‘Cycle helmet saved my life in van crash’

A LONDON cyclist says his helmet saved his life in a high-speed collision with a delivery van on a superhighway.

John Deady, 38, smashed head-first into the side of an Abel & Cole organic food van on the A11 near Bow Road Underground station.

The devastating crash on CS2 meant the father-of-one had to cancel his honeymoon to Morocco the following day. Now he is demanding compensation of up to £8,000 from Abel & Cole, whose driver Mr Deady alleges was at fault for the collision.

Mr Deady — who lives in Upton Park with his wife Emma, 33, and sevenmonth-old daughter Aoife — said he was cycling west-bound into London when the delivery driver going the other way turned across him.

“I was cycling into work as I normally do, early in the morning,” he said.

“I was on the Cycle Superhighway on the A11 making great time. I’d had a series of green lights and was travelling at speed. Part of the reason I was going in to work with such gusto was that I was finishing up to go on my honeymoon.

“But unfortunately an Abel & Cole van was travelling east and took a right across my path and completely took me out, knocking me unconscious.”

He added: “My recollection of it is hazy, I was quite seriously knocked out. I spent the rest of the day in hospital because my ear was badly cut up and I was concussed.

“I tried going on my honeymoon the next day. I got to the airport, but started feeling dizzy and unwell so we decided to replan the whole trip.”

Mr Deady, who commutes 10 miles daily from his home to Soho, where he