Exclusive: Cyclist injured in Parliament car attack 'too frightened' to get back on a bike ever since
A cyclist who was struck by a driver in a car attack outside the Houses of Parliament says she has been too frightened to get back on to a bike ever since.
Anya Breen was thrown to the ground when she was struck head on in the attack in August 2018.
She is still receiving medical treatment for the injuries she received.
“It’s changed what I want to prioritise in life,” she told ITV News in her only interview. “I couldn’t get back on a bike.”
She had been wearing a high-vis top while cycling to work, close to London’s Oxford Circus, when she pulled up close to Parliament moments before the attack.
“Initially, I thought the car was going to stop because it was on the wrong side of the road but travelling steadily and calmly," she recalled.
“I thought either this person is completely blind or he is focused on what’s he’s doing - deliberately trying to run people over.
“I had a few moments of thinking ‘the car’s going to stop, the car’s going to stop, the car’s going to stop’.”
Salih Khater, 30, of Birmingham, was convicted of attempted murder after aiming his car at members of the public before swerving towards police officers in Parliament Square.
Ms Breen was struck by Khater’s car, and thrown on to the bonnet and then to the ground.
“I blanked out for a few minutes until the paramedics were there," she said.
"All I could see was this guy (Salih Khater) and people’s faces looking down at me”
“My helmet was compacted on one side. If I wasn’t wearing a helmet what would have happened?”
“I ended up breaking my collar bone and had a minor lung puncture from the broken collar bone.
"On top of that they picked up I had ruptured my anterior cruciate ligament and that was operated on in December.
"There’s now an 18-month recovery period so I’m still trundling through that.”