THREE motorists failed to stop to help a young cyclist as he lay dying by the side of the road – and a police officer says this has become normal behaviour.
Alexander Ward was killed on July 8 last year when he collided with a horse box truck on the B4077 near Ford.
During an inquest into the death of the 23-year-old, who lived in Cirencester Road, Cheltenham, the court heard that the driver of the truck saw three vehicles driving past Alexander as he lay by the side of the road.
This was despite the emergency services not yet being on the scene and it being 1pm on a sunny day.
PC Darren Williams, who investigated the crash, told the Echo it was standard behaviour for motorists not to stop at the scene of a crash.
"It's the nature of society that people are a lot less willing to help these days," he said.
PC Williams said that, at first glance, Alexander might have appeared to have simply fallen off his bike, but that anybody who slowed down to look would have seen that it was much more serious. The driver of the horse box, 59-year-old Kelvin Roberts, was the one who called an ambulance.
Margaret Jones, from Springbank, said it was "terrible" that none of the passing motorists stopped to help Alexander.
The 67-year-old said: "Some people are too caught up in their own life to think about stopping to help someone.
"People are more selfish these days."
Miss Jones said she stopped to help a jogger she found collapsed near her home around 10 years ago, waiting with the man until paramedics arrived.
Thomas Jarrold, 46, from Lansdown, added: "I'm shocked that none of the drivers stopped to help the poor cyclist.
"It does seem incredibly callous."
Gloucester Coroner's Court heard that the death of Alexander, who was an avionics engineer at GE Aviation in Bishop's Cleeve, was a tragic accident.
He was travelling downhill when he lost control of his bike and skidded into the path of the truck, crashing into its front corner. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
