Sunday Times on lorries killing cyclists

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2935510.ece

November 25, 2007
They saw Mum?s death as trivial
When her mother was crushed by a lorry Maya Foa was appalled to see the
driver fined only £300 and keep his licence. She tells why the law must
change


A good article which powerfully sets out the issue.

--
Tony

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has
taken place"
George Bernard Shaw

Tony Raven said the following on 26/11/2007 14:32:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2935510.ece

A good article which powerfully sets out the issue.

Indeed.

50+ people were killed by bombs in London a few years ago, and all hell
let loose to try to stop it happening again. 150 cyclists are killed
(and about 3400 other road users) every year, and it's virtually ignored
by the law. Something's very wrong.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

" A good article which powerfully sets out the issue.

Indeed.

50+ people were killed by bombs in London a few years ago, and all hell
let loose to try to stop it happening again. 150 cyclists are killed (and
about 3400 other road users) every year, and it's virtually ignored by the
law. Something's very wrong.

Yes a tragic preventable waste of life.

I was driving round a roundabout last year on the outside was a Ford Escort
driven by a young woman returning from her daily shop.
A lorry driver ran a red light and drove into her car from behind
demolishing everything behind her rear door.
He parked up his lorry and got on the phone to his boss about his trip being
delayed-he was still on it 10 minutes later when the police/ambulance
appeared.
I am sure this "king of the road" behaviour is reinforced by UK law and a UK
"Jeremy Clarkeson" attitude to driving.
The bus driver in Berlin who hit me was whiter than his bus--he was in a
much more traumatised state than me.
Mind you there were umpteen witnesses all raging at him--I do nt think that
would happen here.
Tam

Road safety should start with a policy of zero tolerance. Zero
tolerance with regard to graffiti etc. has been shown to be very
effective in reducing crime.

My suggestion.

You use your mobile phone driving. You lose phone and licence (as in
Poland).
You read anything while driving. You lose licence.
You kill cyclist. You lose licence for good.

On Nov 26, 6:17 pm, Garry from Cork wrote:
Road safety should start with a policy of zero tolerance. Zero
tolerance with regard to graffiti etc. has been shown to be very
effective in reducing crime.

I've started reporting everyone to the police who tries to knock me
off more than once - it's funny how it's the same people day on day!
This requires keeping a notepad and pencil in your back pocket though.

Even though I described it to them as 'someone trying to kill me' all
they did was go round and visit the driver and give him a ticking off
as they would only treat it as harassment but it seemed to do the job.

peter

On 26/11/2007 19:22, naked_draughtsman said,

Even though I described it to them as 'someone trying to kill me' all
they did was go round and visit the driver and give him a ticking off
as they would only treat it as harassment but it seemed to do the job.

Frankly, you're lucky they even bothered with that. Last time I
reported anything like that I got a "What do you expect us to do?"
attitude from the police.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

On 26/11/2007 18:17, Garry from Cork said,

You use your mobile phone driving. You lose phone and licence (as in
Poland).
You read anything while driving. You lose licence.
You kill cyclist. You lose licence for good.

Sounds like a good start. Poland is in the EU, so is the UK, so perhaps
we could start picking up some of the better laws from around the EU.
Let's harmonize!!!!

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

Garry from Cork wrote:
Road safety should start with a policy of zero tolerance. Zero
tolerance with regard to graffiti etc. has been shown to be very
effective in reducing crime.

This has been widely contested. You might like to read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows which describes some
of the other factors involved.

It's all about the statistics.


-dan

I read that. Interesting.

However, allowing people to get away with using their mobiles while
driving sends out a message that it is all right for "you" to be a bit
careless while driving. In this case, I believe that the message is
the message

On 26 Nov, 18:17, Garry from Cork wrote:

You use your mobile phone driving. You lose phone and licence (as in
Poland).
You read anything while driving. You lose licence.
You kill cyclist. You lose licence for good.

It's worth bearing in mind that we don't live in a police state (yet).
This sort of decree is unlikely to have majority backing in the UK
(where it's probably true to say that most people drive), so it's
unlikely to be passed as law.

Even if it was- I'd expect this would result in a significant
increase in people driving unlicensed and without insurance, which I
don't see as an overall gain.

It's the road culture that needs to change- currently the attitude is
that road deaths are the unavoidable result of accidents and the price
[other people] have to pay for the freedom provided by the private
car. Laws reflect the society, they don't define it.

I perceive a significant part of the problem as the, largely
accurate, perception that serious accidents happen to other people.
Being quite rare events, most people don't drive with the constant
awareness that they need to avoid them and hence get caught out if
something goes wrong.

I think the challenge in improving road safety is getting people to
realise, on an instinctive level, that they need to be aware of that
risk.

Cheers,
W.