Doctor killed in motorbike crash when motorist whose view was obscured by overhanging shrubs swerved into his path
Jan Bodnar's tragic death sparked a countrywide review of road safety after a coroner warned of similar accidents
A TALENTED neurosurgeon was killed when a motorist whose view was obscured by overhanging shrubs swerved into his motorbike's path.
Jan Bodnar's tragic death sparked a countrywide review of road safety after a coroner warned of similar accidents.
The 36-year-old, who worked at St Mary's and Charing Cross hospitals, was killed on July 12 last year when his Honda motorbike clipped the rear of an Audi Q3 as it turned right across the A505 dual carriageway in Hertfordshire.
An inquest into Jan's death found the driver's view "was severely limited by trees, shrubs and other plant growth on the central reservation".
This made it difficult for the Audi driver to see the motorcyclist at the Slip End Farm junction between Baldock and Royston.
Jan, who saved many lives during his time as a surgeon, is thought to have been going at 92mph.
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Graham Danbury, assistant coroner for Hertfordshire, said the driver may not have been able to see Jan even if he was going at the 70mph limit as her maximum visibility was just 87 metres.
She was not prosecuted and Herts County Council has since chopped down the dangerously high shrubs - which measured at 270m.
Danbury ruled Jan's death was caused by road traffic collision.
The coroner issued the council with an immediate prevention of future deaths notice.
He told council chief executive John Woods: "The state of the reservation at this junction was dangerous, in that the plant growth severely restricted the view for a driver of traffic approaching from the left.
"The risk of danger to motorists will only be avoided if the growth... is regularly cut back."
The council said it was reviewing visibility at other similar junctions.
It said six other junctions on the A505 with similarly overgrown vegetation had been found, and promised to carry out cutting more regularly.
A council spokeswoman said: ";We always take the recommendations of the coroner seriously and we take on board his latest comments regarding this case."
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