No lights or reflectives on a dark busy road in the rain.

[fossyant]

And why is that?

Thought that was obvious. Drivers don't look. Riding in the dark with no lights makes your chances of being hit quite high.

 

[Glow worm]

Which bit of 'a cyclist MUST carry lights in times of poor visibility or darkness' can cyclists not get through their self-centered little heads ? We hear complaints of motorists with defective lights - speeding - parking in cycleways [which nobody seem to use anyway] and yet when a cyclist breaks the law it's always somebody else's fault if something goes wrong. Sorry but no - growing up means taking responsibility - if you can't do that then buy a bus ticket.

No one is saying cyclists shouldn't have lights, but just that drivers really ought to try a bit harder to stop driving into stuff, in particular people.

 

[fossyant]

So the problem is the not looking, and our taking increasing levels of responsibility by using lights in daylight conditions is no answer.

Aye, but in the rain, riding in black, no reflectives makes it very difficult to see a cyclist. By law you have to have lights at night. I'm making the point that even using lights in daylight doesn't get you seen, so what chance have you at night without any.

 

[numbnuts]

I use bright lights during the day and I do get noticed and being a trike rider that is more important to me

 

[ufkacbln]

The real point is that the cyclist is "at fault" for not having lights, but the driver is equally "at fault" for failing to see' and also for failing to stop

Neither side comes out of this smelling of roses

 

[ufkacbln]

Which bit of 'a cyclist MUST carry lights in times of poor visibility or darkness' can cyclists not get through their self-centered little heads ? We hear complaints of motorists with defective lights - speeding - parking in cycleways [which nobody seem to use anyway] and yet when a cyclist breaks the law it's always somebody else's fault if something goes wrong. Sorry but no - growing up means taking responsibility - if you can't do that then buy a bus ticket.

Highly recommended for many of the motorists you mention

As you say growing up means taking responsibility for your standard of driving as well as of cycling

Can we just confirm that all these drivers should also be bus tickets, not just the cyclists

 

[Drago]

How can't a life be worth a fiver for lights? Even £1.99 on a rear alone might have saved him. How selfish to put his family and friends through all that for the sake of a couple of quid.

 

[MontyVeda]

How can't a life be worth a fiver for lights? Even £1.99 on a rear alone might have saved him. How selfish to put his family and friends through all that for the sake of a couple of quid.

You never know... it was a newish job and maybe he didn't realise his shift would take him home after dark. I've found myself having to ride unlit country lanes without lights in the past (as I'm sure others have), but luckily I'm here to tell the tale. Don't be so quick to judge.

 

[steve50]

How can't a life be worth a fiver for lights? Even £1.99 on a rear alone might have saved him. How selfish to put his family and friends through all that for the sake of a couple of quid.

We don't know the lads circumstances other than he had just started a new job, he didn't set out that night to cause an incident / accident anymore than the wagon driver did.
Quote from the article,
Collision investigator PC Richard Hignett said except for a sticker on the rear of his bike, the 20-year-old cyclist would not easily have been seen.

“There were no lights on the bike and Mr Shaul presented drivers with very little visual clues to his position on the road,” said PC Hignett.

“There was no contrast, making it very difficult for drivers to see him.”

In a statement read to the court, Farm Foods delivery driver Francis Hold said he thought his lorry had hit a deer or a horse and carried on to the company’s depot a few minutes away in Avonmouth. He said he had no idea it was a person until he returned to the scene later that evening.

“Before reaching the single carriageway section of the road, I recall my attention being drawn to a car oncoming which had its full beam headlights and fog lights on,” he said. “In the next split second I heard a bang.

None of us either in our cars or bikes set out to cause an accident or become victims of incidents on the roads but it happens and will carry on happening because we cannot educate everyone to the standards required to totally eliminate the possibility of road traffic incidents.

 

[Drago]

You never know... it was a newish job and maybe he didn't realise his shift would take him home after dark. I've found myself having to ride unlit country lanes without lights in the past (as I'm sure others have), but luckily I'm here to tell the tale. Don't be so quick to judge.

Being later, should that have been the case, out of work than expected in no way justifies endangering your life.

There are no excuses for risking your most precious commodity for the sake of a set of bike lights. None whatsoever.

 

[raleighnut]

I'd have expected the driver to at least stop no matter what he'd hit.

 

[ufkacbln]

How can't a life be worth a fiver for lights? Even £1.99 on a rear alone might have saved him. How selfish to put his family and friends through all that for the sake of a couple of quid.

Actually that is part of the problem

All too many "cyclists" will take exactly this position and buy a set of invisible, inadequate lights from a pound shop or E Bay and think they are adequate

Here is a classic example. Green LEDs are a twenty year old technology that was inadequate at the time and has been superseded. Yet the RAC still sells them

An "educated" cyclist or one with experience would realise they are a waste of money and ineffective, but how many people will buy them because of the cheap price and RAC endorsement?

 

[mjr]

How can't a life be worth a fiver for lights? Even £1.99 on a rear alone might have saved him. How selfish to put his family and friends through all that for the sake of a couple of quid.

Those lights wouldn't be legal either.

Actually, how sure can we be that he didn't have a set of pathetic cheap lights? It's not like they'd stay on the bike and working when hit by a lorry and there's plenty of scrub and long grass for them to land in along that road if it's the one I think it is. But maybe I'm letting my past bad experience of Avon and Somerset Police's attitude towards cyclists influence me.

 

[MontyVeda]

[QUOTE 4197129, member: 259"]I don't know what WGAF means. He did not say anything that could be connected with "Some people on here constantly leap in to make excuses for drivers. Some people on here constantly blame cyclists for their misfortunes. Some people on here are sick of both stuck-records."[/QUOTE]
The first post from @Drago commented only on the cyclist's lack of lights. His 2nd post also mentioned noting at all about the driver possibly not paying enough attention whilst driving in adverse weather conditions or not stopping when he knew he'd hit something. Whilst I'm not blaming the driver or the cyclist, it's errors on both sides that led to this tragic accident... so to only speak of one party's errors of judgement and not the other, does suggest a certain bias. A bias worth addressing i think.

 

[Tin Pot]

http://www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news...he_A403_near_Aust__inquest_hears/?ref=mr&lp=7

Sad. I know this road, it is in heavy use by HGVs. No way I would ride on it at night without proper reflectives & lights.

Opening sentence:

"Shaul was almost invisible to drivers ..."

What a load of shoot. I can see everything on the road when I'm driving, EVEN UNLIT NO HIVIZ "INVISIBLE" PEDESTRIANS.