N Wales 4 cyclist death crash. Driver to be charged.

[Tafia]

Recall the 4 cyclists who were killed on an icy road in January in N Wales when a car skidded into them.

Daily Post says the driver is being being done for 3 defective tyres.

At the time, blame was flying all over the place. Suggestions were that the cylists should not have been out on icy roads, one having fallen off earlier on ice at a roundabout: the council should have gritted: police knew of 3 accidents at that spot an hour before and of the dangerous conditions but did not close the road, though they did ask the council to grit.

Wonder if others will be charged with anything.

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safespeed said:

Anything in the Daily Post about the nature of the alleged defects?

I fear that the Police are trying to deflect the heat away from themselves having abandoned the scene after earlier crashes. Ten, no, five years ago I wouldn't have believed it. Now it's my best guess. What on earth went so wrong?

Just says 3 defective tyres. Story here.

http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/n

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Heebeegeetee said:

Thing is, if ice was to blame, how come there weren't a small collection of crashed cars at that bend? I'd be surprised if other cars hadn't already passed that corner beforehand without a problem.

Ice is funny stuff of course, but its rare that you don't know its there. As others have said, the frozen verges are a bit of a giveaway.

Mind you, there but for the grace of god go I. If I'd killed 5 people with a car on defective tyres though, I'd expect to be prosecuted.

The road was icy as related by one of the cyclists who held back to help his pal after he had slipped off at an earlier roundabout.

For the record: 4 dead 8 injured.

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Mad Moggie said:

Cyclists themselves told "Cycling Weekly" that you could not even stand without falling at the crash site.

Oddly enough - the bereaveds' initial reactions were one of "tragic accident" per the tribute one of them made to Maurice in CW magazine for example.

Does anyone wonder why the cyclists who, from what you say, must have been even more aware than any driver of the horrendous road conditions, still carried on with the ride? Local paper said some had already turned back due to the conditions.

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safespeed said:

vonhosen said:

safespeed said:

vonhosen said:

safespeed said:

jith said:

Not often you're wrong Paul, but it happens to the best of us!

Kind of you to say so.

I was involved in a detailed discussion on the same subject a few years ago, and I'm really very sure we eventually reached an authoritive answer: 3 points, irrespective of the number of tyres. Trouble is I'm not sure what the reason or the authority was any longer (nor even where the discussion was!).

www.jsboard.co.uk/downloads/acbb/section2a.pdf

Look at page 77

Thanks. But what's the legal basis?

In the charge wording you have to also say which wheel had the defective tyre. Hence a seperate charge for each tyre, with a sentencing guideline for each of those seperate offences with endorsement.

I'm stepping well outside my own legal expertise here (trying very hard to remember all the details of a comprehensive conversation some years ago)...

But how does that gel with the legislation that requires continuous offences to be treated as a single offence?

This is a local tyre station website. It says each tyre is a separate offence.

www.tyresave.co.uk/tyreinfo.html

Good info there on other tyre stuff too.