Well folks, the bad news is that it seems that there is now a very high chance that that chap may well not be convicted. Who knows, but the legal team seem to be making a case for him to be let off with no charges.

However, the case did generate a half hour debate on the news channel regarding the need for bikes in cities, especially as Brazil has such a massive increase in GDP, which means the infrastructure is struggling to cope with the increase in cars. There were also two demos in Sao Paulo and Brasilia to protest about the incident and the need to protect cyclists legally against drivers.

At the same time, very poor people in Sao Paulo were also doing their own pedestrian “critical mass” protesting about the terrible public transport. One lady who finished work at 5pm took 3 busses to get home, at 10pm every day.

So maybe they wont win the battle, but maybe win a slightly bigger war in the longer term if some good comes of it.

And just a quick note this is my understanding based on a not great level of Portuguese. I think I have all this info correct though.

How could someone possibly go unpunished for that?? Never mind the other issues, seems to me the Brazilian justice system needs looking at

was the driver called Wayne?

how can you be let off driving through a crowd of cyclists then driving off?
Whatever their legal system is surely numerous offences occured, not least of which was not stopping before, during or after the event

He will have to spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.

He will have to spend the rest of his life looking over hid shoulder.

Oh great!! Now he’ll drive into even more cyclists.

The British sense of fair play and law and order is very apparent. Leave the country and you may be surprised to find that it’s not a universal concept. Knocking a few cyclists off their bikes is pretty insignificant compared to the normal crap that goes on elsewhere.

5thElefant – that may be true, but we’re not talking about some minor indescretion here. He calmly decided to run over a group of cyclists and hospitalised 20 people. Without wanting to be overdramatic, that’s multiple counts of attempted murder. If he gets away scot free then that’s a travesty.

rOcKeTdOg – Member
How could someone possibly go unpunished for that?? Never mind the other issues, seems to me the Brazilian justice system needs looking at

guess you haven’t read much about Brazil and its justice system then

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/death-to-undesirables-brazils-murder-capital-1685214.html

5thElefant – that may be true, but we’re not talking about some minor indescretion here.

Sure, I agree, but everyone is applying their very british ideals to a country and system which profoundly does not measure up in a any way to our norms.

Yeah – the justice system here is quite shocking really. However, I did not really want to focus on the negatives of the situation, it was more a case of as I live here and am learning more and more about the culture, I was trying to find some positives from this really.

In a year or two Brazil’s traffic system will be seriously choked, and then maybe more people will start to take biking as a solution seriously.

everyone is applying their very british ideals

Are there lots of countries where it is legal to drive in to cyclsists?
I susect not so it woudl seem to be ab ot mor ethna British ideal and the same for justice. i get your broader point we should not be that surprised that justice is not well served in Brazil

In Spain, a bloke knocked over and killed a cyclist. The driver successfully sued the cyclists family for damage to his car.

Sure, I agree, but everyone is applying their very british ideals to a country and system which profoundly does not measure up in a any way to our norms.

Have we not got any gunboats we can send over there?
When we used to have problems with countries not seeing things our way we used to send a couple of battleships round until they did.