Legendary actress Joan Collins has complained that London is on the road to “ruin” after a cyclist collided with her near Covent Garden.
The 89-year-old said London Mayor Sadiq Khan must “do something” about cyclists after being hit by one en route to a dinner engagement at Maiden Lane’s famed Rules restaurant.
The actress, daughter to Jewish theatrical agent Joe Collins, had been walking along the West End with husband Percy Gibson, Mamma Mia scriptwriter Judy Craymer, Marks & Spencer CEO Stuart Machin, and actor Christopher Biggins.
The group had alighted from a black cab taxi at the end of the pedestrianised lane, when “a masked cyclist with no lights and weaving on the pavement from crashing into me, almost knocking me over”.
(Instagram via @joancollinsdbe)
(Instagram via @joancollinsdbe)
She said the Labour politician should clamp down on reckless cyclists “before this beautiful city of London is ruined”.
"How much longer must we live with closed roads and cyclists who consider themselves above the law?" she went on.
A spokesperson for the London Mayor’s office told The Times newspaper: “The mayor is committed to making London as safe as possible for both cyclists and pedestrians.
“Walking and cycling have boomed in the last couple of years and the mayor has built hundreds of kilometres of new or upgraded cycle routes since the pandemic, and completed work to make some of the capital’s most dangerous and intimidating junctions safer.
“The mayor encourages everyone using London’s roads to do so safely to help make London the best city in the world to walk and cycle.”
Under the Highway Act 1835 it is illegal to cycle on pavements without bicycle lanes, at risk of a £500 fine. The advisory Highway Code also mandates cyclists to operate white front and red rear lights lit after dark, along with a red rear reflector.
Last year then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he planned to close the existing legal loophole that allowed cyclists responsible for killing pedestrians to be jailed for just two years.
Between 2013 and 2020 an average of 3.8 pedestrians died in collisions with a cyclist every year.
