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news
face mask - deliveroo x cambridge face mask 4.PNG (credit: road.cc)Deliveroo rider who killed cyclist while riding an illegally modified e-bike given community service and four-year driving ban
A Deliveroo rider who was using an illegally modified e-bike when he was involved in a fatal collision with a cyclist has been sentenced to community service and a four-year driving ban.
The collision took place in East Street, Leeds, in April 2022. 22-year-old Oury Amadou Diallo, a food delivery worker, was riding his motorised bike on the pavement while looking at his Sat Nav device when he crashed into Vincent Cullinane, 51, who was cycling in the opposite direction. Mr Cullinane died 19 days after the crash.
The court heard that Diallo had fitted a motor to his bike, making it capable of reaching speeds of 32mph, although it was not activated at the time of the collision because the battery was drained. However, it was deemed not possible to calculate the speed from the CCTV footage.
The BBC reports that Diallo, of Meynell Approach, Holbeck, told the court that he was advised to purchase a motor to fit into his e-bike by other riders also working for food delivery apps. He said that he had not seen Mr Cullinane approach because he had been looking at the Sat Nav and had tried to swerve.
Prosecuting, Michael Smith said Diallo only held a provisional driving licence and had been working for Deliveroo at the time of the collision. He was not licenced to drive the modified vehicle and had not undergone basic training required before riding a motorcycle on roads.
Mitigating, Graham Parkin pointed out that Diallo, who had moved to the UK from Guinea in 2021 to live with his father, had no previous convictions and was “working hard” to support his family.
He added that Diallo accepted he had not read the instructions for the motor properly but had tried to assist the injured cyclist at the scene.
Mr Cullinane’s family, including his brothers, his son, and his mother, had written victim statements in which they said he was “much loved and missed” by them. They also mentioned that he “loved cycling” and “would cycle everywhere”.
face mask - deliveroo x cambridge face mask 2.PNG (credit: road.cc)Judge Mushtaq Khokhar sentenced Diallo a seven-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and said it was a “serious and tragic” case. He also pleaded guilty to driving without a licence and insurance.
Diallo was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service, 15 rehabilitation activity days and to pay £1,000 in costs. He was banned from driving for four years.
Judge Khokhar told the court there was “very little difference” in the culpability of both riders but that if Diallo had been on the road and licensed, then Mr Cullinane’s death could have been avoided.
He said that “neither of the men had the right to be on that pavement”. He added that they should have taken greater care due to the blind bend and not having clear sight ahead at the time of the crash.
The judge added that the sentence would “do nothing in any way either to lessen the grief” suffered by Mr Cullinane’s family.
A Deliveroo spokesperson said it was a “tragic incident and our thoughts are with Mr Cullinane’s family and friends”.
They said: “Road safety is a priority for Deliveroo and we condemn the use of illegally modified e-bikes. If Deliveroo discovers a rider is using an illegally modified bike, we will stop working with them.
“All riders must meet safety standards, follow local traffic laws, and complete a programme of road safety guidance at onboarding.
“If incidents are reported to us involving riders, we investigate and work with the authorities to take appropriate action.”
According to the UK regulations, any bike that continues to provide motor assistance after reaching speeds greater than 15.5mph and has power output exceeding 250 watts is classed as a motor vehicle and is therefore subject to the Road Traffic Act.
Recently, the BBC came under fire for its Panorama episode hosted by Adrian Chiles, titled ‘E-Bikes: The Battle For Our Streets’, which took aim at the apparent culture war focused on e-bikes. However, the broadcaster didn’t differentiate between mopeds, illegal motor-powered vehicles, illicitly modified e-bikes, and legal e-bikes.
The episode was blasted by cyclists, who accused the BBC of “attacking” e-bikes in a “fishy, fearmongering” episode “littered with inaccuracy, misinformation, and bias” and painting “crime-ridden, apocalyptic vision”.
> “We face enough hatred as it is”: Cyclists thank police for pointing out 750W motor-powered two-wheeled vehicle with throttle up to 28mph is “not an e-bike
Despite the BBC claiming their reportage of the issue was “fair and impartial”, many cyclists and those in the industry expressed a contrasting view. Just days after the episode’s airing, the Bicycle Association (BA), the national body representing the cycling industry in the UK, lodged a formal complaint with the broadcaster.
A few days later, the owner of an e-bike shop in south London also branded the programme as “troubling” and “misleading”, with the potential to “unfairly influence public opinion and undermine the efforts of responsible retailers who prioritise safety, respectful riding, and adherence to the law”.
Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after completing his masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Cymru, and also likes to write about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.
Latest Comments
- GMBasix 2 sec ago
This is at the heart of the problem. The language is telling. "We will stop working with them" treats riders like an equal partner with uninhibited...
- mdavidford 5 min 53 sec ago
Doesn't appear to be anything to do with money in this case - rather it's a legal dodge. From what I can understand, the government, in it's wisdom...
- chrisonabike 43 min 53 sec ago
A bit of a tangled web here. It may be safer driving * but people who cycle more and drive less can enjoy much better health (inc. just "feeling...
- Smoggysteve 37 min 23 sec ago
The issues here are mostly caused by one single over-riding factor. Most people (by which I mean the average persons build, shape, fitness levels)...
- Surreyrider 1 hour 19 min ago
How on earth can you mark a winter tyre down for being "not as grippy or as fast as a summer tyre"? That's ridiculous logic.
- andystow 2 hours 15 min ago
I'm 53, and gained most of my cycling fitness after age 43. I've never done an FTP test nor used a power meter, but based on occasionally asking...
- ubercurmudgeon 2 hours 16 min ago
I doubt you'll need to worry about facing that particular dilemma: by the time you find yourself in need of a pump, it'll probably have fallen off...
- mdavidford 2 hours 34 min ago
Except that presumed liability is usually a matter of civil liability, so you wouldn't be prosecuted as a result of it (though you may be held...
- Rendel Harris 3 hours 23 min ago
Well, I finally got some response from my repeated requests as to what was happening with the alleged database and was supplied with a link which...
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17 comments
We've probably all seen delivery app riders using illegal motorbikes; it's widespread. All the riders know they can only make the job(s) work if they break the rules - just like van drivers who work for-but-aren't-employed-by the usual suspects and park where they like.
This is at the heart of the problem. The language is telling. "We will stop working with them" treats riders like an equal partner with uninhibited agency in the matter, rather than the employees that they are for all practical purposes, if not for the legal fiction Just Uberoo created.
So, man moves from other poorly functioning country and almost certainly pays no tax whilst working in virtually unregulated economy, but still makes use of the benefits (health care, education, roads et cetera)
He breaks the few laws that apply to him and kills a man, and the state bears the cost of the court and legal rammifacations.
It's no suprise because I deliveroo and the like are the very reason so many people go to the UK because there are few checks on work permits and the chance of being caught is nil (evidenced by the fact that he had no previous convictions, I find it hard to believe this is the first time he'd acted with such ignorance of the rules)
Further to that the obvious ignorance of road traffic rules endagers the public and gives other cyclists a bad name.
The government needs to ensure that the culpability is bourne by the employer to some degree so that they do the checks. It'll also do a lot to dimise the draw that the UK is for illegal migration at the same time.
You seem to be making an assumption that the guilty party was an illegal immigrant and/or was working illegally, I can't see anything in the article that states that.
But he was clearly a wrong 'un - it's obvious from the fact that he had no previous convictions!
And also sir, says Constable Savage, in possession of an African name in a built-up area during the hours of darkness…
I never said he was illegal, the article implies he came here as a dependant (it turns out he's a dependant of us all if he's not contributing toards the tax base).
I'm suggesting that deliveroo and their lack of oversight make it more likely that people who play fast and lose with the rules will chose the Uk as a destination over other places.
Your only agreeable point here is that Deliveroo and other food delivery companies need to be held more accountable for the agents operating on their behalf.
They say they would stop working with riders who operate illegal vehicles, but if they never perform due dilligence and there's no robust way of reporting issues to them, how would they know?
If there's no legislative influence or legal ramifications for them as operators, why would they care?
Lenient sentence. Before I read the detail, my thought was that was because both parties were cyclists, so they didn't matter. My thought now is that the fact that both parties were in the wrong had an influence on the sentence. Lesson learned for me there is that if I get killed cycling and I'm partly in the wrong, my family can't expect a fair sentence. A good reason for me and my fellow road users to obey the Highway Code then....
So... 2 cyclists who were both riding push bikes on the pavement collide and 1 dies and other gets a suspended jail sentence..... Seems a bit harsh to be charged for riding an illegal motorbike wasnt actually capable of being an illegal motorbike at the time.
(As much as I think illegal emotorbikes are a scourge I cant help but feel this is case rooted more in criminalising brown people and cyclists rather than illegal motorcyclists.)
Quite.
And I see the other commenter is happy to jump on the racist bandwagon.
My brother-in-law is a white south african and pulled the same sort of trick, coming to the Uk on a student visa and then working on that visa.
His race is irelevant, it's a culture of lack of regulation (or at least the adherance to it). I don't think the UK benefits from so many deliveroo/uber eats 'employees', they are unlikely to contribute tax at all whilst making the same use of publice services. It's not benficial to the UK in my opinion.
Again, where in the article does it say that this person did that? It may be the case or it may not but there's nothing to indicate that it is.
The illegal motorbike not being ridden as an illegal motorbike is no defence as the reason that functionality was not available is because it had been used as an illegal motorbike to drain the battery.
If a motorist cets caught speeding at 90mph on the motorway and their defence is they were coasting at the time because they ran out of fuel driving at 150mph, they'd be just as moronic.
On the other side of the coin, just to play devil's advocate, if a motorist was stopped on the motorway doing 65 mph they would not be prosecuted for the fact that their car had the ability to do 150 mph but they weren't using it. Not just being pedantic, there is a serious legal point here that I don't think has ever been tested: I ride an e-road bike just for commuting and there aren't any parts of my ride where e-bikes are banned, as there are in other parts of the country. If there were and I turned off the motor before I rode through them so that I was riding through completely under my own power, would I be riding an ebike or a pushbike? Logic says just a pushbike but I don't know what the law would say.
I understand your point, but I just see it as being evidence that cars should have speed limiters and it should be an offence to drive without the limiter operating.
I guess in lieu of that tragically idyllic scenario, it's the same conundrum as if someone were to be stopped for drawing a car by horse along a bridleway. Is a motor vehicle still a motor vehicle if it's being propelled by living power?
I don't know about any racial element but certainly it does feel a bit like you were both riding where you shouldn't have been on unpowered (at the time) pushbikes, you're both as bad as each other. It would be interesting to know what the verdict would've been, or even if there would've been any charges, if he was just riding an ordinary pushbike without motor (which he effectively was).
Precisely. Now the law appears to be written like this :
In which case the mere fact of having an out of spec motor is enough to criminalise someone. (Rightly or wrongly - at least its clear)
Now it looks like he was actually charged with causing death by careless which is where the main sentence would have come from AND driving without license and insurance. Though reading between the lines I suspect he copped guilty for the licence piece because it would make no difference to his sentencing and showed "willing". This article is helpful.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30dqdezv8no