Cyclist jailed for causing pavement death

Wanton and furious driving was designed for drivers of horse drawn vehicles. I believe that test cases decided that a bicycle is a "carriage". There's a short section on this offence on the useful cycling and the law page on BikeForAll.net

mmmm i love a bit of stainless me.

that was spam… here's some stainless steel though - it's after the rather interesting belt drive Moulton

i stainless steel? whats all that about then eh?

I have a friend who lives in an European country. He was riding his bike on the street when an old lady popped in front of him from between two parked cars. Unfortunately he ran over her and the old lady broke her hip. She needed hospitalization but died after three days. Her family tried to sew my cousin for killing their mother/grandmother. He was lucky enough to avoid jail time as the old lady was on the street where there wasn't a crossing. But to this day he still feels guilty for taking a life although it was just a stupid accident.

And the year, that three died was a particularly bad one - the annual average up to then had been about 0.5.

Just three people/year are killed by cyclists. Compare that with how many people are killed by car drivers. The numbers speak for themselves.

I found the comment by the elderly gentlemans family interesting
"In a statement after the verdict, Mr Hall's daughter Gillian Muhl said: "The cyclist was described as riding like a bat out of hell. Mr Turner's family are relieved that the whole episode has been brought to a close and urge all cyclists to stay off the pavement. If they choose to break the law then they must expect to face the consequences of their actions."
This I agree with but then again there are thousands of drivers who dont believe we should be on the roads either.

The reason there isn't a more modern charge is that anyone being killed by a bike is so vanishingly rare in this country - so there's not much point in passing laws about it, particularly if, with a bit of rooting about you can find an old one that will more or less do.

If more people started being killed and injured by cyclists I'm pretty sure there'd be a new law soon enough.

yeah - it's strange that there isn't a more modern charge they can use. like tony says, it's unusual for a cyclist to kill a pedestrian by riding recklessly on the pavement - most of the serious accidents between cyclists and pedestrians occur on the road.

Hmm… well the way I read the article Barry is not that he was singled out by the law for unusual punishment because he was a cyclist it's more that they had to find an appropriate charge to bring against him that reflected the seriousness of the crime.

And the reason they had to charge him with such an obscure crime is a reflection of the rareness of the event - whereas the reason there are lots of laws relating to driving, is because motor vehicles kill and maim a lot more people.

The rarity of somebody being killed by a cyclist (and it's even rarer to be killed on the pavement by a cyclist) is what makes this news… that and a touch of anti-bike prejudice in the mainstream media. So many people are killed and injured by cars that beyond the locality in which it happens it isn't news. Think about it the majority of those traffic flashes you hear every day on the radio telling you about delays and accidents are people being killed, injured and maimed on Britain's roads an aspect that's barely mentioned by the journalists bringing you the traffic information.

I have to say i'm a bit confused by this. i'm with jon: he deserved the time, and more. but the article seems to suggest that his crime was singled out for the furious and wanton charge because it was rare, and more serious than the same incident involving a car.

I'm not sure this is the case: the CPS guidelines at http://www.cps.gov.uk/Publications/prosecution/pbd_policy.html state that because the wanton and furious driving charge predates the combustion engine and isn't restricted to the roads, it has a much wider remit. I don't think they could have charged him with the other driving charges because he wasn't driving a powered vehicle. the more serious death by careless and dangerous driving offences carry maximum penalties of 5 and 14 years; the max for wanton and furious driving is 2 years.

but i might be wrong

He deserves the punishment, I dont think there is any need for any cyclist to avoid red lights by going onto pavements. If you have to do it then get off and push, waiting at lights is no hardship. Its a tragedy that these events occurred.