“Life Imprisonment Is Excessive” | Cyclist Group Co-Founder CRITICISES New Dangerous Cycling Law

The UK government has now made the offence of “death by dangerous cycling” law, meaning If cyclists kill pedestrians, they could face up to life imprisonment.

Co-founder of Stop Killing Cyclists, Donnachadh McCarthy, has no objection to the law being introduced as a penalty for dangerous cycling and for death resulting from it.

However, he does object to the penalties not being proportionate to the danger represented by a cyclist. He says: “A car is 125 times more dangerous than a 20kg bicycle”

Kevin O’Sullivan thinks “it’s a bit mad” that under UK laws, bicycles can’t break speed limits as they are not motorised.

#bicycle #death #dangerous #pedestrian #cycling #car

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let’s talk about cyclists uh the government has now uh in the criminal justice Bill uh added uh the charge uh the offense of death by dangerous cycling so if cyclists dangerous cyclists uh kill pedestrians they could face up to life in prison they’ll certainly get a heavy punishment uh uh let’s uh talk to the co-founder of stop killing cyclists uh donica McCarthy uh hello donica thank you for joining us hi Kevin thanks for your invite uh do you approve of this if a dangerous cyclist uh kills a pedestrian uh that they should face a serious punishment it should be enshrined in law and they should go to prison uh we have no objection to the law in being introduced um for a penalty for Dangerous cycling and somebody resulting in a death from it what we do object to is the equation of the penalties not being proportionate to the danger represented by a cyclist we think a life imprisonment for an accidental killing of a of a pedestrian is excessive a car is 125 times more dangerous than a than a than a than a Bic 20 kilogram bicycle and so therefore the the the penalty should be proportionate but we actually support the concept of the law well that’s good Del and also you know I think when they say you know it’s a good headline to say or killer cyclist would could face life in prison I think the reality is uh that if a dangerous cyclist uh you know knocks over an old granny and kills them uh they may well go to jail but the chances of them getting life are very very slim uh but if you accept that that they deserve a a serious punishment then we’re on the same page uh what and I think you might agree with me about this as well I’m not I’m not used to agreeing with you but uh happy to do so uh the other week uh I live quite near Regent Park in London and the cyclists uh they go like four or five a breast and they use the perimeter track around uh uh um region Park as a like a racetrack and they charg round and round and there was this cyclist just a few weeks back uh was going 9 miles an hour over the speed limit the speed limit there is 20 uh and uh knock this granny over this poor old lady who takes her dog for a walk there has done for 50 years and killed her and escaped Scott free when he went to because it is impossible under our laws uh for unmoored vehicles to break uh the speed limit so the fact even though he was going nearly 10 miles an hour over the speed limit he walked away scot-free because cyclists can’t uh according to our laws break the speed limit that’s a bit mad isn’t it well I I don’t understand why the police didn’t use the the same law they use against Charlie aliston in that case um it doesn’t make sense there is a law there um Charlie aliston was charged eight years ago with the the killing of uh Kim Briggs and he was in he was jailed for I think up to two years um but regions Park is an interesting one um I think there is some coming ground there for us um basically we we soping size of campaign for roads to be closed in Parks we think Parks should be areas of safety for kids to play in they shouldn’t be where hvs and taxis and cars should be racing through them um so if they if we close the roads in regions Park um that pelaton should cease to exist that pelaton should be taking place on a properly regulated Criterion Road Track yeah that wouldn’t be where pedestrians wouldn’t be subjected to that danger yeah the point about um speed limits I think is is a red hering um what is it though do because I mean surely surely a speed limit is a speed limit if a car can’t can’t go faster than 20 M an hour why why should a bicycle be able to same for breaking lights Ian cyclists seem to go through red lights with impunity well let’s let’s deal with um I hope we have established Common Ground we think that the road Region’s Park should be closed or we think well hang on a second hang on a second I mean I I kind I get your point about Parks I agree with that the I’m going off on a tangent here but I live quite near there and if they close that perimeter track uh the traffic chaos will be a nightmare but I do take your point fast roads uh near to park we could think about I agree with that so so moving on then to the point of of um of speed limits um the the point of a 20 m per hour speed limit is that the impact of a car it kills eight times less people than they they travel at 30 miles per hour to to the for a cyclist to have the same danger as a car traveling at 20 miles per hour the cyclist would have to be cycling at 220 miles an hour because you’ve got 20 uh kilograms versus 22,500 kilograms weight okay and the impact of a crash is you know it’s the old MC squared and so therefore to actually have the same law applied to cyclist you have to say a cyclist cannot go above a speed of 225 miles an hour which doesn’t make sense yeah but but you know certainly in reges park in particular I mean they are racing around there as fast as they can it does seem to be strange uh that we have no laws about what cyclists can do they can go through red lights they can break the speed limit sure surely they should be uh Bound by the same legal system as the rest of us Ro we have established that we agree on that Kevin as well okay the introduction come on Don you got to give me a round that’s why we get you on seriously it’s good it’s good we hat your we but um but we have established that we agree that there should be a law against danger cycling that’s what would have been applied in that case in Regent Park but there is already a law applying you can’t crash through dried lights where point I would like to make maybe where we might fall out is that go on go on Mark Harper stated today that this new law would save lives well actually I don’t that is not true one person a year according to the police is killed by the fault of a cyle cycling too near to a pavement or or on the pavement and over kill kills us that’s one person year this law is not going to save that one person a year however Mark Harper has taken steps over the last two years that endangers more kids he’s actually eliminated the entire budget for safer family neighborhoods he’s almost destroyed the entire budget for safer roots for recycling kids to school and he’s in favor of 30 m per hour the limits being restored in London so on three routes Mark Harper wants to make a roads more dangerous and I think that’s the real news out today is that we’ve got a a transport minister posing um that as he’s making the road safer but he’s not I’ll tell you what Don I’m going to let you have that uh it’s really good to talk to you thanks very much Donan McCarthy