The motorist, who had previously received penalty points for using his phone at the wheel, was banned from driving for three years
Later:
Other motorists using the road at the time told North Yorkshire Police that they had seen the cyclist, but Wade informed officers that he had “no idea how he hadn’t seen him”.
Ffs… This asshole.
I bought an e-scooter in June and it’s changed my whole perspective. I didn’t realize just how careless drivers are before nor the extent to which people simply don’t see us. Not to give drivers an out, but I don’t think people’s peripheral vision is developed well for anything that isn’t the size of a car.
My city has lots of protected bike lanes but one still has to be careful because someone rolling out of McDonald’s may be more focused on their burger or drink than you crossing the bike lane. It’s common for homeless people to be strolling into my lane, locked into their cell phone’s screen, and there are even people who’ve fallen asleep in the lane. I always stop to make sure they’re okay.
Also, last week, I had two separate incidents where I needed to use the main roads and people driving the other way, with me safely in my own lane mind you, decided to yell at me or honk incessantly, apparently angered that I was on the road at all. It was jarring and I wasn’t expecting it after using the main roads safely for two months. (My scooter goes 30mph, so speed-wise it’s not an impediment to cars.) I’ve always gotten in the lane I need to be in and stayed there, but I’m going to stay to the right from now on any time I have to use the main roads, even though I shouldn’t have to.
Essentially, yes, fuck cars. And people.
It shouldn’t be 100% on me or anyone else on two wheels to ensure safety, but at least here in the US the car culture is so pervasive that it is 100% on me to be aware and if someone hits me it’ll just be presumed to be my fault.
You shouldn’t ride in a bike lane on the left side of the road. You should only ever ride in a bike lane on the right side of the road. I know that people like to walk on the left for safety, but this isn’t that.
One of the best reasons is simply other cyclists who would be trying to use the lane correctly. There usually isn’t enough room to safely pass by eachother. So someone going the wrong way doesn’t work.
Z, you’re not understanding. I know how lanes and directions work.
I’m referring to when I don’t have a bike lane and have to use the main roads. I get in the lane I ultimately will need to turn from, which until last week felt like the safest idea, but not anymore.
Can’t exactly go 30 mph on sidewalks.
It’s generally safer to perform a hook turn when turning across traffic (turning left for you, since you’re in the U.S.). By doing so, you always stay in the outside lane. In Japan, all cyclists and scooters must perform hook turns by law. Is this not common in the US?
I don’t know about the US but in the UK a lot of road layouts actively prevent hook turns, so you either cycle in the outside lane or dismount and use the pedestrian crossings (if they exist).
I don’t mean to sound argumentative but I can’t imagine how the layout could prevent a hook turn. Are there physical barriers? I’m genuinely curious.
We also have the option to cross by walking across the crosswalks, but many have a space for bicycles, so it is ok to cycle across (but if on a scooter, you must walk it).
In addition, I forgot to mention that hook turns are only mandatory for here for roads which are larger than one lane in each direction.
My city has lots of protected bike lanes but one still has to be careful because someone rolling out of McDonald’s WILL be more focused on their burger or drink than you crossing the bike lane. Every single one, every single day. Even the ones you expect to know better, like ambulances. And my city allegedly has some of the best cycling infrastructure in the UK.
You can say “slaughter” but “murder” means something specific and this isn’t it.
Eh, I hear you, but here in FuckCars, the mens rea is driving two tons of lethal metal, mistakes are on you buddy.
I mean could be intentional. The best way to murder someone in the us is to accidentally run them over.
You are contradicting yourself. You cannot accidentally murder someone. Murder is intentional, premeditated homicide. If it is an accident, it is by definition not murder. If it was intentional, it was by definition not an accident.
You are not reading properly. They are saying that you pretend it was an accident. Jesus.
Yeah, but you’re in one of the most hyperbolic communities on Lemmy, why are you expecting level-headedness? In here, every fender bender is a violent assault.
You’re saying this on a post about someone who literally died
You see the fact that the cyclist had two lights confused the driver and the only logical choice was to run them over.
My sister had a friend who reacted to her confusion with aggression. And as an absolute moron, she was confused lot. I really hated her.
When having a driver’s license is the same as having a license to kill. Good job 007.
Ride with a large butane tank. If nothing happens, great. Else, it’s you and them. Together.
I don’t see this as a failure of the driver or cyclist. It’s a failure of infrastructure and policy.
This is why separate bicycle infrastructure exists in civilized countries. It’s better and safer for both drivers and cyclists.
If you want to blame someone, blame government. They know this, they want to sell cars because that’s what they are paid to do.
We can blame the driver and the government, both of them.
I think of you drive a big heavy thing around, you have a moral obligation to fucking pay close attention so you don’t accidentally kill someone. And if you’re incapable of driving that carefully, sell your car already. I think that’s basic morality.
I think we also need better infrastructure and much stronger traffic laws so that drivers have legal incentive to fucking drive carefully like they already should have been doing but many are not because they don’t give a fuck.
I agree, a car is a loaded gun. If you had someone walking around accidentally pointing their loaded gun at people because they were not paying attention to where it was pointing, no one would be surprised when he accidentally kills someone. A rational person would recognize the negligence. But when people consistently drive carelessly others act like it was a random accident when someone dies. No MF, their negligence killed someone.
Not only that, but since people have to take tests to get licenses to drive a car, that means that everyone who drives in public is supposed to be driving at a high level.
Imagine if the government did the right thing and took away people’s licenses whenever they drove unsafely, and people had to start again from scratch and take a driving test, with escalating difficulty and focus on safety, to get another license, and that the testing facilities would be controlled so that if they passed unsafe drivers, they’d have to get different testers and so on.
And then imagine if people knew what a giant pain in the ass it is to drive unsafely. Losing your license and having to take a harder test than last time. Probably it wouldn’t be too many infractions before they wouldn’t even let you try to get a license.
That sort of thing is why you have licenses where people are required to pass tests.
You can absolutely blame the driver. I’m a cyclist but I drive too. I’ve never felt like infrastructure has put me in a position where I am forced to kill a a cyclist. There needs to me more strict testing for drivers and fewer people should be allowed to drive.
Noting that the incident did not involve alcohol, drugs, phone use, or racing, judge Nadim explained that, following Wade’s early guilty plea, the appropriate prison term was 10 months. However, new sentencing guidelines meant that any jail time under 12 months would result in a suspended sentence, “unless there were exceptional circumstances”.
A person died. What exactly considered a special circumstance?
Also, I bet the driver was definitely on his phone.
Really how else can you explain him not seeing a cyclist. Where was he looking instead of the road?
I don’t doubt it was not deliberate, but if you drive you’re responsible for avoiding even the danger of endangering others.
Besides facing some actual punishment he should loose his drivers license for life. How can the let him drive again if he can’t explain how he didn’t see a cyclist on the road? That is actually the bigger issue for me here.
It sounds like the suspension of the prison term isn’t a special case, and he also can’t drive for 3 years. I don’t think this is especially favoritism for drivers over cyclists. Sounds like a normal accident with a reasonable sentence for that country for an accidental death
Wade was handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. He was also banned from driving for three years and ordered to undertake 200 hours of unpaid community work.
Noting that the incident did not involve alcohol, drugs, phone use, or racing, judge Nadim explained that, following Wade’s early guilty plea, the appropriate prison term was 10 months. However, new sentencing guidelines meant that any jail time under 12 months would result in a suspended sentence, “unless there were exceptional circumstances”.
Sounds like a normal accident with a reasonable sentence for that country for an accidental death
Neither is such an accident normal, just normalized by insane amount of cyclists getting killed by car drivers, nor are “reasonable” and “reasonable for that country” the same thing.
Knowing that renting a car, drinking some alcohol and then running him over is the by far best method to kill someone without the risk of actual punishment might be the factual reality in my country, but I still refuse to accept this as normal or reasonable.
I would tend to agree. I came into the thread wanting bloody revenge, but after reading the article, I didn’t feel like that. It seems to have been an unfortunate accident, and the guy stayed behind and performed CPR, then plead guilty and showed remorse.
Two rear lights don’t really make you twice as safe. Silly thing to focus on.
Statistically anything making you more visable to drivers does more for safety than a helmet. (Not advocating against helmets) I think 2 rear lights is relevant, it goes to how little attention was given to the road.
Two rear lights don’t really make you twice as safe. Silly thing to focus on.
every time i had an incident and the drivers just excused themselves with the “i didn’t see you”, i upgraded my lights to brighter, more visible ones.
except the last one, 2 weeks ago. Now it would be absurd to buy an even brighter light. I just told them to “look” and drive slower if they can’t see. If you don’t see a cyclist using a bike line on a Dutch roundabout under street lights, no bike light can help you.
Exactly, the problem is drivers are distracted or simply don’t look out for cyclists and miss them. Having 1 or 2 lights has little to do with it.
Some guy once had to break suddenly because he didn’t see me when I was crossing the road on a marked, well lit pedestrian crossing. His excuse also was that he “didn’t see me”. Drivers have to pay attention. Cyclists and pedestrians can’t do much about it.
By definition murder needs to premediated. If it is not then it is manslaughter.
*premeditated, also there’s a whole world outside of the US, and US law is a really fucking bad baseline for good law regardless. Because the US is a backward shithole run by children.
What law do you specifically think is a bad baseline for good law?
Shut up nerd
I think that’s a US thing.
The UK requires intent to kill or greviously injure, which was also missing in this case.
Wade had not driven since the incident.
