jogging description in that respect too, even though its not really any less dehumanising.
Is their cycling death rate not a lot lower?
It's always difficult to make direct comparisons becuase you'l have variable data gathering between countries. For instance 'rate' of what? Accidents per journey? Per mile? Per day? Per cyclist? When do you count an injury as road/journey related?
In the UK I believe we record cycling injures and deaths and one statistic and report and compare as if they were road accidents even if they happened on a trail centre or BMX track or whatever. That would be fine if every other country definitely made the same decisions in recording cause and circumstances of accidents but they likely don't
That means in the UK we record those incident rates between modes of transport very differntly. Take pedestrians for instance- we'd only consider a pedestrian injury or death road related if it was the result of another vehicle - if you tripped over a broken paving stone on your way to work and died rather than got hit by a bus it wouldn't be counted in traffic/travel related statistics even though they are both risks taken as part of pedestrian journey on the same transport infrastructure. So we over report cycling risks and under report pedestrian ones in the UK
