Cyclist kills pedestrian

[Twenty Inch]

My reading of the article was (from his point of view):

- Going 20mph on the road, shouts at group of kids to get out of the road
- They get out of the way, he keeps going
- Girl steps out in front - he mows her down
- H mounts the pavement (which the witness sees when he looks behind)
- He tries to perform cpr

I only formed this impression when it gets to the end of the article and puts in a few more "facts". The article certainly starts off by giving the impression he was cycling on the pavement, but if you read it it does not actually say this.

Of course, we don't know the facts yet, but I'm getting a sensationalist reporting vibe here...

What I wanted to say. The Metro article sets out to give the impression he was on the pavement, but doesn't actually say that. In fact his bike may have been on the pavement because he put it there after the collision.

The girl may have been pushed in front of him by a mate. This has happened to me. She may have played chicken. This has happened to me. She may have lost her balance after two cans of lager and stumbled in front of him unwillingly.

The Telegraph article firmly places him on the road. The witness sounds like he's trying to place him on the pavement, but has anyone here deliberately bunny-hopped from road to pavement at 20mph into a group of pedestrians?

Sounds like the guy was an idiot for not braking or moving out of the way, but also sounds like a drunk and unruly gang of teenagers were being idiots on the road. Sad story.

 

[TWBNK]

Your point? What is a chav and how does being a chav affect ones right to cross a street without being mown down.

I don't know about the right but I imagine it affects the chances. Statistically that is. Risks taken and whatever.

 

[mr_cellophane]

Very strange the whole road is only 100 metres long. Why would he need to do 20 mph there ?
From Google maps, it looks like it leads to a footbridge over a river.

 

[mickle]

How do we know he was doing 20mph? Is there a speed camera on that stretch?

 

[domtyler]

How do we know he was doing 20mph? Is there a speed camera on that stretch?

He must have been going at a fairly decent pace to have killed someone in a collision.

 

[hackbike 6]

Does depend how the ped took the collision though.I mean if it's a fall over job and bang head on pavement then that's dodgy ground to start with.

 

[fossyant]

Hmm difficult to comment on this one - if he could avoid them, then he should have if safe to do so...

I have had to do that on two occasions, both at a similar point, one ended up with me close to the opposite curb - both times at 25 mph plus.

One was a group of school girls, in uniform, all crossing the road - not looking - I shouted, some stopped, some moved, others back tracked - I swerved to the wrong side of the road (no cars fortunately) - same stretch months later, a small group of chav's started crossing, shouted a warning, 3 stopped, one 'made a fist' and attempted to hit me.... I've also followed a Discovery that had to do an emergency stop because of kids playing chicken on the way home from School.... same road.

Without knowing the exact circumstances in this case, it's difficult to pin blame - a tradgedy. Bunch of kids drinking, slightly hazy memory, 2 cans of Stella....not good.

 

[Mr Pig]

I have to agree that the reporting sounds sensationalist...as the story just doesn't seem to add up.

I totally agree. I've been in this situation a few times and I'll bet this one was similar.

Bunch of kids with a drink in them out larking about see a cyclist coming and taunt him. Walking about on the road shouting at him, I've had them sticking their arms out to try and stop me.

Cyclist dosn't want to get stopped by this gang of unruly kids when he has no idea what they might do next so he decides to try and nip past them. He even shoults a warning that he's not stopping, now why would he do that if the kids wern't trying to stop him? Do you shout that you're not stopping at people who are happy to move out of your way?

The kids are more or less blocking the road so at the last minute he flips onto the pavment hoping to nic past. One of the kids jumps in front of him, perhapse misjudging his speed and momentum, she did contain two cans of lager, and is hit.

She is knocked over. Odds are not on her side and she smacks her head in the wrong place and the poor kid dies. Only witnesses are her mates, who are now a bunch of angels, as was their dead friend.

It is tragic that the girl died. We've all larked obout as kids, been a nusance to others, and lived to talk about it but honestly, some of you people are far too judgmental when you don't know the facts. Maybe the guy was a moron blasting along the pavement but there arn't enough facts here for anyone to know that. Probably not even the judge. Sometimes true justice can't be done, but we don't like that do we?

 

[Mr Pig]

PS. I had a guy walk out in front of me this morning reading a newspaper!

 

[Absinthe Minded]

"Rhiannon and eight of her friends were walking to a chip shop after drinking beer in a park."

group of chavs by the sound of it

Well, you sound like a complete wanker, how's that?

 

[Nigeyy]

Let's face it, not knowing the true facts this could be taken from completely opposite sides of the spectrum.

He *might* have been cycling on the pavement at a high speed, not paying attention, etc, etc and of course he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law (I'd still advocate that even though it appears many times it doesn't work the other way when a motor vehicle driver mows down a cyclist, but that's another topic). Or he could have been cycling on the road and decided that a warning was enough and damned if he was going to move over for a group of kids. There's no excuse for either.

or.....

They might have been playing chicken. Theoretically he could have been cycling and slowed down* and gave some space (or not -let's face it, sometimes it's just not a good idea to slow down to 2-3mph when there's a group of teenagers) and one of them shoved their friend in front -or perhaps she did it on purpose or accidentally -we might never know. Of course her friends might not be dependable and objective witnesses here -particularly if one of them did push her (I'm not saying this happened, just taking extreme sides here).

It's a tragedy and I feel for the girl's parents. Hopefully the truth will come out -though that won't bring her back. Before that happens, it's all supposition.

*fyi: a kid I went to school with died when he was drunk and fell backwards and hit his head on a kerb -the cyclist didn't need to be necessarily going fast. That's not to say I'm saying this was the case here, just that you can fall down from walking and still kill yourself.

 

[Nigeyy]

Aaah, you beat me to it.

It is tragic that the girl died. We've all larked obout as kids, been a nusance to others, and lived to talk about it but honestly, some of you people are far too judgmental when you don't know the facts. Maybe the guy was a moron blasting along the pavement but there arn't enough facts here for anyone to know that. Probably not even the judge. Sometimes true justice can't be done, but we don't like that do we?

 

[magnatom]

.

And I hate to say it but since few (if any) motorists get ever sent to prison for killing peds why should he? Unless we think that killing someone with a bicycle on the pavement is somehow worse than killing them with a car on the pavement.

However, (taking into account we don't have all the facts), if a car driver was to do what is alleged here, and drove at a group of teenagers, was unwilling to stop or swerve and knocked one over, I think there would be a good chance of that driver going to prison.

However, as has been said by others it would appear that we have no-where near the full story.

 

[Riding in Circles]

We will be unlikely to ever get the full story, what we will get however is a lot of negative backlash in the press.

 

[marinyork]

It's mostly a sad story. It seems difficult for me to read. I agree with Mickle and pinkazz and twentyinch. There just seems too little evidence and calling for manslaughter when he may have been on the road, did shout a warning, acted like a jerk for not slowing down on the road (if he was on it) and this happened. It seems like careless cycling. He could have avoided them but then I've heard of cases that sound similar to this with cars and not so good outcomes and there was no call for manslaughter there. We've all surely heard tragic stories in towns late at night, vigilence is always needed but sometimes they happen anyway .

The speed also seems to be a red herring. Unless there's video evidence of it there's little to conclude either way. Motorists regularly underestimate speeds of bikes and pedestrians overestimate them. Moreover any other motor vehicle would have been doing a much higher speed and have many times the kinetic energy so it seems a red herring to me, it's just trying to dress that up as a "dangerous speed" to get the conviction and then perhaps linking it with being on the pavement for dramatic effect.

Peds can also say funny things about pavements. I had a mate who got into several arguments with people when he's had to slow down and giveway to approach driveways and other rights off way and had peds going on about he's been pavement cycling and trying to knock them over. People will sometimes say you're pavement cycling to cause trouble. You slow down too much sometimes and they'll have you off their bike, had people try and happy slap before.