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news
Viral video debated on Jeremy Vine show (screenshot Twitter video/ @azb2019)Sajid Javid blames father of five-year-old cyclist for letting child ride on road in viral video
Sajid Javid has become the latest Conservative politician to weigh in on the viral video – discussed during Tuesday’s episode of Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 show and viewed almost 2.5 million times on Twitter – which shows a motorist failing to stop before narrowly passing a five-year-old cyclist.
The former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who has also served as the Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care during his time in government, joined Tory peer Baroness Foster and Conservative London Assembly leader Susan Hall in pointing the finger at the child’s father for letting him cycle on the road in the first place.
Responding to a tweet from the Jeremy Vine on 5 Twitter account, which asked viewers who they thought was “in the wrong”, Bromsgrove MP Javid – who unsuccessfully stood to replace Boris Johnson in the first of this year’s Conservative leadership contests, before later endorsing Liz Truss – replied: “The 5-year-old’s father”.
The 5-year old's father. https://t.co/nMfncye03d
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) November 10, 2022
Javid (whose driver, incidentally, was filmed stopped in a bike box outside Westminster earlier this year) has been heavily criticised for his comments by other Twitter users, who ridiculed the MP’s apparent ‘car is king’ attitude and advised him to review the Highway Code:
You might want to review the highway code:https://t.co/yjnUlHzeCq
— Chris Parker (@HyperHydr0) November 10, 2022
Car is king, eh, Sajid? I expect better from you, as the current health secretary and a former secretary for sport.
— Felix Lowe (@saddleblaze) November 10, 2022
The pavement would be safer:https://t.co/j3B3rUVAf9
— Sustainable us - moving at 25km/h (@Havant_Enviro) November 10, 2022
Nevertheless, the MP’s comments echoed those made earlier this week by some of his Tory colleagues, including Susan Hall, the chair of the Police and Crime Committee in the London Assembly.
Replying to a tweet – this time from Vine himself – which suggested that anyone who does not think “the driver must go dead slow, or stop” should “cut up their driving licence and send the pieces back to the DVLA”, Hall argued: “Surely the issue here is that a 5-year-old should not be on the public highway riding a bike!”
Hall then claimed that the child should only cycle “slowly on the footway, or preferably in the park” and that she was “amazed that given road behaviour by all that you find it acceptable for a five-year-old to be on a bike in the road.”
Conservative peer Baroness Foster – appointed to the House of Lords by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in December 2020 – also took to Twitter to castigate the child’s father, writing: “A child that small should not be cycling on a road! A completely irresponsible decision along with your comments that put the entire onus on the car drivers if/when something goes horribly wrong!”
The widespread argument shared by the Conservative politicians, that the five-year-old should have been cycling on the footpath instead of the road, was today countered by his father, who posted the below video of his school run:
"just ride your bikes on the pavement, no one will mind. It'll be safer, no cars on the pavement are there?!"
The pavements next to a school pic.twitter.com/tq45IcW1m0
— AZB (@azb2019) November 10, 2022
On Tuesday, after the contentious video went viral, the child’s father Ashley also appeared on Vine’s Channel 5 show, where the noted cycling advocate criticised the driving on display.
Ashley told the show that “the facts are clear on this one: the driver was wrong and my son has every right to ride on the road.”
Panel guest and journalist Mike Parry agreed, dismissing the debate about whether the child should have been cycling on the road as “utterly irrelevant”.
“Surely human compassion, surely human nature says that if you’re driving a car at speed and there’s a little child coming the other way your instinct should be the protective nature of an adult in a car over a child,” he told Vine.
Meanwhile, on the same day that the video was discussed on Channel 5, road safety expert Tim Shallcross of IAM Roadsmart told the Sunday Times Driving: “There is no minimum age limit for cycling on a road; the lad is a little younger than most cycling organisations recommend to be on a road, but he’s certainly riding competently and with confidence and under supervision, so no problem there.”
Shallcross also pointed to Rule H3 of the Highway Code, referencing the ‘hierarchy of road users’, which tells drivers to “stop and wait for a safe gap in the flow of cyclists if necessary”.
“Highway Code guidance is for cars to give 1.5m clearance to cyclists in 30mph limit, and since the cyclist was already passing parked vehicles and there was clearly not room for 1.5m clearance, the car should have waited until the cyclist was clear before carrying on,” he concluded.
Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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93 comments
Hmm... maybe the Celtic nations can share some newer cultural goods! It'd be great if we in Scotland could pick up the 20mph urban default for example. I'm not surprised to hear that when the worst worries fail to appear people quickly forget the drama and life proceeds.
Never been to Cardiff but it's now on my list - if only for a Streetview virtual tour in the near future.
Cathay's Terrace is the latest big project. Will eventually connect the bike lane network to the hospital and a major park. Mostly finished now and looking pretty good.
Not on street view yet but it can't be long until the little Google car does its rounds again.
Weird take there. Pretty sure that is a quiet road from the video. Only two oncoming cars on the full length and plenty of spaces for safe passing if only the drivers thinks about it.
Or it sounds like you would prefer the child to be on a 40mph- dual carriageway as there are no parked cars or adults who might step out on some of them. Of course, no road in the UK is dangerous, it just depends on the drivers that happen to be on them.
It is a typical motoring viewpoint. Cars create risks, so some attempt is made to constrain them, but the motorists object to being constrained to they ignore the rules. As enforecement is limited, drivers learn from each other that these things are acceptable. Then the law gets degraded by poor case law and Government, in fear of the motoring lobby, fails to rectify these problems.
So we have:
- speed limits - ignored and poorly enforced;
- pavement driving and parking - ignored and poorly enforced.
- cycle lanes - derided and ignored
- bollards, vandalised and driven over
- LTNs - campaigned against, vandalised and ignored
- Pedestrianised areas: ignored and now even plod has encouraged their use.
- Driving standards - rarely enforced, tolerated by other road users.
Yet it remains the pedestrians' and cyclists' problem to deal with the motorist culture which is that careless and inconsiderate driving is the norm and should be accepted and tolerated and those who seek to resist such a culture are at fault.
It is weird, that while many cyclist are also drivers, all drivers are at some point, pedestrians. I'm guessing they criticise others pavement parking.
I wonder how much is also a generational/upbringing thing?
I was brought up not to litter - I come home with pockets full of wrappers and other detritous, I cannot bring myself to stop on a double yellow, abide by bus lanes and pedestrian areas. I also try to avoid pushing my way out of give ways, that should always be a negotiation and one where I am quite content that several cars should pass on a major road before anyone even considers giving me the opportunity to pull out. So as a driver, I am still aggrieved that other drivers cannot abide by the clearly marked rules. As a cyclist doign gravel rides, I make it obvious I am going wide and slow, and I always thank walkers who cooperate with me on a bike.
It seems to me that there is a social aspect, the working man who feels entitled to brush others out of their way because they've got work to get to (oblivious to the status of other road users), the wealthy entitled (or the fake wealthy who are leasing beyond their means), and the plain anti-social, petty criminal attitude.
Someone told me I had an over-developed sense of right and wrong. A mate defended me, asking "Is that possible?"
its funny to think when I was that age I was riding round on NSL roads in the countryside, unsupervised, didnt even wear a helmet, I wasnt supposed to go to far out of the village but I may have bent those rules once or twice, guess there were less cars then, but risk is that thing that humans are particularly bad at comprehending properly.
it looks a perfectly safe road to teach kids to ride on, drivers just need to be less self intolerant impatient twats about it.
Just wondering.
Are there a nationwide network of road cycling simulators?
There will always be a first ride on the roads.
We all did it.
It's how you get experienced.
I would like to simulators mandatory prior to driving tests... pretty sure RAC have had them for decades. However, I would like an additional VR element after your lesson where you get to experience being the recipient of your driving, cyclists, pedestrians etc. The tech is there and I think it would be mind-blowing to a lot of drivers as to how that 'it wasn't THAT close' pass felt.
And all you need is powerful fans so that you can get the hair on the arms (and legs) moving from the draft.
Bigger issue - in health and safety terms what we have on our roads is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalization_of_deviance
Simply put - what you get away with (no legal or e.g. physical consequences) you probably repeat, and if "everyone does" that becomes the standard.
So speeding, illegal and dangerous / antisocial parking, phone and screen use, this kind of "barging through" and close passing, "amber gambling" (actually - speeding up or continuing to drive through on red)...
Just like happens in the courts people then see problems as the vulnerable road user's fault because they identify with the poor standard of driving or accept that this is "not unusual".
Watching Jeremy Vine this morning it occurred to me:
How many children have been killed or seriously injured in their parents' own cars?
Were those parents all hauled over the coals for irresponsibly putting their children in danger by taking them on the roads?
I recall a recent case on RoadCC where the trauma and injury to a driver's own child was used as mitigation in sentencing for that same driver's dangerous actions...which led to their child's trauma and injury in the first place. I can't remember much public outrage about that.
Ah but you don't understand, motor cars are a huge benefit to society and apparently directly responsible for increased life expectancy, so those deaths are a price well worth paying, whereas cyclists are attention-seeking virtue signallers deliberately putting small children at risk for YouTube clicks.
Or from a non-troll point of view, that's a very valid point.
I don't see why you are getting so angry at the obvious fact that motorised vehicles increase life expectancy in the aggregate.
If you get really ill, I suggest - rather than calling one of those "pollution spewing" ambulances - you get 4 blokes to take you to hospital on a rick shaw. While you're at it though, make sure you find a hospital that doesn't use electricity, would hate for you to be saved using fossil fuels. Oh, but the hospital also wouldn't have to have any products made out of evil plastic... In fact, don't bother calling that rick shaw, eh?
Rickshaw is one word. I wouldn't normally be so petty as to call someone out for their linguistic ignorance, but as you tried to claim the other day that the police shouldn't be listened to as they made a typo with "hierarchy" I think it's appropriate to point it out here.
I take my 4 and 8 year old to school and the journey unfortunately involves a short section on the road. I tend to put my 8 year old ahead, I ride primary and my 4 year old rides on my left. I find that if I don't do this then drivers will overtake/squeeze past. I've still experienced drivers being unwilling to yield to us (when it's our right of way) and basically driving straight at us. The right wing press has a lot to answer for in terms of dehumanising people on bikes, regardless of age.
Some years ago I was cycling with my son to his football training. He was close passed by another parent taking his child to the same football training session. I challenged the parent about this when we arrived, at the same time incidentally, as the driver had to wait in a traffic queue. The other parent said my child had wobbled on his bike, which was the cause of the close pass. I pointed out that even if my son had wobbled on his bike (he didn't) he wouldn't have been at risk if the driver had kept a proper distance. He shut up after that. I gave the parent the evil eye for weeks afterwards every time I saw him at training. I never said another word to him. He got the message.
This has become such an emotive video, as the comments from around the socials demonstrate.
As someone who's put my child on the roads in a similar situation, I have a different view point with an outcome. My daughter lost confidence from this exact kind of incident and now is far more nervous about road cycling than she used to be. Her bike handling is excellent (very proud) but she visibly tenses up on some roads now and we forcefully now find longer (sometimes painfully longer) less roadie routes to our destinations.
So regardless of 'blame' in this video, the 'only' issues this video should highlight are our nations reliance on cars, drivers issues around their entitlement and the broken laws of this land which do not promote safe roads for all.
Reminds me of:
https://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/insert-loved-one-here/gallery
What annoys me with all these 'the child doesn't know the highway code', 'is too young to be on the road' comments, is that they neatly ignore the fact that the child is being actively supervised.
When I ride with my kids, I am always communicating to them about there position, what to do etc. so I'm surprised that everyone just things this father is blindly following his child in this instance.
And also, whilst ranting... that road is not busy. In both versions of the video I've seen, there are only two moving cars. As an aside, both of these were arguably driving poorly... no one's commenting about the car reversing into oncoming traffic at all. What there is, is a lot of road hazards (parked cars), that turn an arguably pleasant road into something else.
My two pence on this issue:
I think both the father and the driver were in the wrong.
The driver was driving dangerously, not in keeping with the highway code, if he had collided with the child I believe he would have been entirely at fault as he could have completely eliminated the risk to the child simply by stopping.
The underlying principle behind safe driving (or cycling) is to only proceed if it is safe to do so. Regardless of priority, traffic lights etc. In this situation the potential for a collision was obvious so the driver should have done all in his power to mitigate the risk.
The father has made a poor judgement call in choosing this road. In an ideal world all roads should be safe enough for children to cycle on. In reality they are not. I have a child the exact same age. I cycle with them on the road but I choose the roads very carefully. Low traffic areas with good visibility and minimal potential for conflict. If I do find myself on a road with potential for conflict I will always ride alongside my child, this maximises our visibility and also removes the risk of close passes.
In summary, poor judgement from both the father and the driver but regardless of the father's poor judgement the onus is on the driver to recognise and respond to risks on the road. Something they patently failed to do.
No not really. That road even has traffic calming measures. I am thinking you aint very smart.
I would comment though that in the Netherlands the parent would have been cycling alongside the child, often with a hand on their back and full control of both their own bike and ready to intervene if necessary if their is a sudden fcktard like the driver in the video doing crap like that. Of course Dutch drivers have a lot more respect for fellow road users.
Always good to start with an insult...
The traffic calming measures increase the potential for conflict.
They require a driver to see the cyclist and then to cede priority. Anyone that rides regularly through such chicanes will know that neither of those are a given. I've had a few near misses and I'm far larger and easier to see than the child in the video.
I'm glad we agree on the optimal positioning of the adult cyclist though.
It's quite clearly a quiet residential road with regular traffic calming measures, there's even a park running down one side of it so you only have to watch for people exiting driveways on your left. It's completely straight so no problems with dangerous sightlines. It's hard to imagine a much safer road, to be honest. The only thing that makes this road unsuitable for the child is the behaviour of the driver. Anywhere can become dangerous if drivers make it so; I've occasionally seen people driving in London's completely segregated cycle lanes, if one of those hit a child cyclist would the parents have chosen the wrong route? Additionally, in the original tweet by the father he points out that he is less than 100m from his house, so it's not so much a matter of choosing a road to ride on as wanting to ride home.
Hang on - are we missing the elephant again? Non-moving elephants this time. Houses on the left (that I can see) have driveways. And there are vehicles parked along much of that side of the road, and on the other side also. Right at the start there are (thin) cycle bypasses by the traffic calming restrictions (on both sides, they're marked with a bike symbol) - and look! My favourite - a vehicle (truck) parked right after the one on the right...
Now this may be "by design" e.g. "parking will narrow the carriageway and slow down drivers". On the other hand the vehicles also then force people into conflict. All I know is there is a subtle but maybe important difference from how they do this where there is lots of cycling.
Not relevant to the main point but as a bonus "could do better" - someone reversing out of a side street. You weren't advised to do that when I learned (rule 201):
I noticed that too.
Also, most (all?) of the cars on drives were facing in so will all be reversing out onto the road at some point.
They'll be doing that with absolutely terrible visibility due to all the parked cars and vans.
Ideal.
It's increasingly obvious to anyone in their right that anyone who responded to this video with nothing to say about the driver and everything to say about the child, should have gheir responses passed to their insurance company for appropriate risk rating.
No, the driver was 100% in the wrong. The size of the cyclist isn't the issue here. If the cyclist was an adult, the driver would still have been in the wrong.
Did you read my post?
I don't think I could have made it much clearer that I thought the driver was entirely in the wrong with regard to the incident in question.
The father erred in his route selection.
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