A 70-year-old man was killed while cycling his bicycle this morning after he was in a fatal traffic collision with a car driver on the N2 at Balrath Co Meath.
The collision is the 12th cycling death on roads in the Republic this year. It means 2017 is now just one of three years in the last decade in which the total number of people killed on their bicycles in collisions was above 11.
The Garda press office said: “At approximately 11.30am Gardaí attended the scene of an incident involving a car and a cyclist on the R153 Balrath near Kentstown. A 70-year-old male cyclist was removed from the scene by ambulance to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda where he was later pronounced dead. The driver of the car, a woman in her 40s, was uninjured in the collision.”
“Garda forensic collision investigators are at scene and the road remains closed to traffic. The local Coroner has been notified.”
Gardaí are appealing for witnesses and in particular to anyone who travelling on the R153 in Balrath between 11am and 11.30am to contact them. Anyone with information is asked to contact Navan Garda Station at 0469036100 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111.
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Really sad! These impacts should not be happening – 12 so far in 2017 is an unacceptable toll of human life of VRUs.
I read the report on RTE News Twitter feed and was upset by this coverage:
“At around 11.30am, gardaí were called to the scene of an incident involving a car and a cyclist on the R153 Balrath near Kentstown.
The cyclist, a 70-year-old man, was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, where he was later pronounced dead.
The driver of the car, a woman in her 40s, was uninjured in the collision.”
My thoughts:
1) So the car was ‘driver-less’ and just somehow ended up impacting with the poor rider? The point will not be lost that there are a lot of drivers out there speeding, using mobile devices while driving, overtaking people who cycle far too close, etc. Cars are driven by a person behind the wheel.
2) What has the age of the cyclist got to do with the fatal outcome?
3) When drivers impact their vehicles with any vulnerable road user, the driver invariably is uninjured!
I don’t want to hear any ‘advice’ from authorities focusing on helmets and/or hi-vis. Deal with the real and present risk posed to VRUs by more than a small cohort of drivers who show scant respect for our vulnerability. Show that you understand what ‘dangerous overtaking’ means, If you don’t then you are clearly not watching the videos put up on social media by cyclists from Ireland, UK and further afield. The evidence is there. Use it! Your present policies are not working to protect us.
Cycling in rural Ireland is horribly scary. Always on the look-out for another asshole/moron speeding around a blind-bend on the wrong side of the road, overtaking far too close, at speed. I’d love to be able to remove these people from ever being allowed to drive again. When my mother was a child she used to walk miles and miles on country roads in north county Dublin free from the worry of being run over. Nowadays, roads are barren of any life and instead filled with speeding metal boxes. Children are now ‘protected’ from ever going out on their own. It’s a horrible situation we’ve all allowed to develop. The deep societal effects of children never going outside on their own has yet to play out. What are the effects? No-one yet knows, but I’ll bet a lot that they’re there, and none of them good.
Just on the issue of mentioning the cyclists age, I actually think reporting that the victim was elderly serves to humanise them. I suspect that a lot of people are more likely to feel sympathy for a 70 year old than some younger person (who they may assume are the sort of reprobate chancers the motoring focused press would like you to believe all cyclists are).
This is why the newspapers feel compelled to tell you completely irrelevant things like how the victim played a lot of GAA and the like.
On the flip side when I hear that the driver was 70+ this does tend to make me think that there is a significant chance they are not competent to drive. Perhaps it is my own bias that makes me think “70 year old cyclist killed” refers to a vulnerable human being and “70 year old driver kills cyclist” indicates that we very badly to ditch the system where you get tested for driving ability when you are young and then get to keep driving with no more testing except under the most extreme circumstances.
It’s been mentioned on boards.ie that this was actually a heart attack where a motorist stopped to assist, and not a collision.
I have no idea whether it’s true, but it’s regular and reliable poster there.
Hi again, Cian.
If you want to delete my last comment, I won’t mind. It didn’t occur to me that I was potentially spreading hearsay.