insiderblmTV presenter Storm Huntley has urged cyclists to wear helmets after she was knocked down by a car on Monday.
The co-host of Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine show tweeted an image of her damaged helmet saying she was thankful it wasn’t her skull that was cracked.
Huntley was hit by a car that crossed her path to make a left turn while she was cycling home from work in London.
“I am standing here today thanking my lucky stars that I decided to put my helmet on,” she said.
Speaking on Tuesday morning’s episode of Jeremy Vine, Huntley said: “I am knocked off my bike and I bang my head so hard on the pavement that I crack my helmet.
“If I wasn’t wearing that, that crack wouldn’t be on my helmet, it would be on my skull, so I would not be here this morning.”
She added: “The driver was shaken, there was no aggression, there was nobody being competitive on the road, it was an accident.
“Accidents happen, please put your helmets on, and even if you think you’re a good driver, double check.”
Huntley said her partner had got rid of her bike after the incident, telling her: “No more cycling for you.”
“If the shoe was on the other foot and he was cycling and he had an accident the way I’ve had and came back with a bike in a state, and a helmet, I would not want him back on that bike,” she said
Vine, a keen cyclist himself, called the motorist “a shocking driver”, adding: “He shouldn’t be on the road.”
But he said he would “absolutely” still encourage people to cycle after Huntley’s accident, saying: “If you don’t cycle, you end up a couch potato.”
Vine has been vocal over the years about the potential perils of riding a bike on the road, especially in London.
Earlier this year, he had a narrow escape when a bus swerved past him on Oxford Street, which he captured on camera.
He later posted it online, saying, “This morning’s bus driver is probably the most dangerous I have ever encountered. Is this one for TFL? [Transport For London]?
Last year, he also posted footage of a couple of near misses which happened within moments of each other while he was riding home. In 2019, he was hit by a car but escaped unhurt.
And in 2017, a driver filmed screaming obscenities at him in a road rage incident as he cycled through London was jailed for threatening behaviour.
Vine said accidents such as Huntley’s make cyclists behave the way they do, adding: “When people say all cyclists are so arrogant and so angry, that’s why, because they have got battlefield vision.”
A Transport for London report published last autumn showed 125 people were killed and 3,780 people were seriously injured on London’s roads in 2019.
Cycling deaths dropped to five people, a 70% decline from the 2005-09 baseline of 17. But cyclist casualties rose by 36% from the long-term average for 2005-09 to 4,634 from 3,410.
