Helmet "would have saved" 85-year old killed by careless driver

The coroner felt the need to "express concern" about people cycling without helmets - but not about the car or the driver?

The car was not defective, and he "slowed down" at the junction - but he still emerged onto a main road, failing to yield? So the poor woman pays for his carelessness, with her life.

We must all have experienced this one - cars pulling out into us from side streets. I've had many near misses so far.

It keeps me practising vehicular cycling, as a survival strategy. But it's enough to make you think we need segregated facilities, if we're ever to have the "cycling revolution" the government promises from time to time.

I can just about handle vehicular cycling - as a 20-something male with my wits about me. And I've survived so far. But when i have kids, even i can't imagine letting them cycle on our roads, given the status quo. My parents and grandparents can't contemplate it either. And I can't say i blame them.

'Suitable head gear' - How do these people live with themselves? Unless they are incredibly cynical and void of empathy I really fail to see their perspective.
You drove into a person and killed her!!! The first rule of driving I learned is not to drive into people or things. It's not hard to understand. If you can't stop within the space you can see, you need to go slower. Sometimes, god forbid, you may even need to stop.
I don't wish prison on anyone, but a driving ban for just a year? When has driving become a basic human right. If you kill people, you don't drive, full stop.

Once again ALL the responsibility for this collision seems to have been passed onto the victim by the accused, the coroner, the pathologist and to a lesser extent the police. When will this car-centric culture end?

I give up, it just gets worse!

Another moronic medical person who knows exactly what would have happened if the person would have been wearing a helmet. Despite the fact that bicycle helmets work only in very specific circumstances (certain speeds and when hit from certain angles). Also, an 85 year old is always going to be quite fragile, so any significant accident may be fatal, even when mitigated by a helmet.

How many cycle helmet manufacturers claim protection from motor vehicles? Could you put in a claim if you were injured from a motor vehicle collsion whilst wearing one?

cars ... dangerous ... gosh I hadn't realised !

Yet another travisty, wonder if the sentence would have
been different had it been the judge's granny ????

And as for being a cyclist himself - WTF didn't he see
her as he, of all people, should know how vulnerable
we are .... grrrrr - ar53hole

I just hope I only get 100hrs of community service if I ever accidently shoot someone and they weren't wearing a bullet proof vest.

Sound about time we realise that cars are dangerous things.

A stupid comment by the coroner and a minimal sentence for the driver.

Echo all of the above + At 24yrs old he has been driving for a max of 7yrs. So gets his licence back at age 25 and has how many yrs driving in front of him? Divide by 7 and how many more times will he be careless? 1 year loss of licence for causing death by careless (what a joke the use of the term careless in these incidents is) driving is grossly offensive.

Mr Kilgallon, Mr Beverley. You are bellends. Both.

If the car had been made of sponge cake, she'd probably not have died, so will he be switching to sponge now?

Switch to sponge now! Or don't you care about safety?

Ditto - the victim is the guilty one for not protecting themselves.

This story has made me rant a lot. Gah.

I think all previous comments have echoed my thoughts on this.

SMIDSY,

no excuse, your driving the car, look, look and look again.

When will we see the law treat driving accidents seriously!

I also suspect that not being hit by a car in the first place may have saved her life

(in other words, prevent the accident in the first place, driver education, etc... the car driver has a responsibility to not hit other roads users).

So if he'd run over a pedestrian in the road who he hadn't seen, would he be affirming the need for head gear?

Quote:

I’d like to re-affirm the need for head gear. I’m a cyclist myself, and when I see people around without helmets I want to jump off and tell them

I'd like to re-affirm the need to look where you're ***** going.