In response to your Opinion piece "Time to get tough with the rogue cyclists" I would like to raise some awareness of the justice system as I see it.
£300 is a pretty steep fine for a cyclist to receive in such a circumstance where serious injury has resulted. I do not agree with any cyclist riding on the pavement, I certainly disagree with any practice that puts others at risk.
To call for higher penalties is missing key factors. One is that no one is actually looking at why the behaviour happens in the first place. We also have to realise that the risks are minimal, no matter how annoyed we all get, and that incidents like this are rare. The CTC recently collated the data in a good, referenced document that all can read:
http://www.ctc.org.uk/resources/Campaigns/1110_Cyclists-behaviour-and-law__4M__brf_rev_.pdf
Another factor that is putting people off the road itself (and indeed cycling) is our difficult justice record. Whilst a cyclist can get £300 for seriously injuring an old lady (and a BMX rider got the same for knocking down a 56 year old woman in early Dec, too), a driver who kills rarely gets more:
-Eilidh Cairns' killer - Fined £200 and 3 points on licence (found to have defective vision)
-Cath Ward's killer - court costs of £110. 12 month ban and 12 month community order.
-Michael Isherwood's killer - 1 year suspended jail, 200 hour community order and 12 month ban.
-Denis Peachey's killer - £500, 200 hours community order and banned for 18 months.
I could go on. There are around 60 of these lenient sentences reported a year, it seems.
To tackle the pavement abusers we first have to create a conducive environment for people to cycle. Many do not feel this is happening, and when the worst does sometimes happen it scares them. I suggest that its time for a more effective set of court guidelines in ALL road and vehicle collisions, only then will we reduce incidents such as the Brewin case.
[The above is a copy of the letter I have sent to the Bournemouth Echo.]
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2 comments:
A very reasonable response to a completely un-balanced article, the comments in their regarding the £300 fine as being "too little" left me seething - the sooner these myopic car obsessed idiots wake up and realize that a human being in charge of 15Kg of metal ISN'T as big a threat as one in charge of 1,500Kg of metal the better.
Exactly, Mark.
I forget the exact terminology within physics, but if two objects are travelling at the same speed (eg 20mph) and one is very light, one very heavy... the very heavy one takes a lot more to stop so that force is carried through with more potential for damage.
It makes you wonder why they called it "carnage"?
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