Horse rider died after being thrown under truck’s wheels

[Mr_Ed]

The Bucks Free Press reports that an inquest heard that a teenage horse rider looked on in horror as her mother was thrown from her startled horse under the back wheels of a passing sewage truck.

See the full report at: http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk:80/searc...ucks_wheels.php

This is a tragic accident and our thoughts must be with her family, particularly at this time of year.

Are we ever going to see a solution to stopping accidents on the road involving horses, riders and vehicles?

Thoughts?

 

[Super_Kat]

Well.......No. As long as vehicles and horses share the roads ther will always be accidents I'm afraid.
At least that driver of the lorry slowed down and it was just tragic that the horse spooked and the woman fell off

 

[fjudge]

Oh dear thats terrible

and very close to where i live!!

 

[samsaccount]

That is terrible, it is horrible when people die but even more so at this time of year. I feel so sorry for the daughter who not only has lost her mother but saw it happen

Unfortunatly Kat is right, there will always be accidents as long as horses and vehicals share the roads unfortunatly

RIP

 

[henryhorn]

I read the report from your link and think it was possibly not accurate the lorry was doing 10mph as it passed the horses, if the drive saw the lady's hand raised he should really have stopped and allowed them to pass him, which is by far the safest method when on a spooky horse.
The fact his colleague backed him up was very convenient wasn't it?
If he saw the horse messing about (and don't forget lorries have enormous mirrors not only on the side wing but also above the driver's door to allow good downward vision of the kerb) if he was crawling he would have been able to stop as it came alongside.
Poor family, and poor daughter to have to witness that, I bet she never hacks confidently on a road again.
I wish the case had received more publicity on national tv, it might just make some drivers think more as they pass a horse...
We had a near miss with a massive tuck a few years ago and I went home, go dressed in my smartest clothes and drove round to the factory and asked to speak to the MD. He was horrified, and got his SEc to type up a notice to all his drivers, gave me a tour of the factory and apologised profusely. Sometimes we have to do more than just rant, but take action against bad driving.
The driver in this case did slow down but if they wre educated to stop and allow the rider to pass them not the other way round it would be so much safer...

 

[magic104]

"That is terrible, it is horrible when people die but even more so at this time of year".
It happened last Aug
"Kourtney Clarke had been riding with her mother at around 5.15pm on Sunday, August 27". Which does not make it any less tragic & I am sure this Christmas was still a sad time for them.

 

[samsaccount]

Ah didn't notice that sorry just assumed since it was posted today it happened recently.

I agree it does not make it any less tragic at all, nothing could do.

 

[kirstyfk]

Last summer I was riding along a single lane road after I had ridden round to use my friends jumps. My dad had driven over but had left and I was meeting him back at home. I saw a big tractor and trailor and asked him to stop. Which he did but drove off before I had passed. I was riding a 5 year old who had never seen such a big thing before and although incredible senseable she got such a fright and jumped sideways into the fence. Luckily she was fine but I was terrified all the way home. Had the driver just waited 5 more seconds I would have been fine. Sometimes people just have to be a liitle more patient, especially around horse.

 

[samsaccount]

Last year I was hacking my boy out and 8/10 he is very good, and is an old timer so he has been around the block and seen it all a million and ones times. But i was passing a parked car and the woman had just gotten into it as i was walking up to it. Passed the car but another car came round the bend so i pulled right infront of the parked car, set off and within a meter in being in front of the parked car the person started it up, it was VERY noisy and my lad absolutly cr*apped himself lept forwards. Wouldn't have been so bad if we were further forwards as i don't think he would have bothered but the car was right behind us.

He (lorry driver) was at least more considerate than some other drivers out there, some are the worst in the world and due to this it has limited my hacking, to ensure i minimise the risk of an accident.

Three summers ago i was hacking out with my old horse who was an absolute angel on the roads, hacking down a main road with a speed limit of 40, this car sped up behind us at well over 40 overtook us he was VERY close but at the same time a van was on the other side of the road and the over taking car only just missed me and the other van, could have been a very horrible accident!!

some people have no respect for the road, not just for horse and riders but other cars, so it is tragic when someone is lost due to misuse of the speed limits and idiotic drivers but even more so when it is accidental

Kirstyfk, glad to hear you and your 5yro was only shaken up and escaped with no injuries.

 

[Jemayni]

A lot of road users just dont understand though. I was talking to some (older) friends a few months ago and complained, without even thinking, about cars speeding past horses. These people had absolutly no idea that you were supposed to slow down for horses, as they had no idea what a horse may do.

Even though it would do nothing to help in this scenario, I think more needs to be done to educate the average person about horses on the roads!

 

[SusieJane]

How tragic.

I'm sure that as riders we all use roads to get to where we're going, that we all have our own horror story.

Mine is on my 3rd time of getting my rescue pony out hacking on our own we got clipped by a cars wing mirror ~ even though it was a wide road, just inconsiderate driving.

took 4 years to get her out on her own again!

 

[Mr_Ed]

The industry is trying to tackle the accident issues associated with road safety.

See: Strategy for the Horse Industry in England and Wales – Page 73 onwards (on the doc) – 5.27 – Road Traffic Accidents at
http://www.bhic.co.uk/downloads/full-strategy-report.pdf

See: Action proposed to tackle above road safety issues at
http://www.bhic.co.uk/industry-strategy/aim5/actions.php?33

See: BHS Safety Department at
http://www.bhs.org.uk/Content/Sft-home.asp

 

[Parkranger]

OMG how horrific - makes me realise that yesterday could have been so, so much worse for us.

 

[tw1nn1ejo]

Gosh that is awful. My thoughts go out to all the family. R.I.P

 

[Meganrose]

I cannot believe how people have no idea of what a horse can do when they drive near it. On our yard we have to walk our horses down a private lane with a couple of houses at the bottom. One car may pass at a time, but twice over the break I have been leading my shetland behind someone leading my mare. One car came towards us with lights on full beam and just kept going until I had no where to go and then stopped and my little mare was scared stiff. She then danced and pranced and messed about taking a good few minutes to go passed to be gate of the yard. Then another night one came behind us and crawled along a couple of foot behind until again she got scared and messed about. IF ONLY they had waited and turned lights and engines off it would have taken us seconds to get out of their way!!! All they did is scare the shetland and waste their precious time! Now she walks along looking for trouble and you can feel the fear through the lead rope!
Why not say something - well these days if you do you get *******back or worry that they could come back and do something stupid.
Drivers need to know how much damage this does to the horse and possibly rider. Maybe they think that a shetland cant really do much damage to their cars. THINK AGAIN, I bet she could make some really nice dents.

 

[guisbrogal]

What a tragic situation

I have to say that the drivers around our area are generally very good however we have a road that we regularly hack on that has a 90 degree bend

We actually turn off the road onto a small side road that is literally on the bend and the number of times that people have tried to overtake us as we approach it is unbelievable. They have no chance of course of seeing round the corner and yet drive on the wrong side of the road

We have tried riding out in the centre of our lane, which of course makes us a little more vulnerable to people who over shoot the corner coming towards us, and yet they STILL try to overtake us.

It is just a dreadful accident waiting to happen

 

[WishfulThinker]

How terrible!

Unfortunately as it would be near impossible to get licenses for horses riders and that stil wouldnt guarantee the horse didnt freak out, short of banning either cars or horses from the roads accidents like this are still going to happen!

More rider warning signs 'might' help, but what else could they do? Drivers will still speed, and forget to slow down. And some (lots) of inconsiderate ones will just never slow down. I admit I am quite bad as I apply the same rule I do when cycling, in that you have ot have somewhere to go!! I fyou ride right along the side of the road and your horse freaks out you only have forwards, backwards or up, but peep around 3ft out fron the side of the road and you have some room. It probably does frustrate drivers, but it stops them from trying to SQUEEZE past.
But on my bike I have been overtaken on solid white lines, sworn at, horn blared at me etc etc, so I can imagine these drivers would have even less patience for a horse rider - I have even been told that horses are not legally allowed on the road and the best one by some old timer was that we have to ride like we walk, FACING the ONCOMING tafffic!!! Classic!

And I know from my OH, that after being stuck in town traffice, people use country driving as a form of blowing off steam, and they can forget about other road users, especially as if you are being a t*&T and being Colin Macrae you are concentrating on nor flying off the road - horses and anything else is a 2nd thought!

 

[meandmyself]

How awful! Poor family!

 

[izzyxxx]

i had an accident with my horse turning her bum away from the curb because a kid was running at her with a cricket bat the car was about 2 meters away from the horse (who is normally 200% bombproof every1 was so shocked that she was hit!) so i told the car to stop they carried on! yes at a snails pace but her bum was on the white line in the middle of the road what a*se try to squezze past a horse like that when they have seen it spook! another kid ran out she took one step back and sat on the boot of the car the driver went mad shouting that horses that get scared shouldn't be on the road omg they are not machines(sp) and how does he think you get bomb proof horses chuck them on a road one day and a car speeding past wont bother them!!!!it really gets on my wick i ask loads of cars to slow down and half of them shout out the window at me or make rude gestures(sp) sorry bit long winded but my thoughts are with the family!