A Brighton cyclist who broke his collarbone after getting caught in wire pulled over a woodland path in East Brighton.
Darren Gibson, 49, of De Montfort Road, was injured on Bank Holiday Monday as he rode along the path in woodland by East Brighton Golf Club at about 1pm.
Police are investigating the incident which happened in the same week two more cyclists were trapped by wires in Coldean Woods, leading to a police warning.
And police received reports of yet more wires in Coldean Woods last Thursday, although a police officers and rangers could not find any more wires that day.
Mr Gibson, a father of two, said: “We went up by the racecourse then cycle along the top and then down by the golfcourse there’s a path which goes down to Rottingdean.
“It’s quite a steep, wide path and normally you can go quite fast. I was with my brother and a friend and I was going very fast and suddenly felt my foot being dragged. I knew that there was something trying to hold me back but there was no way I could hold back because I was going too fast.
“I knew I was coming off so I went into a roll as I went over the handlebars and landing on my shoulder.
“There was a very large fence post with wire attached which had been dragged from one side of the path to the other so the wire was about two feet in the air.
I’ve broken my collarbone, I’ve got bruised ribs, and my shoulder joints have been smashed about. A physiotherapist did some work and he reckons I shouldn’t have any long term damage but it will be five to six weeks before I do any weight bearing stuff.
“The police are clearly very concerned as they’ve rung me several times and I was interviewed on Monday.
“There’s no way that post could have been there on its own. I’m not saying it’s definitely malicious. It could have been kids. But in the light of the other incidents you begin to wonder. I’ll probably never know.
“I’m not going to stop cycling but it does mean that when you going down path you can’t just be careful because there’s just no way you’re ever going to see it, even if you’re going slowly. I don’t know how I’m going to feel about it until I go out there.”
Cycling campaigner Mark Strong said he believed the “depressing” accident was the work of someone with a grudge against cyclists.
He said: “This is just too depressing. I have feeling this is not ‘just kids’ but someone with a real grudge against people on bikes.
“I suspect this is a person or people wound up by anti cycling biased pieces on radio (for example the BBC Radio 4 You & Yours feature a few weeks ago) and in print.”
A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “A cyclist has reported that his collarbone was broken when he collided with fencing on a downland footpath near the East Brighton Golf Club.
“The incident happened on Bank Holiday Monday (May 25), but wasn’t immediately reported as the 49-year-old man from Brighton did not realise at first the severity of his injury.
“It appears that a post from a wire fence alongside the footpath was lying on the side and the wire from it caught on the bike causing the rider to be thrown off.
“It is not clear whether the post had been deliberately placed, but police are investigating the incident and anyone with information is asked to email 101@sussex.pnn.police.uk or call 101 quoting serial 1239 of 27/05.
“We received another report on June 4 about wires in Coldean Woods, but police officers and rangers who visited the scene were unable to locate any further wires.”
