Re: CPS protest yesterday.

spindrift wrote:

The more cyclists there are the safer the roads become,. The adoption
of strict liability would emcourage more cycling.

Maybe that is true. Maybe it isn't true. It really doesn't matter which. It's no-one's business to bring it about, any more than it is anyone's legitimate business to encourage more driving or more drivers. It's a matter of free choice in an ominally free society. I accept that there are some who think that we should be less free. It takes all sorts.

So the questions are:

"So" implies some sort of connection between the irrelevant "position statement" above and the question. AFAICS, there is none.

1/

Is this fair, in your opinion:

In July 2003 James Foster was tragically killed in a road traffic
accident. He was on a bicycle, an experienced cyclist, killed by
coincidence outside the bike shop that he worked on Essex Road, London
N1. The driver, Sabrina Harman (24 of Apprentice Way, Clarence Road,
London E5), when breathalised was found to be over the legal limit.
Later examination of the skid asseses a speed of approximately 47 -
55mph (in an area with a 30mph limit). Sabrina has a previous
conviction for drink driving,
Sabrina was speeding, drunk, unlicensed, uninsured and driving with a
previous drink driving conviction just two years earlier for which she
was fined and disqualified from driving for one year. This time she
had a learner driver passenger and she ran down and killed an innocent
cyclist through her criminal negligence. In these circumstances, a car
is a dangerous weapon. For all these simultaneous offences, she
received 21 months custodial sentence and merely a three-year driving
ban - almost spent by the time her sentence is over.
http://www.deter.org.uk/consequence.php

I don't know the circumstances, don't know what was said in mitigation and certainly didn't hear all the evidence (any more than you did).

So how could I - or anyone else - meaningfully answer such a question? The question of wther the oputcome of the court case is "fair" is something which should really be addressed by the court. Or perhaps by another court.

More detail... the word "tragically" in the first sentence is pure hyperbole. Either everyone's death is tragic or no-one's is (in either case, the word is window-dressing). The location of the incident is not relevant unless there is some particular feature of the location which should make it less or more dangerous than any other spot.

Of what relevance is the passage: "Sabrina was ... driving with a previous drink driving conviction just two years earlier for which she was fined and disqualified from driving for one year"? The fact that the driver had previously been banned is relevant to sentencing but not to the incident itself, unless she was driving whilst disqualified (which is not suggested). You seem to be suggesting that a year's ban should involve not driving for two years or more. What should a two year ban mean?

2/

Would you support initiatives that would boost cycling?

Only reasonable ones which did not operate at the expense of third parties who are not involved and/or who don't wish to be involved.
.

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