Comments on: Killer Driver Escapes Prison Because Cyclist Wasn’t Wearing A Helmet

By: D0NK

D0NK — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:03:58 +0000

Mostly Balanced, the idea of prison time has always (afaik) been deterrant. A few hefty sentences for death by (other people’s) driving may incline a few more drivers to actually look where they are going and take driving, which can be a high consequence activity, a bit more seriously.

The judge is a tool.

By: Mostly Balanced

Mostly Balanced — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:58:47 +0000

A few years ago a driver without licence or insurance went over the sea wall at a beachfront car park on the Isle of Wight and killed a two year old. He got 8 years for it.

Not only is there a big disparity in the punishments handed out for the same offence but the severity of offences like these are judged on the seriousness of the outcome rather than the seriousness of the actions themselves. In the above cases the drivers were both unlucky that someone vulnerable got in their way and that is often the difference between a minor bump and a fatality.

I’m not trying to defend the above drivers but how would any of us feel if a member of our family was banged up for say five years for committing any of the above offences but had been stopped before hurting anyone?

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:30:59 +0000

‘Because in this sense I could drive along a road, see a cyclist without a helmet, run him over, sue him for damage to my car and whiplash, and easily get away with it?’

In which sense?

By: JxL

JxL — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:34:11 +0000

Wow – is this a new way of getting away with murder? Because in this sense I could drive along a road, see a cyclist without a helmet, run him over, sue him for damage to my car and whiplash, and easily get away with it?

By: richiethesilverfish

richiethesilverfish — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:18:20 +0000

Its a sad day that anybody is killed on the roads, especially a fellow cyclist doing something we all enjoy, however, maybe we should take incidents like this as a perfect warning of the dangers and learn from it.
i.e: Wear a helmet and hence dont allow a negilgent driver to be able to use this excuse and just maybe save your life in the process.
I realise there is still a fair amount of debate over the pros and cons of helmets but I think in reality we all have to agree if you’re going to get a whack to the head we’d rather be wearing one.

By: ballsofcottonwool

ballsofcottonwool — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:23:48 +0000

“to blame for his own death, simply because he wasn’t wearing a helmet”

can’t argue with that

By: davidrussell

davidrussell — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:11:27 +0000

firstly, RIP and my thoughts to the family

This country is going mad. surely this sets a dangerous precedent? The logical conclusion of this argument is that if the deceased wasn’t on the road at all then the guy would not have hit him and therefore his sentence would be reduced to nil (because the incident didn’t happen).

this country is fcuking going to the dogs man

By: leftyboy

leftyboy — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:38:33 +0000

The driver in this case didn’t hve a full licence and was ‘borrowing’ his partners motability car! So he was driving illigally, can’t have been insured if he was driving on his own (which he was).

So wether the cyclist was wearing a helmet seems irrelevant.

By: gee

gee — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:11:16 +0000

That makes my so angry. There is no justice in this country. What happened to common sense?

By: jonb

jonb — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:02:37 +0000

I assume the same principle can be applied to pedestrians as well?

Out of interest is there anything we can do to get this changed?