Did anyone watch BBC Traffic Cops last night.

[subaqua]

Fair enough. I disagree strongly though. If there's a body lying on the road in front, I'm going to stop, with all my lights on, and can't possibly see how anyone could think it safer to do otherwise.

sorry i should have put the sarcasm mode on for the last bit. there is no reason she should not have stopped

 

[Silver Fox]

[QUOTE 1843351, member: 9609"]I can understand someone hitting a unlit cyclist, at night on a busy dual carriageway; But what I don't get is not knowing it was a cyclist, in that last half second before impact she must have known it was another human being.
[/quote]

Of course she did, she'd have also looked in the rear view mirror as drove off leaving the carnage behind.

Saying she thought she'd struck an animal was just a smoke screen to lessen the severity of her actions, it's classic post impact behaviour. Her guilty conscience got the better of her that's why she rang the police and handed herself in.

 

[SquareDaff]

I find it amazing that some of us are trying to blame the motorist. As far as I saw the only thing she did wrong was not stop at the scene of an accident. The cyclist was unlit, wearing dark clothes, p1ssed whilst riding, with no reflectors on an unlit A road. And as someone else has said, the angle of said road would mean that the cyclist wouldn't be picked out by the car headlights! Given the force of impact he was dead whether she'd stopped or not and in my view only had himself to blame.

Having said all that - being killed was a very harsh price to pay for what could have been momentary, drink induced stupidity!

 

[swee'pea99]

I don't think anyone's been 'blaming the motorist' - ie, saying it's her fault. On the contrary, there seems to be general agreement that however sad the upshot, the cyclist was clearly in the wrong. People are questioning her version of events - that she failed to stop, on account of she thought she'd hit an animal, saying it's hard to believe she was unaware she'd hit a person, and that she really ought, in those circumstances, to have stopped. I find that hard to disagree with, dark and isolated road or not.

I also share others' doubts about whether the police's reported comments were laudable - or even acceptable. I'm not saying she should be punished; just that praising someone for leaving the scene of an accident where someone was killed seems an odd thing to do and sets a pretty dubious precedent.

 

[BSRU]

I turned it over when I realised what was lying motionless on the road.

Far less serious but disturbing in a different way, the first incident in that program was a young woman who had crashed into the barrier and spun across the road. She claimed to have been trying to avoid hitting a rabbit but the police soon realised it was a complete cock and bull story. The more plausible explanation that she had been distracted by her mobile phone.
Police did not charge her with anything as fortunately for everyone else no-one was hurt, although tax payers money was being wasted because police had to deal with her selfishness and the barrier had to be repaired.

 

[fossyant]

It's the failing to stop that most of us are questioning. TBH lots of folk wouldn't stop - how many of us have been hit and run, be it on foot, in a car, or on a bike. I was hit be a van some years back - I did a great impression of superman, flew some distance, but I didn't fly long. Driver only stopped long enough to see me peal myself off the road, then legged it before anyone could get the details.

Actions like this are shocking. Looking at the car damage, she had struck the rear of the bike by her front offside headlamp, but there was a massive impact on the windscreen. No-way would you think you'd hit an animal.

 

[mickle]

From the highway code: " Drive at a speed that will allow you to stop well within the distance you can see to be clear."

And I don't believe for a second that her lights somehow failed to illuminate him.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

From the highway code: " Drive at a speed that will allow you to stop well within the distance you can see to be clear."

And I don't believe for a second that her lights somehow failed to illuminate him.

Either you don't drive, don't drive much or don't drive on unlit main roads at night. It's very easy for a relatively small dark object to not get picked up by a car's headlights, particularly in this case where the impact was to the offside of the vehicle.

However sorry we feel for the bloke because he was on a bike, he was a dickhead and it was a case of Darwinism in action.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Either you don't drive, don't drive much or don't drive on unlit main roads at night. It's very easy for a relatively small dark object to not get picked up by a car's headlights, particularly in this case where the impact was to the offside of the vehicle.

However sorry we feel for the bloke because he was on a bike, he was a dickhead and it was a case of Darwinism in action.