Verdict returned in Abergele cyclists inquest

27/06/2007

Pete Weatherby appeared in the Abergele cyclists inquest in which the jury today returned a narrative verdict highly critical of the police and local Councils for failing to operate communication systems which could have prevented the tragedy. The inquest investigated the deaths of 4 cyclists in North Wales on 8 January 2006; the worst ever cycling tragedy in Britain.

Thomas Harland, 14, Maurice Broadbent, 61, Dave Horrocks, 55, and Wayne Wilkes, 42, died when a car skidded on ice near Abergele. The jury heard that the council officer responsible for gritting the roads had taken a perfectly reasonable decision not to re-grit the material road on the Sunday morning, having arranged for it to be gritted the night before.

In the early hours there had been an unpredicted sharp fall in the local temperature. The police were aware of a number of skidding incidents in the locality, including two off-duty officers and officers on duty who had slid on ice, yet failed to communicate this information to the relevant Council. Had this information got through to the gritting manager it is likely that the road would have been gritted by the time of the accident.

The inquest ran for almost a month and heard from some 200 witnesses.