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http://www.stockportexpress.co.uk/news/ ... thers.html

Tragic Matt's death could save others

EXCLUSIVE

STOCKPORT’S coroner is demanding a change in the law following the tragic death of a ten-year-old boy.

Matthew Billy Shaw Reger was cycling just yards from his Adswood home when he was killed following a collision with a truck.

At Matthew’s inquest yesterday, Stockport coroner John Pollard - who ruled the death was accidental - said the boy’s life could have been saved if the truck had been fitted with side protection bars.

He will now be writing to the Secretary of State for Transport urging him to amend the 30-year-old law on recovery trucks, which are exempt from safety bars.

Mr Pollard said: "It seems in this case side bars would have been effective, as it may have stopped Matthew from going under the rear wheel. They may not have saved Matthew’s life but it also may have done, and could help save others.

"I would urge a revising of legislation. It has not been amended since 1978 and vehicles have changed dramatically since then. The cost of fitting the bars is not a significant reason for not having them compared to saving a child’s life."

Kath Reger, Matthew’s grandmother, burst into tears on hearing the coroner’s words, and said: "If the bars were there, it might have helped save his life. I am so bitter about it, my grandson has been taken from us."

The coroner’s decision to act was welcomed by Matthew’s mum, Helen Reger, who attended the inquest in a Manchester United shirt with ‘Matt’ written on the back.

The 29-year-old, from Culver Drive, Adswood, who has two other children, Shianice and Brent, said after the inquest: "I can handle the outcome, we know it was not the driver’s fault, but having those side bars may have given him a chance to survive.

"We are pleased the coroner brought it up and we will be taking the matter further. Matthew was always on the go, he loved football and playing on his bike. He was fun-loving and we miss him a lot."

The inquest, at Stockport Magistrates Court, heard how Matthew was riding his bike to meet friends before he started out for school on Tuesday October 10, last year when he was in collision with the truck on the corner of Neston Grove and Rostherne Road.

Cub scout Matthew, who tried to stop the red bike by braking and dragging his foot on the ground, collided with the side of the DAF LF45 flat back recovery truck and slid under the rear wheels.

The pathologist said Matthew, an Adswood Primary pupil and avid Manchester United fan, died of head injuries and his death would have been almost instantaneous.

Accident investigator Sergeant Christopher Noblett said the driver of the truck, Phillip Smith, 37, of Neston Grove, Adswood, was travelling at no more than 17mph in the 20mph zone.

But he added: "There were no under run bars, which may have helped Matthew from going under the rear vehicle wheels."

Louise Turner, an engineer from the Department of Transport, said recovery vehicles were exempt from having under run bars and that one of the reasons they are not fitted to these vehicles is the pay load.

She added: "Technically speaking there is no reason why these vehicles could not be fitted with side bars."

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

What is this saying? Were the brakes on the bike working or was he resorting to using his shoes as brakes?

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Safe Speed issued the following PR at 12:01 this afternoon:

PR468: The wrong safety factor...

news: for immediate release

The tragic case of the death of Matthew Reger highlights Department for
Transport's obsession with the wrong safety factor says the Safe Speed road
safety campaign.

Paul Smith, founder of http://www.safespeed.org.uk, said: "All the effort and
energy wasted on speed limit reductions and speed cameras have failed to save
lives. This tragic crash took place in a 20mph zone, but that didn't save
Matt's life."

"This case illustrates perfectly the awful tragedy of concentrating on the
wrong safety factor. It's time to end the obsession with numerical speed and
concentrate once more on real road safety."

"Our sincerest condolences to those involved."

<ends>

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Forgive me, but I don't see the point of the press release. He collided with the side of the truck and was dragged under the wheels. What relevance do 20mph zones and "concentrating on the wrong safety factor" have in this tragic accident?

It might be a bit of a cheap shot, but I believe it's a microcosm of everything that's wrong with UK road safety just now. They are fiddling with speed limits and speed enforcement while ignoring the simple real world factors that are avoidably contributing to deaths.

I like to think that a proper road safety policy would have prevented this tragedy - but all we got was a useless 20mph zone.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I think Paul's point on this (and with which I agree) is that they have created a 20mph zone in order to increase safety (speed kills remember ) but it has not done so in this case.

The effort involved in creating the 20mph zone could have been put into removing an exemption for recovery trucks to the side bars legislation and that would have saved a life.

So, by focusing their efforts on speed reduction rather than investigating other issues they have missed an opportunity to really save lives.

The question is: will they remove the exemption, or will they make that road a 10mph zone now?

Mike.

It was a cheap shot. If the boy had cycled past two seconds later the tragedy wouldn't have occurred. A completely random accident that had little to do with anything apart from bad luck.

The 20mph zone had absolutely nothing to do with this, whatsoever.

Interesting point. Had the truck been travelling at around 30 rather than around 20 then it wouldn't have been spatially and temporally co-located with the deceased lad. I guess 'Speed Kills' works both ways!

Cheap shot or not I believe absolutely that bad policy is costing ~1,200 lives per year.

I reckon we're entitled to fire off the odd cheap shot.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Its not like 'the other side' don't get their fair share of cheap shots in. Plus, coz they're 'the establishment', they get away with lying!

I expected someone to come back with this - by the same token, if the lad had started 5-10 seconds earlier, he would have hit the truck in your hypothetical situation also, hence the irrelevance of speed in this incident!

Still not sure under-run bars would have helped. They have quite big gaps in / under them as they're really only designed to stop cars going under. In fact, for all we know, the presence of such bars might even INCREASE the chance of entrapment / entanglement.

As has already been alluded to, nobody has mentioned the kid's bike, whether or not he was profficient at riding it and whether or not it was properly maintained. Had it been a car with defective brakes that went under the truck, there would have been little sympathy for the driver, I'm sure.

Would the best way of avoiding this accident not have been for the bike to stop before hitting the truck?

If so, maybe the legislators would like to consider a whole raft of new legislation for pushbikes? Compulsory training of riders, annual roadworthiness tests...

By the same token, the irrelevance of speed in many collisions where it is cited as a factor.