cyclist and truck incident in smithfield this morning

ellobee

Lumen wrote: »

Maybe you should put some effort into understanding what kills cyclists before advancing half-assed theories and pointless, impractical solutions.

so are you telling me that 100% of cyclists that are killed or injured in collisions with motor vehicles were in the right and the blame lay with the motorist. if there was a deterrent to stop a small minority of cyclists who cycle dangerously from getting killed or injured then its worth it. motorist and cyclists are basically the same people, and when the points system was introduced road deaths halved within a few years, so it seems there are people out there who are more concerned with losing their licence than their life

cython

ellobee wrote: »

so are you telling me that 100% of cyclists that are killed or injured in collisions with motor vehicles were in the right and the blame lay with the motorist. if there was a deterrent to stop a small minority of cyclists who cycle dangerously from getting killed or injured then its worth it.

You mean like the being killed/injured? That seems like a significant deterrent in and of itself.

ellobee wrote: »

motorist and cyclists are basically the same people, and when the points system was introduced road deaths halved within a few years, so it seems there are people out there who are more concerned with losing their licence than their life

Seriously?? You can't appreciate that there is a distinct difference in vulnerability between cyclists and occupants of motorised vehicles? People speeding in cars inevitably reckon they will never be the ones to come a cropper. Not to mention that even if they are involved in a collision, they may still not be seriously or fatally injured. In contrast, if a cyclist is involved in a collision with a larger vehicle, there is a much greater risk of grave personal consequences, and if someone can't comprehend that, or doesn't appreciate that, they're not going to give a damn about a lesser penalty, especially if it goes unenforced as is the case now.

eclipsechaser

ellobee wrote: »

if there was a deterrent to stop a small minority of cyclists who cycle dangerously from getting killed or injured then its worth it

Not necessarily. If a registration/ licence were to put half the cyclists off the road, then the potential saving of a few lives could be outweighed (excuse the pun) by hundreds of extra heart disease deaths. You'd want to make sure your intervention has absolutely clear evidence that it should be implemented.

By the way, this links in with the other thread about collision aftermath. This is precisely why we need an online register of how every cyclist dies so we can discuss exactly how many are killed breaking red lights versus getting killed by trucks turning left.

flatface

ellobee wrote: »

so are you telling me that 100% of cyclists that are killed or injured in collisions with motor vehicles were in the right and the blame lay with the motorist. if there was a deterrent to stop a small minority of cyclists who cycle dangerously from getting killed or injured then its worth it. motorist and cyclists are basically the same people, and when the points system was introduced road deaths halved within a few years, so it seems there are people out there who are more concerned with losing their licence than their life

You talk about cyclists obeying the laws to save lives but what laws specifically?

Red light jumping - very much doubt this was involved in any road death in the last few years.
Cycling on the path - nope
Cycling wrong way up a one way road - again doubtful
Cycling without lights - the only regulation that may have contributed to a death but I can't think of one. Lights should be really enforced as the priority.

Yes cyclists may have contributed to some of the collisions, bad road position or filtering are not illegal but may put you in harms way.
If current cyclist deaths are not from cyclists breaking a specific law, no amount of clampdown on illegal actions, as you suggest, will save a life.

The points system greatly reduced incidents of cars breaking speed limits which actually does kill people and therefore saved lives.

Beasty

Here's wishing the cyclist involved a complete and speedy recovery

For anyone wishing to discuss other topics such as licencing cyclists - perhaps do a search of the forum as this sort of stuff has been done to death

If anyone has anything else to contribute in connection with this terrible incident, please drop me or one of the other mods a PM and we'll consider re-opening the thread