Cyclist who knocked down and killed pensioner

[Philip Benstead]

Cyclist who knocked down and killed pensioner, 81, while she walked across the road in London's Regent's Park - amid fury that he was spared prosecution because 'speeding laws don't apply to bikes'

How should CTC/CUK BC LCC IWGBCB (if at all) respond to this report?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13384489/Pensioner-killed-bike-Regents-Park-cyclist-prosecuted.html#:~:text=A%20cyclist%20who%20knocked%20down,a%20Saturday%20in%20June%202022.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/cyclist-avoids-conviction-fatal-crash-dog-walker-regents-park-b1155776.html

[rogerzilla]

He must have had a very good lawyer.  Unfortunately MAMILs in groups get caught up in a testosterone mist and are often not sufficiently aware of other road users.

[Peter]

True.  In addition, if we want cycling to be taken seriously, bikes must be considered and treated as vehicles when they are sharing the road, and that includes speeding restrictions.  It can't be left up to cyclists (who are just people on bikes, no more or less intelligent than people in general) to decide what is too fast.

[Sergeant Pluck]

The cyclist was appearing as a witness. He wasn't charged because no law was broken. It was accepted that the person had walked out right in front of the cyclist without looking. There was no indication that the person's death was as a direct result of the incident. The incident could have occurred in just the same way if the cyclist had been moving at 20mph.

How should CTC/CUK BC LCC IWGBCB (if at all) respond to this report?

Not at all.

[Veloman]

The message some will take from this totally avoidable tragedy is that cyclists know they are above the law and act irresponsibly which has potential to generate further animosity towards cyclists. There is a danger that all cyclists, particularly the 'lycra brigade', will be seen through the same lense that Brian Fitzgerald and Muswell Hill Peloton are viewed.

[Regulator]

An independent witness said the cyclist was not at fault.  That will have been a non-cyclist.  That's why he wasn't charged.

[MartinC]

The correct response to anyone quoting the Daily Mail is 'Oh, that's the paper that supported Hitler'.

[De Sisti]

The message some will take from this totally avoidable tragedy is that cyclists know they are above the law and act irresponsibly which has potential to generate further animosity towards cyclists. There is a danger that all cyclists, particularly the 'lycra brigade', will be seen through the same lense that Brian Fitzgerald and Muswell Hill Peloton are viewed.

On radio four just after 6am today, Mishal Husain said there would be an item on the programme
about irresponsible cycling. I immediately chose to switch to a different radio station. I wonder
if she was referring the incident upthread?

[rogerzilla]

An independent witness said the cyclist was not at fault.  That will have been a non-cyclist.  That's why he wasn't charged.

He was incredibly lucky that witness was there.

[jwo]

• The law already allows people to be prosecuted for riding a bicycle dangerously or without due care and attention.
• Bicycles are not usually equipped with speedometers, nor are they obliged to be equipped, so enforcing some absolute speed limit is not practical
• The number of people injured or killed because of excessive motor vehicle speed is a factor of thousands greater than those from bicycles. A combination of physics, opportunity and general vulnerability of people on bicycles.

Almost any media coverage of this, when prompted by an individual incident, will drown out these core facts.

[freeflow]

Cyclist who knocked down and killed pensioner, 81, while she walked across the road in London's Regent's Park - amid fury that he was spared prosecution because 'speeding laws don't apply to bikes'How should CTC/CUK BC LCC IWGBCB (if at all) respond to this report?

Is this a new low for Phillip?.  At least we got a somewhat erroneous comment with the URL's this time.

[alfapete]

He was incredibly lucky that witness was there.

Not really. Without the witness there would have been no evidence on which to convict. It's only the media who start out from a position of presumed guilt, not the judiciary.

[Veloman]

• The law already allows people to be prosecuted for riding a bicycle dangerously or without due care and attention.

Roads in Royal Parks are not classed as public highways and I assume the law you refer  to is the 'wanton or furious driving' part of the 1861 Act that was used to prosecute a cyclist in 2017 following a collision when someone stepped out in front of them. That event took place on a public highway.
Laws within Royal Parks differ in implementation compared to laws on a public highway.[/list]

[Veloman]

The correct response to anyone quoting the Daily Mail is 'Oh, that's the paper that supported Hitler'.

I have very little time for the 'Daily Hate'. However, the stance they took on helping bring the murderers of Stephen Lawrence, or perhaps at least some of them, to justice should be applauded.

[peter simplex]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/04/cyclist-escapes-prosecution-after-fatal-collision-with-pens/

seems as if anyone in the peloton [sic] could have been all over the press, rather than solely Mr Fitzgerald....

He said he had “zero-reaction time”....The three other cyclists in the group avoided her.....He denied having his head down as the third of four cyclists riding counterclockwise a metre apart in pace line formation

[rogerzilla]

I thought there was a bicycle speed limit in Richmond Park.  Does the law differ by royal park?

[Snakehips]

I thought there was a bicycle speed limit in Richmond Park.  Does the law differ by royal park?

Regular updates that I get from an organisation called Richmond Park Cyclists (RPC) tell me that the speed limits there do not apply to cyclists.

[Jurek]

I thought there was a bicycle speed limit in Richmond Park.  Does the law differ by royal park?

Regular updates that I get from an organisation called Richmond Park Cyclists (RPC) tell me that the speed limits there do not apply to cyclists.

^This.

[ravenbait]

The cyclist was appearing as a witness. He wasn't charged because no law was broken. It was accepted that the person had walked out right in front of the cyclist without looking. There was no indication that the person's death was as a direct result of the incident. The incident could have occurred in just the same way if the cyclist had been moving at 20mph.

How should CTC/CUK BC LCC IWGBCB (if at all) respond to this report?

Not at all.

Quite. The cyclist apparently had less than 2m to respond. If that had been a car, the unfortunate victim would possibly have been killed instantly, but the news reports would have been blaming her, not the driver.

This is not meant to be taken as my apportioning blame, merely predicting the likely story told by journalists.

The financial and administrative burden of treating bicycles the same way as motor vehicles -- obliged to be equipped with specific instrumentation, tests for roadworthiness -- is impractical, and it would put many people off cycling.

The cyclist wasn't "speeding". The word is being used to imply that the cyclist was breaking the speed limit. The speed limit does not apply to bicycles, therefore he was not speeding. He might have been travelling in excess of the speed posted as a limit for vehicles weighing 1.5 metric tonnes, but then his bicycle probably weighed in the order of 0.5% of that.

Working out the kinetic energy, for a cyclist plus bike of a combined weight of 100kg travelling at 25mph vs a car plus driver travelling at 20mph, the latter has more than 10x the kinetic energy of the former. The issue isn't that the cyclist was travelling faster than the upper limit set for motor vehicles, it's why he failed to miss her when the rest of them didn't, and why she stepped out in front of him when he was so close. We would need to understand that to prevent future incidents of this nature.

Everything else about this story is aimed at provoking outrage in people who think bikes are toys for smug middle aged men.

Sam

[Veloman]

I thought there was a bicycle speed limit in Richmond Park.  Does the law differ by royal park?

Regular updates that I get from an organisation called Richmond Park Cyclists (RPC) tell me that the speed limits there do not apply to cyclists.

Speed limits anywhere don't apply to cyclists as the law relating to them does not apply to cyclists.

The 1861 Act regarding 'wanton and furious driving' might have applied if the incident took place on a public highway. But I believe roads in Royal Parks are not classed as public highways.

[Veloman]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/04/cyclist-escapes-prosecution-after-fatal-collision-with-pens/

seems as if anyone in the peloton [sic] could have been all over the press, rather than solely Mr Fitzgerald....

He said he had “zero-reaction time”....The three other cyclists in the group avoided her.....He denied having his head down as the third of four cyclists riding counterclockwise a metre apart in pace line formation

He also said he spotted her 20m away.

Whenever I see pedestrians nearer the edge (rather than well away from the edge) I always keep a watch on them just in case they do something unexpected like stepping into the road. I would have thought that when travelling between 26-29mph that would be sensible as stopping distance is obviously dependent on speed.

[Sergeant Pluck]

He also said he spotted her 20m away.

Time taken to travel 20m at 25mph (yeah I know) is under 2 seconds.

[Robh]

The message some will take from this totally avoidable tragedy is that cyclists know they are above the law and act irresponsibly which has potential to generate further animosity towards cyclists. There is a danger that all cyclists, particularly the 'lycra brigade', will be seen through the same lense that Brian Fitzgerald and Muswell Hill Peloton are viewed.

On radio four just after 6am today, Mishal Husain said there would be an item on the programme
about irresponsible cycling. I immediately chose to switch to a different radio station. I wonder
if she was referring the incident upthread?

I didn't hear the piece but I heard the reference to it. I believe that it was a follow up to a piece the previous day, in which Matt Briggs was allowed to voice some 'debatable' anti-cyclist opinions in his ongoing campaign for harsher sentencing following the death of his wife, who was killed by a cyclist. No doubt they folded the Regents Park death into it. Here's the piece from the previous day: https://x.com/BBCr4today/status/1787397692894679517

[Veloman]

He also said he spotted her 20m away.

Time taken to travel 20m at 25mph (yeah I know) is under 2 seconds.

And yet the 2 cyclists in front of Fitzgerald managed to avoid the pedestrian.

[Sergeant Pluck]

And yet the 2 cyclists in front of Fitzgerald managed to avoid the pedestrian.

And yet despite the front two in the paceline nearly missing her, the pedestrian didn’t get out of the way.

Momentum, and no time.