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news
Essex police logoEssex police: If cyclists were more safety-conscious they wouldn’t get killed
An Essex police officer has claimed that cyclists need to be more safety-conscious to spare families the heartbreak of a visit from an officer bearing bad news.
Speaking to the Essex Chronicle’s Joe Sturdy, PC Deborah Gray said: “If families have to see a white-hatted officer at their door, then it’s horrible because they just know why they are there.
“If cyclists were more safety-conscious then families would not have to see that.”
Police in Chelmsford are currently engaged in an exercise to improve safety and reduce casualties among cyclists. Operation Bluenose is claimed to be targeting both cyclists and motorists, but the force’s statements and press reports make scant mention of drivers.
“Operation Bluenose aims to identify at risk riders and urge them to use more safety equipment such as lights, helmets and high visibility clothing,” the police said when the exercise was announced.
PC Gray said she had spoken to a rider who was dressed entirely in black.
She said: “He said ‘If a car cannot see me he should not be driving’.
“He only wears his helmet when he is going on long cycle rides because he is stop-start, stop-start [in the town].”
As well as telling riders not to wear perfectly normal clothes, police are also encouraging them to wear helmets.
Sergeant Graham Freeman, who is running the operation, said: “The most common response we get is that it’s a man thing [not to wear a helmet]. We think helmets reduce the number of injuries.
“Men do generally not like to wear helmets. I have been to many accidents where cyclists have got head injuries. They can be pretty serious injuries.”
Around 90 cyclists were stopped in Chelmsford on Friday and police had previously stopped around 120 in Basildon.
Sgt Freeman said: “About 50 per cent had no lights and were given verbal warnings. About 50 per cent had no reflective clothing and 75 per cent had no cycle helmet.”
Commenters on the Essex Chronicle’s story are not impressed. PaulM132 said: “Someone should tell Essex Police that there is no legal requirement to wear a helmet, or any particular type of clothing, while cycling. There is no requirement to carry lights - only where cycling in hours of legal darkness.
"And there is certainly no basis for telling cyclist that they are responsible for their own safety. That is like saying that they should wear a bullet proof vest in case a gunman is on the loose.”
One commenter, 04smallmj doubts the crackdown is even necessary: “I used to cycle in Chelmsford a lot and it was probably the best place that I've cycled and lived in, so it's a shame and a bit embarrasing to see this.
"I actually ditched my helmet and hi viz while living there so I would definitely be one of the ‘naughty cyclists’ who have been given victim blaming advice. I also think that the quote ‘we *think* helmets reduce the number of injuries’ says a lot too.”
Izzy_G added: “The health benefits of cycling far outweigh the dangers, whether one wears a helmet or not, so we should be doing as much as we can to get more people on their bikes.
"Campaigns like this, which stress the dangers of cycling do just the opposite by discouraging the very people we want to get on their bikes.”
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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Bus driver couldnt be bothered to look.
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There's no need for foul language.
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100 comments
Unbelievable ignorance...yet strangely unexpected. Like the Jimmy Savile victims, some of whom were supposedly told to be grateful for his attention, we too find ourselves victims in this shadowy age that thankfully, sexual abuse seems to be emerging from.
Most of us have experienced or heard of accounts of police taking no interest in aggressive road behaviour from those like Savile in a greater position of responsibility and effectively discouraged from seeking justice.
Perhaps as vulnerable road users we too should be grateful for the interest some motorists give us as they fly past at 80 with barely a foot of seperation and just be content with being road fodder? Not good Essex police, not good at all.
Compare and contrast with police attitude in this video
Okay, so from recent news... Joseph Reed, hit from behind and killed, whilst wearing helmet and hi viz. Or David Irving, again, hit from behind and killed whilst wearing hi viz and helmet.
Tell me, Essex Police, in such instances, what are you doing to "spare families the heartbreak of a visit from an officer bearing bad news". Maybe, just maybe, addressing driver behaviour? Just a thought.
Found them. PPE would indeed be useful.
how the fing hell is a bike helmet going to help you when some
moron in over ton of metal ploughs into you .... gah ... same old
boloxs
It's outrageous enough for them to be tweeted and sshown ones displeasure
what I want to say on this topic is completely unprintable... (C)omplete (U)tter (N)umpty (T)wonks...
meh...
What they are doing is effectively harassment and illegal.
Were the policemen wearing their helmets? They've got them, why aren't they wearing them?
Idiots as usual.
If as part of their training they'd spend a few hours riding round town and the country lanes, they'd realise where the problems lie.
Almost every other car doesn't give the room the highway code stipulates yet they are still on at cyclists, beggars belief.
I was riding in a large tightly-formed group in Essex on Sunday. Everyone was wearing helmets, and most had some sort of hiviz in their kit. This didn't stop one driver, coming from the opposite direction, on a straight and wide country road, buzzing us at around 60mph. I braced myself as I thought he was going to clip me with his wing mirror. He passed me with a couple of inches to spare. Utterly terrifying and absolutely baffling behaviour. I wonder how Essex police would have expected our helmets and hiviz to protect us if the driver had misjudged his line? Numpties. If this is the calibre of officer "protecting" me as I ride round Essex I should take my rides and my money elsewhere.
I was riding in a large tightly-formed group in Essex on Sunday. Everyone was wearing helmets, and most had some sort of hiviz in their kit. This didn't stop one driver, coming from the opposite direction, on a straight and wide country road, buzzing us at around 60mph. I braced myself as I thought he was going to clip me with his wing mirror. He passed me with a couple of inches to spare. Utterly terrifying and absolutely baffling behaviour. I wonder how Essex police would have expected our helmets and hiviz to protect us if the driver had misjudged his line? Numpties. If this is the calibre of officer "protecting" me as I ride round Essex I should take my rides and my money elsewhere.
email pcc [at] essex.pnn.police.uk and let the local commissioner what you think about this bollox.
Thanks, emailed them my views on operation brownnose.
Tw*ts
I have addressed this with the PCC & Essex Police as I have tried to report dangerous drivers incl. ones that have hit me or knocked me off & Police wont do a thing or even make a report despite me having it on video for them.
Their usual response I have gotten by email & Twitter is total silence...
They dont give a damn! Far easier to pick on & belittle cyclists than deal with the real issues of dangerous drivers.
I was riding in a large tightly-formed group in Essex on Sunday. Everyone was wearing helmets, and most had some sort of hiviz in their kit. This didn't stop one driver, coming from the opposite direction, on a straight and wide country road, buzzing us at around 60mph. I braced myself as I thought he was going to clip me with his wing mirror. He passed me with a couple of inches to spare. Utterly terrifying and absolutely baffling behaviour. I wonder how Essex police would have expected our helmets and hiviz to protect us if the driver had misjudged his line? Numpties. If this is the calibre of officer "protecting" me as I ride round Essex I should take my rides and my money elsewhere.
In response to post above about fast car pass...another scary story of deliberate terrorism on the roads. Of course if the driver cocks the horror pass up he then leans back on the chaise longue extended by the present judiciary who will water the actions down to 'an accident' and claim 'hardship' the second any whiff of a two week driving ban is raised.
Government has clearly decided our lives are worthless (just look at sentencing and argue otherwise) and that motoring is a monster that should be fed at all and any cost.
With that in mind is it not time that the police offered an escort service to vulnerable users out on the roads so that lives are not to be continually taken completely unchecked? They do it for football matches and celebrity cycling fund raisers...yes, too embarrassing to report that Davina has been killed by 26 year old Derek who claims he was distracted by his dangling boxing gloves on the mirror, hence not his fault and £50 fine.
Yes, I know the practicality and logistics are horrendous but actually, take a look at the cost of 'road accidents', particularly KSI's in the UK and factor in the myriad of contributory costs such as obesity, diabetes, general poor health, air quality, destroyed roads, reduced house values, road building blah blah blah (endless list basically) and suddenly a subsidised police escort service is not that crazy.
The police should protect the vulnerable, at present along with the total apathy of your local minister (few rare but shining exemptions) coupled with a PM that loves cycling but refuses to lift a finger to change anything we are actually being targeted for all intensive purposes. Government sees it like this in essence:
Couple hundred deaths a year to keep the precious status quo of motoring? Done.
I especially liked this quote.
“Men do generally not like to wear helmets. I have been to many accidents where cyclists have got head injuries. They can be pretty serious injuries.”
Yeah, particularly when they've been run over by a 2 tonne car or worse.
Just try asking the guy who got hit in the back of the head by a minibus how well his helmet worked... oh wait, you can't, he's dead.
you could ask James Cracknell the same question - he's not dead.
I wonder if it would be possible to have the police officers, who were standing round stopping people and telling them that they should be wearing high vis or helmets when it's perfectly legal not to, charged with wasting police time.
The Only Way Is Essex. Classy.
Once again: the Netherlands has no Helmet law and probably the lowest head-injury count for cyclist. For Day to day travel a helmet isn't needed as it's usually too slow to inflict seriuous damage. High visibility gear during the day isn't that helpful either.
As some indicate the problem isn't with cyclist but with overspeeding cars: Great Britain's car drivers aren't used to cyclists yet, and need to be held accountable first to get accustomed to sharing the road.
Cyclist responsibilities can also be addressed, but that needs to be put in accordance with the law. Controlling cyclist in wintertime for carrying lights in dusk was hugely effective in Amsterdam like 10 years ago and has had a long lasting effect.
(now way day's controlling locations get tweeted rapidly making check less effective.)
Best use of resources for Essex Police - investigate a few more crashes and publish the results to show what caused the crashes and how we might prevent a repeat - Woodford in Essex? Well maybe look at why 6 fatal crashes at same junction, as that suggests something fundamentally amiss with the way the road is designed and operated there.
Mickey mouse police bolox.
Splendid.
Even more excellent use of tax payers money, When Essex has the lowest crime rates in the country I will take operation bullsh!t seriously ( sorry Blue nose)
OMFG...its not a million miles away from the old tosh of "If girls were more dressed more appropriately they wouldn’t get sexually assualted"
How about target the source of a danger and not the victims
This.
Or if your working on a building site, wear PPE.
your point, on a building site you would have a site risk assessment, or should have done! the HSE will be interested if you haven't!!!! The scaffolding with scaftag's, site demarkation, permits, etc etc. Once all that is in place then you start worrying about hardhats, steel toecaps etc etc.
Helmets don't solve anything, if i clip the kerb and fall whilst wearing a helmet, it may help, if i am hit by a truck it will make f-all difference.
Your first paragraph sounds like your advocating some sort of cycling proficiency test before we are allowed on the road. That's a bit controversial and i'm not sure i agree to that!
As for your second point, no ones claiming a polystyrene lid will stop a truck crushing your skull. But you'd be insane to suggest that it wouldn't increased your chances of survival if you were clipped by a car and landed on your head.
But a main point you missed is visibility. I don't agree with how Essex police have gone about this, but their point is still valid, cyclists need to take more responsibility for themselves. I saw 3 ninja cyclists riding home tonight wearing stealth black and with no lights. They're almost inviting an accident there.
Like it or not, the road is a hazardous environment and always will be no matter how safety measures are put in place.
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