Curious coroner's remarks.

[Steve Malkin]

Don't agree. A cycle can outbrake a car,

Is that really true?
Maybe I'm just a crap cyclist, but I'm pretty sure I could stop a lot faster in my car if I was travelling down a soaking wet hill at 25mph than I could on my bike.
4 big tyres and 4 big hydraulic disks backed up by ABS makes stomping on the pedal in the car a stress free affair, but if I hauled on the bicycle brakes in those circumstances i'd probably end up sliding down the hill on my arse.

 

[glenn forger]

First class full weight sanctimonious daffodil

DON'T attack me for stuff I haven't said. If I thought it was an "attack on cyclists" I'd have said so,. I merely said it's curious. Calm down.

 

[pauldavid]

Why would I feel hard done to? I cycle, drive and motorcycle roughly equal distances per annum so have no axe to grind for any particular group of road users. Part of the role of a judge / coroner is to present their summation coherently. Here, that particular coroner has failed regardless of how much information he was privy to.

But we've only seen the couple of lines from his summation that the reporter decided to share.

 

[glenn forger]

Definitely rule 60 (a criminal offence?), arguably rule 68.

It's possible that since the headlight was described as "very bright" the cops considered the lack of a light that's actually fixed to the bike irrelevant. It's an anomaly that he could have had a terrible, but legal, front light that would have been much less effective at lighting the road ahead.

To me the main point is I've never heard of a motorist travelling well below the speed limit be criticised when a ped has died in similar circumstances.

 

[Panter]

Is that really true?
Maybe I'm just a crap cyclist, but I'm pretty sure I could stop a lot faster in my car if I was travelling down a soaking wet hill at 25mph than I could on my bike.
4 big tyres and 4 big hydraulic disks backed up by ABS makes stomping on the pedal in the car a stress free affair, but if I hauled on the bicycle brakes in those circumstances i'd probably end up sliding down the hill on my arse.

+1. My car stops in an incredibly short distance, far shorter than I could, even on a hydraulically braked MTB on slicks. Especially in the wet.

 

[Markymark]

Everybody on the road should travel at a speed that they can stop within the distance they can see. I do not know if this was the case with the cyclist.

 

[glenn forger]

Everybody in the road should travel at a speed that they can stop within the distance they can see. I do not know if this was the case with the cyclist.

Precisely. Under PL the cyclist would be presumed at fault, I'm completely happy with that, which is why paul's garbage is so annoying.

 

[glenn forger]

[QUOTE 3681012, member: 9609"]I tried the brake test thing a few years back, from 30mph slightly downhill my van stopped within its own length.[/QUOTE]

Doubt that very much, your thinking distance is one foot per 1mph.

 

[glenn forger]

Or his van's sixty-three feet long?

 

[Drago]

The rider had a moral duty to ride at a speed that would allow him to stop in the distance he can see to be clear. He failed to do so. The coroner was right to criticise the rider for failing to observe a code of practice that may well have prevented this death.

 

[glenn forger]

The coroner was right to criticise the rider for failing to observe a code of practice that may well have prevented this death.

Do you think that a coroner has failed in their duty if they neglect to make the same remarks following every road fatality?

 

[glenn forger]

[QUOTE 3681138, member: 9609"]Think that table was devised in the 1960s - modern brakes and tyres have much improved .[/QUOTE]

Human reactions are just as bad, sadly. You can't stop a van within it's length at 30mph.

 

[glenn forger]

Like the man in the orthopaedic shoes, I stand to be corrected, but that doesn't sound right to me.

 

[BigCoops]

Riding/driving at a speed enabling the rider to stop in order to avoid unexpected obstacles...

And in the event of step out? Say 6 feet in front of you? I'd suggest the only safe speed in this event is not riding/driving at all.

Ride/drive to the conditions is a very easy but blanket statement to make, however there are an infinite amount of variables contained within "The Conditions", not all of which are readily apparent, or can be planned for or anticipated.

It's easy to judge others when looking in from the outside, as I said in my first post (and with respect to the victim) I wonder if the huge delay in accessing A&E contributed to his sad death, or even if the concequences of the delay were explored during the inquest.

 

[Simontm]

“Had they [the breaches of the Highway Code] not occurred it could well have meant that the collision would not have occurred,” said Mr Brunton.

I would have thought that maybe the words in brackets were inserted by the reporter, except Brunton goes on to say:

Summing up the evidence and recording a verdict of misadventure, Mr Brunton said: “I have never encountered a case like this before.

“This case highlights the dangers of bikes riding at high speed.”

Just to clarify standard practice: The journalist reported verbatim what the coroner said- "Had they not occurred it could well have meant..."
The [...] is the clarification of what the coroner meant when he said "they".