EXCLUSIVE: Is this Britain’s most DANGEROUS zebra crossing? Shocking CCTV reveals series of accidents at road crossing highlighted by Jeremy Vine after motorist nearly hit cyclist
- The terrifying catalogue of accidents – four of them in the last year – were all at a crossing in Bradford
- Previously became the subject of concern after BBC’s Jeremy Vine shared a video of a near miss there
- All drivers shown are breaking law, which requires them to stop for pedestrians who are on the crossing
These heart-stopping videos show drivers ploughing into pedestrians after failing to stop at a zebra crossing which might be the most dangerous in Britain.
The terrifying catalogue of accidents – four of them in the last year – were all at a crossing in Bradford, which was originally highlighted by Jeremy Vine on Twitter.
The shocking footage from this week showed a boy cycling slowly across, avoiding one car which fails to stop, only to be struck by a second one.
But exclusive CCTV footage from the same spot obtained by MailOnline shows just what a lucky escape the boy had.
Other pedestrians stepping onto the crossing on Horton Grange Road in the city near the junction of Spencer Road on the busy Bradford outer ring road, have risked serious injury
All the drivers shown are breaking the law, which requires them to stop for pedestrians who are on the crossing.
Exactly why the drivers’ attention is not on the road in front as they approach the crossing, which is barely 100m from a speed camera and on a 20mph road, isn’t clear.
All the accidents happen in good visibility as the camera shows, and the crossing, with its trademark Belisha beacons is visible from a long way back in both directions.
This terrifying catalogue of accidents – four of them in the last year – were all at a crossing in Bradford, which was originally highlighted by Jeremy Vine on Twitter. In this one, a boy cycles over the road as a silver car approaches from the left
The car fails to stop for the boy and hits him, but fortunately the force of the collision is not enough to knock him off his feet
On November 3, this woman was hit by a black car approaching from the left (it cannot be seen in this video still)
This is the moment the car collided into her in horrific footage that has been obtained by MailOnline
Rule 79 of the Highway Code states that cyclists must not ride their bicycle across a pelican, puffin or zebra crossing.
Instead, they ‘must dismount and wheel the cycle across’.
Drivers and riders should give way to pedestrians waiting to cross and give way to pedestrians on a zebra crossing.
However, toucan crossings are light-controlled crossings which allow cyclists and pedestrians to share crossing space and cross at the same time.
They are push-button operated. Pedestrians and cyclists will see the green signal together. Cyclists are permitted to ride across.
Residents around Horton Grange Road have pleaded with Bradford Metropolitan Council to tear down the inadequate Belisha beacons and replace them with traffic lights – but councillors have refused to make the zebra crossing a pelican crossing.
‘Someone is going to die’ – said local shopkeeper Mohammad Haleem, 45, who shared the terrifying CCTV clips with MailOnline.
The latest video, from last Saturday and highlighted by Jeremy Vine has been viewed more than 70,000 times.
It has divided opinion, with some social media users blasting the cyclist for not dismounting to cross the zebra crossing, in accordance with the Highway Code, but most people squarely blaming the driver.
Although cyclists are required to dismount on the crossing, there’s no question of either of the cyclists involved in these clips taking drivers by surprise by speeding onto the crossing.
Only a few days earlier, another teenage boy had an incredible escape.
Seeing that a driver had stopped on one side of the zebra, he ran across, but was hit head-on by another vehicle coming in the other direction, sending him somersaulting into the air.
Amazingly, he picked himself up and began to limp away before being called over by paramedics in a passing ambulance who turned on their blue light and tended to the boy.
Police later arrested a man.
This latest video, from last Saturday and highlighted by Jeremy Vine has been viewed more than 70,000 times
It has divided opinion, with some social media users blasting the cyclist for not dismounting to cross the zebra crossing, in accordance with the Highway Code, but most people squarely blaming the driver
In another horrifying clip from 2018, a young woman carrying a bag is half way across the zebra and a man and a boy are crossing from the other side. Suddenly a black car, travelling at high speed, clips her and she staggers backwards and falls onto the road, apparently unconscious.
Other drivers pull over and switch their hazard lights on as passers-by call for an ambulance.
On December 22 2021 in the early evening as young man is seen more than halfway across when he notices a black van approaching at speed and tries to get out of its way, but he is struck almost full-on with the van pushing him down the road.
In a clip from August 2022, a boy on his bicycle is slowly crossing the road and one driver stops but another silver car coming from the other direction is clearly not paying attention and hits the boy at slow speed.
The driver brakes and comes to a halt with his car straddling the zebra crossing. Amazingly the boy cycles on but passers-by intervene and call him and the driver back.
Mr Haleem took a petition to Bradford Council with the evidence of horrendous driving, but nothing has been done.
Here, a pedestrian is seen walking across the crossing on a rainy evening as a black van comes hurtling from the left
The van appears to knock the man off his feet as he cannot be seen again after the van passes
‘Someone is going to have to be killed before they do anything,’ said the father of five.
Jeremy Vine leaves the BBC Radio 2 studios on his bike
‘We have had so many accidents here, but councillors are sleeping on the job – does some kid have to die before anything is done about the problem?
‘We want a pelican crossing installed in place of the zebra crossing. This is a busy road and drivers need to see a red light. They should stop at a red light.
‘There are schools close by and children don’t understand the zebra crossing. Just because one side of the traffic stops, it doesn’t mean the other side will.
‘We fitted the CCTV to try and prove how bad the problem is, but the council don’t seem to be bothered, they are inept.
‘The police have told us that it looks like someone is going to have to die before anything is done. The situation is really bad for the young and old.’
‘When the first young cyclist got hit, he was about 12, we tried to fix his bike,’ said Mohammad. ‘I have young kids myself and we are all really worried.
‘There will be other accidents that we don’t know about because we can only check the CCTV when we know what to look for.
‘Kids don’t want their parents to know that they have been involved in a bit of a bump because they think it is them in the wrong. But there is some kind of accident on that zebra crossing every week.’
MailOnline has contacted Bradford Council for comment.
In this fifth incident, a woman walks across the zebra crossing one evening as a small black car comes at speed from her right
Fortunately, she is able to dodge the car – missing it by inches – and falls backwards onto the tarmac. She is seemingly unhurt
Ashley Zhang-Borges, 36, filmed his son as he cycled to school and capture the moment a car ‘squeezed’ past the lad – prompting viewers to hold their breath.
He posted the video on his Twitter feed and he has now been viewed almost two million times with more than 75 per cent of people in his favour.
Police have also sided with him but former Home Secretary and Chancellor Mr Javid backed the motorist – sparking an online row between him and broadcaster Jeremy.
But speaking on Vine’s BBC show, Mr Zhang-Borges said: ‘The facts are clear on this one, the driver was wrong, and my son has every right to ride in the road. That’s clear cut.’
He added: ‘You can see from the clip that they should have stopped way sooner than they did. They had plenty of distance to make that decision. We had lights on, reflective clothing, so much time to stop.
‘People will argue ‘Plenty of room, you could drive a bus through there’, well I’m sorry, that’s not actually factually correct even slightly. The facts are clear on this one, the driver was wrong, and my son has every right to ride in the road. That’s clear cut.’
Ashley Zhang-Borges, 36, filmed his son as he cycled to school and capture the moment a car ‘squeezed’ past the lad
Footage shows a boy cycling along a street in Kingston, south-west London. A car approaches from the other direction and passes without incident, but the parent filming his son from behind criticises the driver for not stopping or slowing
The incident happened earlier this month as Ashley was taking his son to school in Kingston, south-west London, and he can be heard calling the driver of the blue Ford Focus involved an ‘idiot’.
In the clip the little boy is seen cycling towards oncoming traffic and as a car approaches his father is heard to say to his son ‘Keep going, keep going.’ before shouting at the car: ‘Aren’t you going to stop?’
Jeremy – a well-known cycling advocate – highlighted the footage on his Channel 5 show and asked viewers who was in the wrong and the backbench MP said on social media: ‘The five-year-old’s father’.
The broadcaster, a well-known cycling advocate, slammed the motorist on Twitter for not going ‘dead slow’ while driving past the boy, and said anyone who disagreed should ‘cut up their driving licence and send the pieces back to the DVLA’.
On Vine’s show, Mr Zhang-Borges, who stood as a Labour party councillor in local elections earlier his year and lost, went on to the host that the gap between his son and the car was ‘less than a metre’ and that the motorist was ‘legally and morally wrong’ adding: ‘Everyone knows that it was too close.’
The debate was raised by avid cyclist Jeremy Vine during his show on Channel 5, pictured
Sajid Javid (pictured) clashed with Jeremy Vine over a controversial video showing a car passing ‘too close’ to a five-year-old cyclist
Mr Vine – who is an avid cyclist – was among those defending the father for allowing his boy to cycle along the road
While in an interview with Cycling Weekly, Ashley slammed the now backbench MP and said: ‘I thought there was no way that he, the former chancellor, was wasting his time with this. Also I was shocked that he was coming out and so obviously blaming me, not the poor driving in the video.’
The Highway Code was updated in January to allow cyclists to take the centre of lanes at times, having previously been ordered to hug the kerb.
The updated guidance reads: ‘Cyclists should make themselves as visible as possible by riding in the centre of lanes on quiet roads, in slower-moving traffic and at the approach to junctions.
‘They should also keep at least 0.5m from the kerb side on busy roads and should leave 1m when passing a parked car.’
In a Tweet Surrey Road Police also backed Ashley and his son and said: ‘If you look ahead there is a pinch point with priority to traffic travelling the same direction as the riders. Had there been a car travelling towards the driver, the driver would have had to of pulled over in the gap behind the parked cars.
‘The Highway Code was recently updated creating a hierarchy of road users. The driver should have slowed/stopped to give the rider room to pass safely. The hierarchy does not remove the need for everyone o behave responsibly in this case we believe the riders did nothing wrong.’
Mr Vine, a well-known cycling advocate, took to Twitter to slam the motorist, but Sajid Javid responded claiming the boy’s father was at fault
Mr Vine tweeted ‘I mustn’t respond’ in frustration following Mr Javid’s tweet
Keen cyclist Mr Vine took to social media last month to berate another motorist whom he accused of driving dangerously in Kensington.
Posting footage on Twitter of the tense interaction with a supercar driver in the heart of London, Mr Vine branded the motorist the ‘Ronnie Pickering of Kensington’ after the driver declared him ‘a d**k’.
The video showed the television presenter on his bike with a £200,000 Bentley beeping its horn behind him.
After the luxury supercar undertakes Mr Vine, the motor then approaches two other cyclists who are in the road.
When the traffic lights turn red, Mr Vine trundles to his driver-side window to confront him about his manoeuvres.
The Eggheads and Radio 2 host exclaims: ‘Oooooh, you’re quite a dangerous driver, mate.’
But the motorist does not back down and instead tells him: ‘You’re in the wrong lane, why aren’t you in that lane?’
He then points to the curbside left hand side of the road, to which Vine edits dramatic low piano notes over the footage and adds text bemoaning the lack of a cycle lane.
Mr Vine is then heard quizzing him: ‘Why do you think you’ve got a right to go ahead of me just because you’re in a car?’
The motorist tells him: ‘Because you deliberately went in front of me and in the wrong lane. Get in the bloody cycle lane. I drive how I want. You don’t own the road, believe it or not.’
The driver seemed nonplussed by meeting Mr Vine and told him ‘My name’s Paul and you’re a d**k’
In August, Mr Vine also shamed a moped driver for speeding through a zebra crossing between two pedestrians.
Mr Vine wrote on Twitter: ‘Does this matter? Are zebra crossing incursions worth reporting? From my ride this morning.’
In the footage, Mr Vine zoomed along the road in the cycle lane and then stopped for the pedestrians on the crossing.
He drew red circles around the multiple pedestrians who were walking across.
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