'Death by dangerous cycling' law considered 12 August 2018 at 5:08AM edited 12 August 2018 at 5:10AM in Public transport & cycling 95 replies 8K views

worldtraveller

Cyclists who kill pedestrians could face charges of "death by dangerous cycling" or "death by careless cycling", under government proposals.

The Department for Transport has launched a 12-week consultation looking at whether new offences should be introduced for dangerous cyclists.

BBC News

Department For Transport - New plans to update road safety laws to protect cyclists and pedestrians

HornetSaver

We have one of the best systems for tracking down a vehicle and its driver in the world, given the CCTV, ANPR and databases available to us. Yet our ability to deter drivers from endangering life - and meaningfully punish those that do - is pretty much nil.



In that context, why bother introducing new laws on cyclists?

[Deleted User]

Maybe the new law will also include the mobility scooter maniacs who seem to think that pavements are a racetrack that they have sole use of.

My apologies if this is already covered under existing legislation.

PasturesNew

I find it increasingly nonsensical that the powers that be put more and more laws in place for "low hanging fruit", yet completely seem to ignore bigger threats.... instead of dreaming up new death sentences for wanton knife crimes and (increasingly) retaliation arsons in turf wars ... they spend their time pontificating about "generally pretty harmless" blokes on the odd bicycle.

HornetSaver

PasturesNew wrote: »

I find it increasingly nonsensical that the powers that be put more and more laws in place for "low hanging fruit", yet completely seem to ignore bigger threats.... instead of dreaming up new death sentences for wanton knife crimes and (increasingly) retaliation arsons in turf wars ... they spend their time pontificating about "generally pretty harmless" blokes on the odd bicycle.

I agree with this to a point.

Plenty of existing laws are a cash cow which would lead to an improvment in day-to-day life. Fine people for littering. Make sure people and the state make a profit on being victims of criminal damage. Squeeze unlawful drivers until the pips squeak - the fifteen or so of us who abide by the rules of the road will be much better off with lower insurance premiums due to the number of collisions, and even if not caught up in one, see far less time and fuel wasted sitting in traffic jams caused by entirely avoidable incidents.

Enforce the existing ones properly and you'll find that precious few new ones are necessary.

Mrs_Arcanum

Seems to me, that the most frequent sufferers of death by dangerous cycling, are the cyclist themselves.

discat11

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Seems to me, that the most frequent sufferers of death by dangerous cycling, are the cyclist themselves.

As in motorcycling accidents also -or, more accurately, any accident where a motorcycle is involved.

I was always taught that the more vulnerable you are (on a scale of pedestrian upwards) the more careful you have to be to not only be aware of your own mistakes but also every other road users, since you'll be the one who suffers the most statistically in the event of an accident.

Pennywise

HornetSaver wrote: »

Enforce the existing ones properly and you'll find that precious few new ones are necessary.

Fully agree. What is needed is proper enforcement of the laws we already have before even more are added.

daveyjp

Pennywise wrote: »

Fully agree. What is needed is proper enforcement of the laws we already have before even more are added.

Te issue is there is currently no law which covers the situation where someone is killed by a cyclist driving dangerously.

unforeseen

Wouldn't normal manslaughter laws cover it? You have caused a death by your negligence/recklessness so it's manslaughter.

Having a separate law is just creating a subset of an existing law to make statistics easier.

ariba10

I would really like to know how many people are killed by cyclists in a year?