A driver who was involved in a fatal smash that killed a father-to-be who was riding a child's motorbike has been fined £500. {info added so people have half a clue before deciding on whether it is worth clicking on the link or not! DD}
www.thisisbradford.co.uk/display.var.922724.0.driv...p
In my opinion, take to the road on such a vehicle and get involved in an accident with a law abiding motorist it's tough. I live near a similar idiot, whose aged about 14, he regularly runs around the area on a small motorbike. I live on quite a busy road and he happily shoots out of side roads, screams up and down a nice straight back road behind our house, flies up and down pavements. No helmet, no leathers, no insurance, no licence, no MOT etc etc. If he should run in to me and I am judged to have 'cut a corner' which leads to his death or injury I would be well hacked off.
|
Agree that these kiddie motorbikes are a menace and should n't be allowed BUT the issue is that the motorist apparently cut a corner and this was the basis of the judgement. The fact that this was a kiddie motorbike is irrelevant, could just as easily been a cycle or skateboarder.
_______
IanS
|
|
|
He had cannabis in his system, was seen to be behaving irresonsibly, was on a kid's bike, no insurance, helmet or licence, vehicle is not permitted on a road and he gets hit by a car - which is allowed on the road.
Seems to me the punishment was about right. Careless driving, which it was, would not be punished by more.
But then we're back to the age old discussion - does the level of sentance depend on what they did or the consequences of what they did, given that they have no control over the consequences.
|
Its one of these "we dont know the full details" jobbies.
Charges for this could have ranged from causing death by dangerous driving with its requirement on the magistrate to consider prison terms, down to the lesser offence of careless driving with its lower scale of punishments.
The fact it was the lesser charge speaks volumes.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
|
|
|
|
Not getting into the rights or wrongs of the sentence or the charges, I note that the police had spoken to the rider previously about the illegality of what he was doing.
Locally our police have taken quite a hard line on these bikes in that they have been very high profile and given any riders seen with them a warning as to their illegality and any further occurence has resulted in confiscation and destruction of the offending machine. A lot of people have stated in the local press that they can't see a problem and the police are wasting time prosecuting these 'minor' offences and being heavy handed, obviously these are not the people who have had these machines deliberately ridden at them, at speed, in the local parks, but, who knows, perhaps the police have saved a few lives.
One thing that was not mentioned in the report, but, of course, may have been in court, is that these machines are difficult to see anyway being so much lower and smaller than a normal bike. I would equate their size as being about the same as a child on a bike but obviously a child on a bike is rarely approaching at the sort of speeds attained by these machines.
I'm sad that someone has died but not surprised.
|
I'm fascinated by the expert's claim that the car driver would have been more sensitive to light because he had blue eyes....
How does that work then?
|
If you had blue eyes you'd realise!!
I'm much more light sensative than my brown eyed wife, I always choose to sit in any shaded area, and when the light is bright no matter the time of year wear sunglasses.Thus apart my eyes are perfect vision.
It seems common sense a dark eyed person would allow less light in
|
Careless driving sounds about right to me-although I do actually feel sorry for the driver in this case for some reason. Although it's true to say it could have been a cyclist, skater, moped etc.
That said I've less than zero sympathy for the dead guy. In my mind his death was 99% his own fault. He took a risk and lost, I'm not laughing at his demise, but I couldn't care less either-he took a risk and lost.
|
|
|
>>If you had blue eyes you'd realise!!
I do have, but I still don't realise. I rarely wear sunglasses and really only when the sun is low on winter mornings and I'm driving.
>It seems common sense a dark eyed person would allow less light in
But surely the light doesn't go through the coloured bit, whatever colour it is. It goes through the hole in the middle.
|
"But surely the light doesn't go through the coloured bit"
Dunno but I know blonde haired blue eyed people are half a gene away from being an Albino. Albino's have very poor sight in the bright light.,
You should be ok tho Mark, having no hair.................
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
|
>>You should be ok tho Mark, having no hair.................
Wotchit stumpy. You're still owed a slap from the last time you got lairy.
|
|
|
|
|
The coloured part of the eye is the iris. A brown iris contains more pigment than a blue one, hence it is a darker colour. Although the iris blocks light from entering the eye, some light will still get through if its strong an direct. This will be more so when there is less pigment to block the light. Think of sunglasses with different levels of tint.
|
|
|
"I do have [blue eyes], but I still don't realise."
Perhaps, by way of a control (double blind?) experiment, you could try having some brown eyes transplanted in for a few days and test the difference. Try the geezer from "Minority Report"
I'm grey eyed, and I suffer very badly when the sun is out, particularly when I'm standing on a light coloured surface. My wife's brown-eyed and thinks I'm a total wuss. Which I am, of course.
There was a point to this post when I started out....
V
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If the driver couldn't see then he shouldn't have made whatever manoeuvre resulted in the collision, that's what he's been found guilty of.
|
If the driver couldn't see then he shouldn't have made whatever manoeuvre resulted in the collision, that's what he's been found guilty of.
That and cutting the corner.
I had a near-death encounter once when a disabled driver shot a traffic lights with the sun in his eyes, missing the rear end of my bicycle by millimetres, so I am disinclined to be too lenient to the driver.
OTOH, as a blue-eyed driver who has been blinded by the sun while behind the wheel, I do have some sympathy for a driver caught in that situation. It happens all too easily, esp in a hilly city like Bradford (it's not only in the evening that you can find the sun in your eyes :( But he still shouldn't have cut the corner.
I sympathise, too, with the judge in that case. A small and easily-made error which costs the life of someone' who is using the road very dangerously and illegally, as Mark points out, a difficult thing to punish. Taking it all into account, the sentence seems reasonable.
|
The car driver is at fault if he was driving dangerously. The fact that the victim was riding a mini-moto possibly contributed to his death but it doesn't detract from the car driver's bad driving.
If I lost control of my car and it mounted the pavement and killed a pedestrian, if that pedestrian was high on crack cocaine at the time it wouldn't make me any less guilty.
|
|
Having said what I did in the post above, when I was negotiating a busy roundabout I only just notices a man on one of those low RECLINER bicycles trying to nip by me on my right just in time to avoid cutting across him. Watch out for recliner bicycles everybody!!
|
|
Watch out for recliner bicycles everybody - there's something very odd about those things.
|
been around a long time. Most tend to have long whip aerial with flag on top to help shortsighted motorists to see them.
Phil I
|
|
|
|
