Murder on the road.....

[Saddle bum]

From The Times...
• The death of a cyclist who fell from his bike in Torfaen in South Wales is being treated as murder. Gwent Police said that four suspects — men aged 18, 19 and 23 and a woman aged 19 — had been arrested. The cyclist, aged 63, was taken to hospital with head injuries on Wednesday. He died a few hours later.

 

[ASC1951]

And the point of this post is ...?

 

[Leodis]

They will get cautions.

 

[Arch]

And the point of this post is ...?

To promote discussion, presumably.

Interesting to hear of a charge of 'murder' which seems unusual, and to me suggests something more than a traffic collision between people unknown to each other - IE some premeditation. That the victim was on a bike may be an irrelevance.

 

[tyred]

Definitely more than meets the eye. It can only be murder if it was done deliberately.

 

[Risex4]

Two options come to mind.

It could be murder in the truest form, in which case the fact it was a cyclist on the road isn't a "conversion" in the sense of it broadening out to a discussion on road safety and legal sanctions on motorists involved, as this obviously wouldn't apply.

Or, its a RTC with grossly aggravating factors, for example (and I am hypothesizing completely here) extremes of speed and/or intoxication. In that instance, the CPS may feel that Death by Dangerous isn't sufficient enough of a charge. They'll go in with murder for the defence to knock it down to manslaughter as a lesser offence on the absence of mens rea.

 

[TVC]

This was reported briefky on the BBC a couple of days ago, but I can't find any more details, which seems a bit strange.

Bear in mind there was a headline from Nottingham a couple of years ago 'Cyclist shot in broad daylight'. The story was actually very different frim the headline. One toerag drug dealer popped another toerag drug dealer as part of a feud, the fact he was riding a bike at the time was of no real relevance.