Response to horror crash shows road danger is ‘normal’ says Cov’s bicycle mayor

20/12/2023

Our society has become ‘slowly normalised’ to road danger, the region’s cycling boss has said, as he criticised a response to a horrific crash in which a mother and her child escaped serious injury. The quick-thinking mum pulled her child’s pushchair aside as the car lost control and veered towards them [1] in the incident in Olton, Solihull, earlier this week. The incident made national news headlines after being caught on camera.

But Adam Tranter, the Cycling and Walking Commissioner for the West Midlands, criticised BBC [2] News for their coverage last night, taking to the social media platform X to say: “If you want to understand how much, as a society, we’ve slowly normalised road danger, watch this clip from tonight’s BBC News at Six. “I personally don’t think horrific crashes like this should be in the light-hearted ‘and finally’ section.”

Mr Tranter previously spoke out to voice concerns over what he described as a ‘blase’ response from West Midlands Police, BirminghamLive reports [4].

The force released a short statement yesterday confirming ‘no one was injured, and no arrests were made.” But Adam Tranter, the Mayor’s Cycling and Walking Commissioner, expressed unease over the police’s response on X, formerly Twitter [5]. He said he was ‘concerned the driver had not been arrested’. While he praised the force for their work policing the roads, he said he wanted to see a stronger response from police, given the seriousness of the incident on this occasion.

West Midlands Police [6] said it was aware of Mr Tranter’s comments and issued an update on their investigation. In a statement, the force said: “We’re investigating after a car rolled over and landed on a pavement next to a woman and a child in #Solihull [7]. Our investigation continues and we have recovered footage showing the collision.”

Nick Wilkinson/Birmingham Live Adam Tranter took to X, formerly Twitter, to express his ‘conern’ no arrests had taken place.

Speaking to BirminghamLive, Mr Tranter said he feared events of this nature had become ‘normalised’.

He said: “Anyone who saw the video of that incident will be absolutely horrified. “It’s so alarming that something like this can happen on our high streets without any warning – I’m amazed nobody was seriously hurt. My concern is that because no one was hurt, the positioning of this incident has been a bit out of keeping with how outraged people are.

“The very short police statement seemed to imply that because no one was hurt we should all move on – I’m not saying that was the intention but that’s how it came across. My point on this would be that we, as a society, need to call this stuff out for what it is – it’s dangerous and horrifying.” Mr Tranter said he had spoken to the police about the incident and asked for more information.

He urged public authorities to do more to ensure we ‘learn from each and every serious collision, and not quickly move on.’ “There is no other form of transport where we would allow this to happen and then just move on without any form of investigation,” he said. “We need to learn from incidents like this if we’re going to get to Vision Zero and avoid this stuff ever happening again. “Based on the response I’ve seen from this incident – it doesn’t feel like this is happening.

Operationally, the police do a very good job policing the roads and I’ve been told that this issue is being taken seriously. However, my request generally is that all authorities and organisations are very mindful of the language they use in their statements. “We shouldn’t become so numb to it that we just move on – these are incidents which really petrify local communities.

Just because no one died here, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take it very seriously.” West Midlands Ambulance Service [8] sent two ambulances to the scene. The infant and female driver of the car suffered non-life-threatening injuries and both were taken to hospital.

West Midlands Police today said: “”We’re investigating after a car rolled over and landed on a pavement next to a woman and a child in #Solihull. We were called to the Warwick [9] Road in Olton just after 4pm on Saturday. “The Peugeot driver, a woman in her 40s, suffered cuts and was spoken to at the scene by officers and is assisting with our enquiries.

The woman and the child were left shaken but not physically injured. Our investigation continues and we have recovered footage showing the collision. Anyone with information has been asked to get in touch quoting 2804 of 16 December.”

References

^ pulled her child’s pushchair aside as the car lost control and veered towards them (www.coventrytelegraph.net)
^ BBC (www.coventrytelegraph.net)
^ Family remember ‘kind’ Coventry teacher who overcame tragedy to forge new life in UK (www.coventrytelegraph.net)
^ BirminghamLive reports (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
^ Twitter (www.coventrytelegraph.net)
^ West Midlands Police (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
^ Solihull (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
^ West Midlands Ambulance Service (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
^ Warwick (www.coventrytelegraph.net)
^ here (www.coventrytelegraph.net)
^ Coventry (www.coventrytelegraph.net)