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- Kirton, Devon.
A CANCER survivor was left with two hernias after being hit by a cyclist who then sped off.
Barry Gough, who has a colostomy bag as a result of bowel cancer, was crossing the road in Walton Street when the incident happened.
The 54-year-old former soldier said: “I was crossing at the zebra crossing. I was nearly across, everything had stopped and then this guy came hurtling through and I turned around.
“I took his handlebars full blow where my colostomy is and I fell to the floor. Because of his ignorance of the Highway Code I had to spend time in hospital.
“The builders nearby tried to stop him but he got his way through.
“They shouted, ‘Oi, you’ve just hurt someone’.” The cyclist just swore back, Mr Gough said.
“He wasn’t bothered – he came through a pedestrian crossing with pedestrians on it,” he said.
“He was about 21 or 22 years old and he was in full Lycra riding gear. I couldn’t really see his face.”
The crash took place just after 10am on Tuesday, May 22.
Afterwards, Mr Gough picked himself up and walked back to his home in Nelson Street, Jericho, feeling unwell.
He called the police on the non-emergency number to make a complaint about the incident and voice his concern about the danger at the crossing, but was told there was nothing the police could do.
Mr Gough said: “They told me there’s no way I can trace him and I didn’t pursue it any further.”
Later that night his wife Janice was forced to dial 999 when he began to cry out in pain.
“I was so ill that I was vomiting, I was in absolute agony and I was curled up and crying,” he said.
After an ambulance took him to the John Radcliffe Hospital Mr Gough spent three days being treated by doctors. He was given morphine and doctors put him on a drip.
Now back at home and on the mend Mr Gough wants to something done to improve safety at the crossing.
He said: “Sooner or later they are going to kill someone on the zebra crossing. It’s ridiculous.
“They come out of Little Clarendon Street and they don’t stop on the crossing.”
Sushila Dhall, chairman of Oxford Pedestrians Association, said she was not aware of problems for pedestrians on the crossing.
She said: “My observation is mostly motorists, but some cyclists too, go through red lights and pedestrian crossings all the time.
“I’m very sorry for the man who was hit, it’s a horrible, shocking experience. But I would stress that more people are hit by vehicles than cyclists to put it in perspective.”
Mr Gough’s case came to light after 18-year-old Tafari Miller was sentenced at Oxford Magistrates’ Court earlier this month for dangerous cycling. His victim, Barbara Sandford, 71, was left with internal bleeding, a broken wrist, chipped teeth and bruising after the crash, in Oxford’s High Street on March 22.
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/9765416.print/
Barry Gough, who has a colostomy bag as a result of bowel cancer, was crossing the road in Walton Street when the incident happened.
The 54-year-old former soldier said: “I was crossing at the zebra crossing. I was nearly across, everything had stopped and then this guy came hurtling through and I turned around.
“I took his handlebars full blow where my colostomy is and I fell to the floor. Because of his ignorance of the Highway Code I had to spend time in hospital.
“The builders nearby tried to stop him but he got his way through.
“They shouted, ‘Oi, you’ve just hurt someone’.” The cyclist just swore back, Mr Gough said.
“He wasn’t bothered – he came through a pedestrian crossing with pedestrians on it,” he said.
“He was about 21 or 22 years old and he was in full Lycra riding gear. I couldn’t really see his face.”
The crash took place just after 10am on Tuesday, May 22.
Afterwards, Mr Gough picked himself up and walked back to his home in Nelson Street, Jericho, feeling unwell.
He called the police on the non-emergency number to make a complaint about the incident and voice his concern about the danger at the crossing, but was told there was nothing the police could do.
Mr Gough said: “They told me there’s no way I can trace him and I didn’t pursue it any further.”
Later that night his wife Janice was forced to dial 999 when he began to cry out in pain.
“I was so ill that I was vomiting, I was in absolute agony and I was curled up and crying,” he said.
After an ambulance took him to the John Radcliffe Hospital Mr Gough spent three days being treated by doctors. He was given morphine and doctors put him on a drip.
Now back at home and on the mend Mr Gough wants to something done to improve safety at the crossing.
He said: “Sooner or later they are going to kill someone on the zebra crossing. It’s ridiculous.
“They come out of Little Clarendon Street and they don’t stop on the crossing.”
Sushila Dhall, chairman of Oxford Pedestrians Association, said she was not aware of problems for pedestrians on the crossing.
She said: “My observation is mostly motorists, but some cyclists too, go through red lights and pedestrian crossings all the time.
“I’m very sorry for the man who was hit, it’s a horrible, shocking experience. But I would stress that more people are hit by vehicles than cyclists to put it in perspective.”
Mr Gough’s case came to light after 18-year-old Tafari Miller was sentenced at Oxford Magistrates’ Court earlier this month for dangerous cycling. His victim, Barbara Sandford, 71, was left with internal bleeding, a broken wrist, chipped teeth and bruising after the crash, in Oxford’s High Street on March 22.
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/9765416.print/
