Team England cyclist Matt Walls suffered no serious injuries in the crash
A family involved in the horror wheel accident during the Commonwealth Games said they were “close to complete disaster” that could have “seriously injured or killed” their two young children.
On the final lap of a qualifying run for Sunday’s men’s scratch race, a high-speed collision involving several riders resulted in England’s Matt Walls being thrown over the barriers and into the crowd on his bike.
The incident has prompted calls from Sir Chris Hoy and Dame Laura Kenny for improvements in velodrome safety, with Hoy saying it’s a “shame” there are no protective walls at venues.
Walls flew into the front two rows of the stands where Hugh Colvin sat with his two younger children, aged five and seven, and some family friends.
“It all happened so incredibly fast at the speed the cyclists were going,” Mr Colvin told ` Sport.
“You can see the trajectory of the bike, it came through, brushed my daughter’s shoulder, and in one of the photos you can see we’re obviously under the bike.
“I was looking the other way because I had turned my head, but looking at the photos it must have been only inches, millimeters from our heads and obviously close enough to brush my daughter.”
He added that Wall’s bike landed on the two seats his five-year-old son and his friend’s son had been sitting in before going back a row to get a better view.
Hugh’s wife Laura, who was not at the velodrome, has realized over the past few days how much worse things could have been.
“What was quite difficult for us to understand is to see exactly how close this was to a complete disaster from the photos that were taken of the incident,” she said.
“And how close our two younger children came to being seriously injured or killed. And that was the most important thing we had to think about in the last few days.”
Despite an early statement by organizers that no member of the public required hospital treatment, a friend who attended the event with the Colvins is awaiting surgery for a serious arm injury.
“He sustained a laceration to the bone which the hospital described as a type of machete injury,” Ms Colvin said.
“It was really difficult for him, he’s still waiting for an operation. In addition to the soft tissue and muscle injury, he has a partially severed tendon in his arm, so it’s the start of a long road to recovery for him.”
They said the three children were deeply concerned about the condition of the three cyclists – Walls, Matt Bostock from the Isle of Man and Derek Gee from Canada – who were hospitalized after the crash.
On Monday, Walls called the Colvins’ daughter via video, which she says was a “massive step forward” to help her come to terms with what she had seen.
The Colvins commended the quick response from volunteers, paramedics and team coaches who helped them after the crash.
However, the family would like the incident to trigger a velodrome safety review to give them peace of mind that “no family will ever find themselves in our situation.”
They said they had “absolutely no idea” that a cyclist had ever been thrown off the track.
“If we had known for just a moment that a bicycle with a grown man riding at that speed could come into contact with my seven-year-old daughter, my family would never have been there,” Ms Colvin said.
Bostock, who is still hoping to compete in Sunday’s road race, told ` Sport: “Something has to be done because it goes down as a freak accident but it’s happened before.
“I don’t know how many freak accidents turn into normal accidents. I’m afraid to imagine if it would have been worse. It should be a proactive decision to try and make it safer before it becomes a horrible accident.”
A spokesman for Birmingham 2022 said they had been in regular contact with the Colvin family and apologized for the upset the original wording of their statement caused.
They said “a full and detailed accident investigation is already underway and we will be sharing our findings with the relevant parties”.
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority Chief Executive Shaun Dawson said the venue complied with international regulations and that an accident of this type had never occurred there.
He added, “We appreciate that this has been a shocking experience for those involved and we sincerely wish everyone involved the very best.”
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