Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => On The Road => Topic started by: toontra on 02 May, 2019, 08:19:16 pm
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A shocking case of what is being described by the police as a "hit and run" (but looks to me more like attempted murder) captured on CCTV. This is especially disturbing for me as it's on a stretch of my routine training route.
A telling piece from the article:
The police are investigating but at this time have not made any arrests. After being told to obtain the CCTV himself, Josh immediately passed it to investigating officers.
Warning: the video is truly horrific
https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/swain-s-lane-hit-and-run-shocking-footage-revealed-as-injured-archway-cyclist-speaks-out-1-6027987 (https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/swain-s-lane-hit-and-run-shocking-footage-revealed-as-injured-archway-cyclist-speaks-out-1-6027987)
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I read of this story before you posted it.
You have a good point though I hadn't considered this possibility.
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The video – which you can watch above, some may find it distressing – shows the black convertible BMW coming down Swain's Lane towards the roundabout at its junction with Highgate Road.
Driving on the wrong side of the road, it smashes into Josh, sending him flying, and barely slows down.
Another one of those rogue driverless cars :demon:
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Bloody hell!
I expected someone swerving at a cyclist after an argument or altercation but that video's something else entirely.
That's scary. No apparent reaction from the driver which makes it seem like it was intended rather than 'drifting' into the wrong lane by accident. Not that a drift of that magnitude wouldn't be a scary bit of driving anyway.
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When using an object that weighs a tonne or more in such a manner, surely one of the predictable outcomes is the death or serious injury of the victim?
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We need HSE standards applying to people driving cars.
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The police are investigating but at this time have not made any arrests. After being told to obtain the CCTV himself, Josh immediately passed it to investigating officers.
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Another recent case of having to aid a failing police service?
Mum found CCTV of daughter's hit-and-run in Northampton https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-48066573
She said it was "fairly disheartening" police had not contacted the shops as they said they would.
:-\
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I think it was accidental rather than deliberate - the driver swerved back onto the correct side of the road immediately after the impact, rather than continuing on the wrong side as they could easily have done. Distraction, drugs, booze, who knows.
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Honestly, I think we know what will happen. The police will either fail to trace the driver, or the registered owner will claim to not know who was driving the car, and if it gets to court, the driver will be of 'good character' who through a momentary lapse of attention thought he'd hit a large pigeon, but didn't stop to check because he was off to visit is mum (bless her) in hospital were she was recovering after a bunion-removal operation. And anyway, I'm sure the cyclist was somehow at fault or came out of nowhere. If, on the off-chance, there's a prosecutorial success then it'll be mere 'careless' driving and a minimal sentence and concurrent driving ban. The driver will back on the road within a year.
But, to be honest, the Met probably couldn't find their own packed lunch in the station fridge, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.
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Momentary lapse of the Nokia kind.
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“Accidental”? Never in a million years. Whilst the driver may not set out to kill the cyclist, that was no accident.
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I don't think a murder charge would stick, because that requires premeditation I think. The driver couldn't have known that particular cyclist was going to be coming round that corner at that time. Maybe a prosecutor could argue that the driver set out intending to kill a random cyclist.
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Honestly, I think we know what will happen. The police will either fail to trace the driver, or the registered owner will claim to not know who was driving the car, and if it gets to court, the driver will be of 'good character' who through a momentary lapse of attention thought he'd hit a large pigeon, but didn't stop to check because he was off to visit is mum (bless her) in hospital were she was recovering after a bunion-removal operation. And anyway, I'm sure the cyclist was somehow at fault or came out of nowhere. If, on the off-chance, there's a prosecutorial success then it'll be mere 'careless' driving and a minimal sentence and concurrent driving ban. The driver will back on the road within a year.
This.
Makes you wonder whether we should stop campaigning, donating for the cause and instead just chip in to pay a hit-man to deal with instances of "careless" driving.
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If you're serious then hit them where it hurts.
Just burn the car ...
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They've arrested someone:
http://news.met.police.uk/news/man-charged-following-fail-to-stop-collision-in-swains-lane-368195
Name and address are there if fd3 wants to move things along.
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I don't think a murder charge would stick, because that requires premeditation I think. The driver couldn't have known that particular cyclist was going to be coming round that corner at that time. Maybe a prosecutor could argue that the driver set out intending to kill a random cyclist.
That's the thing though – drivers don't intend to cause harm when they drive too fast, give a cyclist or pedestrian a fright, make a phone call, have a faff in the glove compartment etc. but it's an unfortunate corollary of operating tonnes of metal at speed, something the law (and society) seem unwilling to accept. Everything around driving is about the mitigation of perceived risk to the driver, from the absent-driver reportage that has cars themselves rampaging to those 'careless driving' fatal oopsy moments.
Facetiousness apart, now this driver has been arrested, you can pretty much write the rest of the story and the ending won't be a surprise.
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Facetiousness apart, now this driver has been arrested, you can pretty much write the rest of the story and the ending won't be a surprise.
Being kept in custody, if I have understood the report correctly. I imagine that's quite unusual.
(But we should probably all stop commenting now, at least on an open part of the forum.)
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If you're serious then hit them where it hurts.
Just burn the car ...
I think in the Netherlands they have a system whereby fines for bad driving scale with the cost of your car, too war on motorists for Blighty.
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One or more Scandiwegian nation has a scheme whereby traffic fines are scaled according to the driver's net worth, such that some chap clocked at R17 in a Konigsegg got landed with a bill for ~ €250k. That'll learn 'im.
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One or more Scandiwegian nation has a scheme whereby traffic fines are scaled according to the driver's net worth, such that some chap clocked at R17 in a Konigsegg got landed with a bill for ~ €250k. That'll learn 'im.
It was a Swedish driver, who got caught in Switzerland, and fined €650,000.
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I think in the Netherlands they have a system whereby fines for bad driving scale with the cost of your car, too war on motorists for Blighty.
Nope, similar here in theory.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/16/ant-mcpartlin-arrives-court-face-drink-drive-charge-crash/
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This has been the case (sort of) in the UK for a long time.
In about 1992 I was done for speeding (70.x in roadworks on the M5 where there was a 50 limit).
Due to my marriage having just broken up, I was staying with friends, so had no living expenses to speak of. On a salary of ~15k I was fined ~£250. (and 5 points)
When I phoned my insurers to tell them the woman on the other end of the phone was most surprised at the size of the fine until I explained.
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If you're serious then hit them where it hurts.
Just burn the car ...
I think you mean decommission the lethal weapon