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Cyclist in 4x4 hit and run smash
Katie Davies
A 4x4 driver collided with a 64-year-old female cyclist in Hampstead Garden Suburb, dragged her body to the pavement and then drove off without even contacting the emergency services.
Ellen Gilbert was two minutes from her Meadway Court home when she was struck by the driver at the roundabout between Kingsley Way and Wildwood Road.
Remembering little of the collision, she woke up abandoned at the side of the road and was forced to find her own way home despite suffering from concussion and whiplash.
"The last thing I remember was seeing the Mercedes symbol on the car," she said.
"I came to in excruciating pain when the driver and passenger were dragging me to the pavement.
"The next thing I knew my lodger was looking at me at my front door and I had got myself home.
"I had whiplash and pain in my shoulders and back but I was just pleased to be alive."
The handlebars of her bicycle were smashed and the brakes were mangled over to one side.
She said: "The driver didn't call an ambulance even though I was knocked out. How can people be like that?"
Ms Gilbert's neighbour took her to A&E at the Royal Free hospital in Hampstead.
She added: "I now wince when I walk along the pavement and see 4X4s.
"I am still very frightened. I don't want to travel on my own anymore. My friends have been taking me everywhere or I just don't go out.
"My bicycle helmet is the hero of the story. It absolutely saved my life."
Members of the Hampstead Garden Suburb Residents Association roads and traffic committee said they had witnessed incidents at the roundabout before.
Committee chairman Gary Shaw said: "Some members of the committee have seen people failing to treat it as a roundabout.
"They either don't realise it is a roundabout or they choose not to use it as such because it is such a little used road.
"It must happen quite frequently for people to have noticed it so much.
"It has come up at two or three meetings in the last couple of months, but no one could decide what to do with it.
"If people are failing to recognise it as a roundabout more signing may help. But if they are choosing to ignore it won't make much difference. We will take the issue to Barnet Council."
Barnet Council said: "We were not aware of problems in that area and it was not brought to our attention as an accident blackspot.
"But if residents contact us it is something we will look into."
katie.davies@hamhigh.co.uk
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