Child dies after falling off their bike and being hit by van

So sad.

poor little sod and condolences to family.

my grandsons are 5 and 10, the older one goes out with his mates on bike but I've told him to be wary of everyone and not to take chances and always look, but he's a kid, they are so much less awar, simply forget and are not as good at judging things as adults and we shouldn't expect them to be either (hence my massive objection to 'green cross code' type bullshit). The 5 yr old cycles to school everyday with his dad who walks alongside and there's a lollipop lady at top of the road but still there are lo0ads of parents driving their cars around the school despite the close proximity to everyone.

Since I got him a star wars bike at the beginning of the school year when he moved up and he's a bit older he loves going for a bike ride with me at the weekends when the weathers okay (though he's ridden a couple of miles in the rain however), I have to be acutely aware of what he's doing despite being on the path because I know one small error from him could end in serious injury or worse due to the fact motorists don't give a single fuck about vulnerable road users. 

The police and so called justice system are complicit in this, as per the OP, when that young girl came off the cycle path the motorist was totally absolved with the usual 'nothing they could do', but that's bullshit. They weren't speeding, not above the LIMIT but too fast to stop/slow significantly should an emergency occur, didn't observe the vulnerable person not a few feet away, didn't think that a small child (that we know make mistakes all the time) just a few feet away on a bike should require you to slow down, take a right of lane position and keep assessing the hazard you present to them should they make that small error/mistake.

THAT is what hazard perception is all about, THAT is what a prudent driver should do ALL the time, that should be the norm not the exception, but plod et al simply blame the vulnerable instead of looking at what the adult, what the person with the killing machine could/should have done to prevent the incident.

It's another good reason to have blanket 20 zones in all urban areas backed up with devices to stop motorists fom going any faster, but that will never ever be rolled out, and yet you see wankers bombing down streets at ridiculous speeds but it's fooking green cross code/victim blaming to resolve the 'problem' of child KSIs!!

A number of possibilities as to the 'how' but not good being the responsible adult for the child.