£800: the price of a cyclists life
The latest edition of Cycle magazine reports that a driver has been fined £800 for killing a cyclist. The 20-year old driver of a large tractor and trailer overtook the cyclist (Mrs Kerry) leaving a gap of just 50cm between his 6-feet high tractor wheels and the side of the road. This caused the cycle to wobble, the trailer hooked her handlebars, and she was thrown into the road sustaining injuries to her face. The driver was charged with "careless driving". Unless I am mistaken the maximum penalty available under this charge is a fine of £2500 but the judge obviously decided a cyclists life is not worth that much. It is also unclear why the driver was not charged with "causing death by dangerous driving" which could carry a 10-year prison sentence, which strikes Politaholic as more appropriate. But then many motorists have a hatred for cyclists which knows no bounds; and Tory-voting rednecks are pretty much above the law (as their casual disregard for the Hunting Act shows).
posted by Politaholic at 10:40 am
1 Comments:
Good post. I come from Cambridge and have had two friends knocked over by cars riding bycycles- one of them because a car went through a traffic light and ran into him and another because a car didn't indicate that they were turning. Neither were seriously injured but there are some really bad near misses- I've both heard about and seen and people shoudl be more wary.
Post a Comment
<< Home