The judge seemed to be saying "Well, it's very sad but the bloke's gotta earn his dosh, we can't let one silly cyclist cause too much disruption."
Indeed.
Lorry drivers kill cyclists and get away with it, in part due to the lazy incompetence Corporation of London. No culpability on the part of the cyclist either.
The majority of cycle fatalities in London involve left turning vehicles and the majority also involve lorries:
in central London the majority of cyclist fatalities caused by left-turning lorries while in the rest of London this collision type is 'only' about a quarter of cyclist fatalities.
In 2000 a cement lorry on London Wall overtook a 20 year female, Ms Barlow, cycling westwards then turned left immediately afterwards, crushing her to death.
After the driver claimed in court not to have seen her and was only fined £250, the girl's mother decided to take action into her own hands after finding out how many similar so-called accidents there had been.
She bought shares in the cement company, heckled the directors at their AGM and forced them to fit extra safety mirrors to their lorries.
Unfortunately before the mirrors were fitted the same lorry (but a different driver) killed a 19 year old cyclist while turning left into Primrose Street from Bishopsgate in 2001.
http://www.citycyclists.org.uk/
It's no accident!
1/4 of London cycle deaths in City
In 2004 a quarter of London's cyclist fatalities took place in the City, despite the Square Mile making up just a thousandth of the total area of Greater London. While the rest of London sees improvements in safety due to new 20mph zones and cycle facilities, the Corporation has refused to spend money granted to it by Transport for London.
http://www.londonmessengers.org/HGV-Campaign
HGV Campaign
To date, 7 London bicycle messengers have been killed while working, all by HGV's.
While the LBMA has already devoted considerable efforts to raising awareness of these dangers, having twice painted the roads with the names of the fallen and also having publicised their cases in the programme distributed free at 2003 ECMC, these preventable tragedies continue, most recently with the death of Sebastian Lukomski (10/8/1976 - 23/2/2004).
All the Thames bridges have a very poor safety record for cyclists even by the City's standards, which has the worst Killed or Seriously Injured ('KSI') rate for cyclists of any local authority in the country.
There was nothing the cyclists could have done. Lorries overtake, swing left, crush girls to death and the drivers get away scot free.
There is an appalling postscript to Ms Barlow's death:
Correction from Cynthia Barlow, the mother in question:
"Incidentally, I read further down your website and the mention of my daughter is not strictly correct – reality is rather worse than that I’m afraid.
The driver of the lorry in my daughter’s case was acquitted, not fined, so nothing happened to him at all.
The same lorry, with a different driver, was in the following year involved in another incident in which the cyclist, Sue Coll, was not in fact killed but suffered catastrophic injuries.
The same driver as was involved in this second case was also involved in a third case in which another cyclist received disabling injuries.
The prosecution of the driver in the second case involving Sue Coll was an exact repetition of my case – same barrister, same expert witness, same tactics, same everything, and same outcome, the driver was again acquitted.
So I have carried on campaigning, not just with RMC, but also on the subject of failings in the criminal justice system."
I spoke to Sue Coll after her trial and was absolutely sickened by the similarities, same lies, same strategy of arrogant defence barrister attacking and humiliating the main prosecution witness (a van driver), etc.
The driver’s defence even cited one of the initiatives that had come about as a result of my involvement with RMC as evidence that he was a conscientious driver, knowing that the truth would not come out because the prosecution had already agreed not to mention either the previous incident involving the same lorry, or the other previous incident involving the same driver, so as not to prejudice the driver’s chance of a fair trial.
A fair trial for the victim would be nice.
On the final day of the trial, it was obvious that the driver was going to be acquitted so Sue’s family came to court to support her.
When the driver arrived, the police ushered him into a private back room “so that he wouldn’t be upset at seeing her family”.
Really.