Hit-run cyclist leaves woman fighting for life
A CYCLIST who left a woman fighting for her life after ploughing into her during rush hour is being hunted by police.
The injured pedestrian, named locally as Cihan Sakine, 56, was crossing the road when she was struck at around 5pm on Tuesday.
The cyclist involved in the collision in Dalston, East London, initially stopped after he was thrown from his electric bike but then fled moments later.
The victim was taken to hospital and remained on life support last night. It follows a number of fatal collisions between cyclists and pedestrians in recent years.
Kim Briggs was killed in February 2016 after cyclist Charlie Alliston crashed into her as she crossed the road on her lunch break.
Alliston was acquitted of manslaughter in September last year but convicted of causing bodily harm ‘ by wanton and furious driving’ – an 1861 law relating to Victorian carriage driving.
Mrs Sakine, who came to Britain from Turkey 20 years ago, is wellknown in the Turkish community in Dalston.
One concerned friend, who did not want to be named, visited her at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, East London, on Tuesday night.
‘We are all praying for Cihan but the doctors said she is in a bad way and we are all hoping she can pull through,’ the friend said. ‘She is very poorly and things do not look good at the moment.’ Last night police were looking for CCTV images of the cyclist, who is said to have worn a red top and jeans.
His red bike was found over an hour after the crash, abandoned near an alleyway around a mile away in Stoke Newington.
Caleb Grab, 30, who witnessed the horrific crash, said: ‘Two cyclists were trying to dodge her but one hit her at the crossing. He must have been going at some speed to do that much damage.
‘One of the cyclists was bleeding from the head and dazed but only wanted to get out of there. He didn’t say anything and ran away pulling his bike with him.
‘People were telling him to wait for the police and get treatment. They tried to stop him.’
Emergency services arrived within minutes but were too late to catch the cyclist.
Another witness, who asked not to be named, said he ‘heard a bang’ and thought there had been a car crash because of the sound.
Detective Constable Darren Case, of Scotland Yard’s serious collisions investigations unit, has appealed for more witnesses to come forward in a bid to find the cyclist.