AN ARTIST who fears a “devastating” injury caused during an accident will permanently affect her ability to paint has slammed the design of a busy road junction in Walthamstow.
Grandmother-of-three Valeria Bateson, of West Avenue Road, was walking across Selborne Road in the direction of Walthamstow station when she was struck by a cyclist using the small cycle lane which crosses the busy junction from St Mary Road.
Mrs Bateson, who said the lights for the cycle lane were not working on the day of the accident, said: “I fell like a domino, I was in terrible pain, I did not see the cyclist.”
Mrs Bateson suffered a multiple fracture of her elbow, as well as bruising to her arm, neck and legs.
Retired Mrs Bateson produces and sells colourful representational works of art using paint, acrylic and pastels as a hobby.
She exhibited at the E17 Art Trail and her work has recently been used on the cover of the Forest Philharmonic's events brochure.
But following the insertion of a metal plate, she has been told by medical staff at Whipps Cross Hospital that she will never regain full mobility in her arm.
She said: “I am concerned but I will have to see how much it affects me.
“When you are an artist you have to move easels about, and drive in nails, it is actually quite physical.”
Mrs Bateson is now planning to launch a campaign to get the layout of the traffic junction changed.
Mrs Bateson believes cyclists wishing to cross Hoe Street from its eastern side should be required to follow the route of other traffic around the island – rather than being able to use the lane to cut across the street.
She said: “The cyclist was looking for traffic coming around the roundabout to his left, and not ahead to the pedestrian crossing.
“I think pedestrians are unaware that cyclists not looking straight ahead where they are going may approach that pedestrian crossing at speed whatever the lights may say, and the design of the junction is therefore dangerous.”
The accident happened on October 23. The identity of the cyclist, who rode away, is unknown.
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