The Hampton Roads cycling community mourns the loss of another cyclist last Wednesday. Pat Biron, 43, an avid cyclist and reknowned bike painter, was struck and killed on Rte. 17 in Gloucester by a 77 year old drunken driver in the early afternoon. As the Memorial Day weekend is upon us, I’d like to urge everyone to be careful while on the road. Ride Safe!!
…and the toll goes on.
When will we finally approve laws with sentences that truly reflect the seriousness of the offence of driving whilst drunk, or just simple driving in a manner likely to kill and injure.
In the UK we have passed some laws but there is still a lack of propotionality between the offence as charged and the result.
I’ve had a few friends killed while out cycling and, in one case the driver was actually resgistered as having such poor eyesight as to be considered handicapped but he was in his 70’s and ‘it would not serve the public good’ to jail him.
The young man who he killed was just starting his University degree and I should think that his fiancee holds a differant opinion to the magistrate - the case never even went to the Crown Courts.
Keep riding but keep safe.
I just bumped this 'cuz I think it’s something to think about, especially when we think of what this weekend is supposed to be about (for US dopers, in particular.) Be safe.
Oh man… i am SO sick of this!
Before everyone flames me to death, i want to explain that this isn’t an attack on the OP. I am sick of cyclists getting run down and the drivers getting off without so much as a slap on the wrist. If you kill someone while driving, and it’s determined to be your fault, you should lose your license. Period. Driving is a privilege, not a right. (of course, even if such a law was inacted, it’d never be used in incidents involving bicycles, because such cases are always the cyclist’s fault, as far as most cops and courts are concerned.
Sorry about the rant, but this is a subject that’s very important to me. Next week i’ll be participating in the AIDS ride in memory of a friend who was killed last year by a road raging truck driver. The guy received two misdemeanor charges and still has his commercial license, despite stating in court that he was “playing chicken” with the cyclist, and despite two past felony convictions (assault & battery on his ex wife and manslaughter). Lovely.
Thanks for the thread BF. Keep safe.