This is the poignant scene in Scarisbrick of the growing floral shrine made by friends and family of a Wigan scooter rider who died there earlier this month.









Police are still searching for witnesses after Phillip Parr's scooter left the road on 8 September: https://www.qlocal.co.uk/ormskirk/new...E-55014269.htm



The shrine's just yards from the scene of another bike accident - on Saturday night a teenage cyclist was badly injured less than 100 yards away after being hit by a car near the Dam Wood Lane bus stop.

It is my understanding that the landowner dug a trench here to protect a wooden fence which had been damaged on several occasions by vehicles leaving the road on the bend. At that time many local residents, including the Parish Council expressed concern that this 'tank-trap' would result in tragedy. Sadly this prophesy has been realised - all for the sake of a few planks of wood which would probably have been replaced by the vehicle insurers anyway. Very, very sad.

It isn't really fair to blame the landowner. Any two wheeled vehicle leaving the road puts the rider at risk. If the ground was flat; hitting a wooden fence could still cause fatal injury. Unlike car drivers it is the body of the rider that suffers the impact and that can sometimes have serious consequencess. It is a tragedy and best left to the experts to come up with a likely cause, not speculation on an open forum.

Whilst I fully accept and appreciate what Eddie12 says, I would maintain that digging the trench was not the wisest of actions and although everything is easy with the benefit of hindsight, if the trench had NOT been there the outcome may have been different.