Ped gets 3 years for manslaughter of cyclist hit by car…

[Ayahuasca]

I cycle around town a lot and frequently use pavements that are also occupied by pedestrians. I am always aware when doing so that pedestrians deserve the right of way.

If I had been the cyclist, seeing that the pedestrian was in the middle of the pavement, and there was not that much room, also she appeared to be somewhat disabled, I would have slowed and walked my bike past her. I don’t mean get off, I mean put my feet on the ground and sort of shuffle past. Happens all the time.

Before anyone gets excited, I don’t live in the UK, but in foreign where bicycles and cars and pedestrians all get along fine.

[gotoPzero]

Electro1980 said:

gotoPzero said:

You have cyclists who think they can ride where ever they want, shared spaces innit.
You have pedestrians who think they can do anything, dont need to wait to cross a road now, *I* have right of way.
Other road users not got a clue whats going on who to give way too and when to do it.

Its a total mess.

Is it a shock that some nutter then takes it upon themselves to shove granny off her bike. Nope.

Shared spaces are shared.
Yes, you have to look for pedestrians.
If other road users are confused then they need to hand in their driving license.

It’s not complicated. If you think this is the inevitable result of the law then please stop driving before you kill someone.

In all seriousness, as soon as you start prioritising certain road users over others in such a way (such as the recent changes in the law) then it really is no surprise to me anyway, that you get confrontations.

Would nutter woman have done this if it was a 25 year old man on his way to the gym. Course not.

She did it because the chances of granny getting off her bike and punching her lights out were zero.

But like I say, the entitlement culture we now have does nothing to discourage behavior like this. And the tiny sentence handed out is more proof that even if you do the worst things you basically are looking at a slap on the wrist at best.

Its a total joke top to bottom.

I see this today.... 12 month suspended sentence. What a joke.

[BikeBikeBIke]

ro250 said:

You can't just make bits up - she didn't shove her.

She admits making contact (link above) and that contact diverted the cyclist into the path of a car. So what word would you prefer to shove? Push? Assisted?

[Electro1980]

gotoPzero said:

In all seriousness, as soon as you start prioritising certain road users over others in such a way (such as the recent changes in the law) then it really is no surprise to me anyway, that you get confrontations.

There has always been prioritising of road users. The only change has been to move the priority from the most powerful to the most vulnerable. However that has nothing to do with this. Any cyclist will tell you this kind of behaviour is nothing new. I stand by my previous statement.

Edited by Electro1980 on Thursday 2nd March 16:48

[Solocle]

CambsBill said:

LunarOne said:

I don't think the ped did enough wrong to end up in jail. She looked like she was trying to gesticulate that the cyclist should be on the road, which is correct. Despite her actions being objectionable, there is no way she would have considered her actions to be dangerous to the cyclist. And I'm not seeing the push that has been spotted by others here. To me it looks like the cyclist tried to go round the ped and went off the edge of the pavement, causing her to lose control.

Tragic accident, but nothing more than that.

Try reading the definition of manslaughter that was linked to earlier and see if you have the same view. Given that the offender has apparently admitted to making contact with the cyclist, the latter losing control of her bike is entirely predictable (anyone who has ridden a bike will know this, it takes very little to lose balance if the handlebars are knocked - and don't read this as the ped knocking the bars please, it's just the consequence of a rider's arm being impacted with)

Yep, the only time I've actually pushed someone on a bike, they came off. The circumstances were very different, and the same nutter actually turned up on somebody else's compilation video (4:40)...



He was swerving at pedestrians on this split use pavement.

My feet were on the pedestrian side, but he managed to bump shoulders with me anyway. Then, in my peripheral vision, I see him turn around and start riding right at me. When his intentions were clear, I defended myself by sidestepping and shoving him away towards the railings.

Obviously far less dangerous than shoving someone into a road, and only in response to an imminent assault.

[ro250]

BikeBikeBIke said:

ro250 said:

You can't just make bits up - she didn't shove her.

She admits making contact (link above) and that contact diverted the cyclist into the path of a car. So what word would you prefer to shove? Push? Assisted?

The exact quote from the link says "She said she "may have unintentionally put" out her hand to protect herself. Ms Grey believed she had made light contact with Mrs Ward."

So, no, I wouldn't use the word push or shove as that's clearly not what she said she did.

[Electro1980]

And the judge said repeatedly that she lied constantly. I think it’s quite clear from her admission and the video that she made contact and that caused the cyclist to become unstable and fall off. That’s not a gentle brush. That’s a criminal trying to minimise their actions to try to reduce culpability.

[James6112]

BBC news, a cyclist gets pretty close to the reporter on the same spot

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshi...

Must be some kind of shared path still? another accident waiting to happen.

[Muzzer79]

trickywoo said:

Apologies if it’s already been mentioned but does this ruling make it easier to prosecute someone for not fixing a pothole which causes a crash?

Seems the line has been made a lot finer at least. Not sure I’d be sleeping that easy at night if I was a council highways person.

Not sure where you got that from but a council highways person has nothing to worry about.

For one, not fixing a pothole wouldn't be manslaughter as the pothole wasn't created by an individual's act.

It could be described as negligence to not fix it.......even if that were the case, it would be the council responsible and not an individual and they would have to show that their maintenance regime for potholes is not robust enough.

[Bennet]

James6112 said:

BBC news, a cyclist gets pretty close to the reporter on the same spot

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshi...

Must be some kind of shared path still? another accident waiting to happen.

The cyclist is a plant by the crew to demonstrate that there is easily enough room for the him to pass whilst the presenter is stood comfortably more or less in the middle of the pavement.

[BikeBikeBIke]

ro250 said:

The exact quote from the link says "She said she "may have unintentionally put" out her hand to protect herself. Ms Grey believed she had made light contact with Mrs Ward."

So, no, I wouldn't use the word push or shove as that's clearly not what she said she did.

We saw the contact and we can see the force was enough to push the bike off the pavement into the road.

So all you're arguing about is the appropriate term and since you haven't suggested an alternative term, I think we can stick with shove.

[James6112]

Bennet said:

James6112 said:

BBC news, a cyclist gets pretty close to the reporter on the same spot

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshi...

Must be some kind of shared path still? another accident waiting to happen.

The cyclist is a plant by the crew to demonstrate that there is easily enough room for the him to pass whilst the presenter is stood comfortably more or less in the middle of the pavement.

A good point
Not a lot of space though, if she threw out her arm - he’d swerve into the road

[frisbee]

Apparently she broke down in tears when the judge didn't give her a 2 year ban from walking after serving the prison sentence...

[Type R Tom]

The part where she went shopping after watching a cyclist get hit by a car tells me all I need to know about her. Deserves jail.

[mac96]

James6112 said:

Bennet said:

James6112 said:

BBC news, a cyclist gets pretty close to the reporter on the same spot

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshi...

Must be some kind of shared path still? another accident waiting to happen.

The cyclist is a plant by the crew to demonstrate that there is easily enough room for the him to pass whilst the presenter is stood comfortably more or less in the middle of the pavement.

A good point
Not a lot of space though, if she threw out her arm - he’d swerve into the road

And ifshe continually suffered punishment passes on this stretch of pavement it might explain her angry reaction. Doesn't excuse shoving people into the road though.

[James6112]

mac96 said:

James6112 said:

Bennet said:

James6112 said:

BBC news, a cyclist gets pretty close to the reporter on the same spot

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshi...

Must be some kind of shared path still? another accident waiting to happen.

The cyclist is a plant by the crew to demonstrate that there is easily enough room for the him to pass whilst the presenter is stood comfortably more or less in the middle of the pavement.

A good point
Not a lot of space though, if she threw out her arm - he’d swerve into the road

And ifshe continually suffered punishment passes on this stretch of pavement it might explain her angry reaction. Doesn't excuse shoving people into the road though.

Indeed
Someone died.
The layout still looks pretty marginal tbh.
Someone should pull their finger out & sort it out.

[survivalist]

Bennet said:

The cyclist is a plant by the crew to demonstrate that there is easily enough room for the him to pass whilst the presenter is stood comfortably more or less in the middle of the pavement.

Stood off to the side with her arms in. Had she been a bit larger or pushing a pram/pushchair there would have been very little space for a cyclist to path. Suggests to me that it should never have been a shared path in the first place. Most cyclists would be much safer cycling in the road than on that pavement.

[gazapc]

survivalist said:

Most cyclists would be much safer cycling in the road than on that pavement.

and then get moaned at by car drivers for not using the cycle lane their 'road tax' apparently pays for!


This highlights the need for better cycling infrastructure all round. Not narrow shared paths and not bits of paint marking out the gutters along roads. We should have more 77 year olds (and all ages) cycling

[Electro1980]

mac96 said:

And ifshe continually suffered punishment passes on this stretch of pavement it might explain her angry reaction. Doesn't excuse shoving people into the road though.

Do you understand what a punishment pass is? Cyclists are not going to be doing one on a pedestrian very often. It’s passing intentionally close and pulling in hard in front in order to intimidate for some perceived infraction. Something that doesn’t really happen or work cyclist on pedestrian, as it relies on the relative venerability and stopping power of car vs bike, something not there with pedestrian vs bike.

Maybe she had (real or perceived) close passes, but it’s not the same as drivers regularly using their cars to intimidate cyclists.

[JQ]

Electro1980 said:

mac96 said:

And ifshe continually suffered punishment passes on this stretch of pavement it might explain her angry reaction. Doesn't excuse shoving people into the road though.

Do you understand what a punishment pass is? Cyclists are not going to be doing one on a pedestrian very often. It’s passing intentionally close and pulling in hard in front in order to intimidate for some perceived infraction. Something that doesn’t really happen or work cyclist on pedestrian, as it relies on the relative venerability and stopping power of car vs bike, something not there with pedestrian vs bike.

Maybe she had (real or perceived) close passes, but it’s not the same as drivers regularly using their cars to intimidate cyclists.

Why on earth would a cyclist do a punishment pass on a pedestrian, they're just as likely to be injured as the pedestrian if they come together. Falling off a bicycle hurts and risks serious injury. It's the reason motorists do it so often, there's literally zero risk whilst sitting in a big metal box surrounded by airbags.