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Video: Cycling family in plea to top cop on danger on Cornwall's roadsFamily ByCycle video to Devon and Cornwall Chief Constable (via Twitter).JPG

Video: Cycling family in plea to top cop on danger on Cornwall's roads

Tom Jones highlights lack of police presence despite massive holiday traffic as he rode with his wife and children
by Simon_MacMichael
Mon, Aug 13, 2018 15:29
42

A family whose cycling travels around them the UK have won them thousands of followers on social media and seen them featured on media outlets such as BBC News have appealed to Cornwall’s top police officer to tackle bad driving on the county’s roads following a series of encounters with poor drivers while out riding yesterday.

The Jones family from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, hit the headlines in June when Rhoda, aged 4, was filmed on a tag-along giving a lorry driver in Jedburgh in the Scottish borders a thumbs-up as he overtook her with plenty of room to spare.

> Video of little girl giving safe overtake lorry driver thumbs-up goes viral

She was riding with parents Tom and Kate – who blog about the family’s adventures at Family ByCycle and brother and sister Thomas Ivor, nine and Ruth, five, and the video quickly went viral.

Yesterday, the family were riding in Cornwall and it proved to be a much less happy experience, summed up by the picture in this tweet.

A subsequent tweet revealed one particular nasty experience, which was flagged up to Devon & Cornwall Police on Twitter.

This morning, dad Tom posted a video addressed to the force’s Chief Constable, highlighting the lack of police presence on a road full of holiday traffic and urging Devon & Cornwall Police – which operates its roads policing unit jointly with Dorset Police – to take action.

He said: “We’re on the road this morning and we’ve got a quick message for the Chief Constable of Devon & Cornwall Police” [since 2013, Shaun Sawyer, with Stephen Otter having left the previous year – ed].

“We’ve looked back at the video we shot on the A39 and the A392 yesterday coming through your patch.

“We would love to know why on one of the busiest days of the summer coming in and out of Newquay we did not see a single Devon & Cornwall traffic car for the entire length of our journey.

“We’ve got a lovely collection of videos of drivers behaving appallingly towards us tomorrow.

“In particular, a red Ford – untaxed, we checked it – towing a caravan almost took out Katy and Ruth coming through Quintrell Downs.

“We’ve already asked on Twitter but we’ve not had a reply. Please would you get in touch with us.”

He continued: “We don’t want to share the video publicly because that will prejudice the opportunity for you to issue a NIP [Notice of Intended Prosecution] and to charge them and to take the matter to court.

“It’s not fair that a family like ours is being intimidated off Devon & Cornwall’s roads. Please will you do something to restore our confidence.

“We’re going to be riding through the county, or through your patch, for the rest of today.

“So if you’d like to come out and see us on the road, maybe come and have a look at the film with us, come and experience the conditions we’re putting up with.

“Bring an unmarked car and come and come and sit on the road with us for a little while, we’d love to see you because this is a really, really serious matter.”

He added: “Road harm is a significant cause of death and this is just not acceptable.

“Yesterday, a busy day, you’ve got grockles everywhere, poor standards of driving and not a single traffic cop to be seen and we don’t think that’s fair on families like ours.

“Please reach out and get in touch and we look forward to having a positive conversation with you soon. Thank you.”

The family’s experience has seen them receive a lot of messages of support on social media – as well as one on the roadside itself yesterday.

Family ByCycle
Devon & Cornwall Police
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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42 comments

Avatar
mrchrispy | 6 years ago
6 likes

my kids remineded my the other week about the time nearly lost my schnizzle on some stupid bint in south manachester, they were in the trailer ages 4 and 5 and she tried to squeeze past when there was clearly not room.  Worrying thing si that it was over 7 years ago and they remember it, I dont, for me it's just lost amongst all the other stupid things I see drivers doing.

Avatar
60kg lean keen ... replied to mrchrispy | 6 years ago
2 likes

I used have to bribe my kids to keep quiet when things got a bit sketchy, so mum - wife would not get alarmed and try to ban our trips out. Many of them they take great relish in recalling and sometimes embellishing even though I don’t recall most as they were so common and frequent and you just become numb to it, a sad indictment of our roads.

my kids remineded my the other week about the time nearly lost my schnizzle on some stupid bint in south manachester, they were in the trailer ages 4 and 5 and she tried to squeeze past when there was clearly not room.  Worrying thing si that it was over 7 years ago and they remember it, I dont, for me it's just lost amongst all the other stupid things I see drivers doing.

[/quote]

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 6 years ago
13 likes

I went through a period when I thought that I was Tom Jones. I ended up seeing my doctor about it and he told me it's not unusual.

Avatar
davel replied to hawkinspeter | 6 years ago
3 likes
hawkinspeter wrote:

I went through a period when I thought that I was Tom Jones. I ended up seeing my doctor about it and he told me it's not unusual.

Why, why, why.... 

Avatar
burtthebike | 6 years ago
5 likes

It's obvious that what we need are more laws restricting cyclists, which are the real danger nohttps://road.cc/content/news/246592-government-opens-dangerous-and-carel...

There is a real problem  with policing the roads, and whilst there cannot be  policeman on every corner, the austerity regime of this government has meant significant cuts to the police.  Since traffic police are not a priority, they have seen disproportionate cuts, so fewer traffic cops, more dangerous driving, more cyclists intimidated from their legal right to ride. 

It's all very well having video cameras and lots of online vids showing the problem, but that isn't actually curing it, and while it would be comforting to have video proof of the guilt of the driver who kills you, I'd rather stay alive.

Instead of investigations into cyclists who kill, an absolutely tiny problem, we need to look at the overwhelming source of the danger: drivers.  Cycling UK has called for a wide ranging study of road safety, laws and punishments, which this government ignores in favour of the cyclist killers.  At the very least, we need laws which can be enforced, are not easily circumvented by clever lawyers, and we need as a society to keep dangerous people away from motor vehicles.  Instead of which we just accept the annual death toll of thousands with a shrug of our shoulders and mutterings about how much safer things are now.  Well they damn well aren't safe enough.

Avatar
dreamlx10 | 6 years ago
2 likes

And now we're leaving the EU which won't help either, the car is king in this country

Avatar
Capercaillie | 6 years ago
1 like

I really wish it were possible for more families to have a truely sustainable family holiday like this, but the reality is that many people who would consider it are just too scared of the road danger.

Unfortunately I don't think drivers will start to consider vulnerable road users safety properly until the dangerous driving laws include presumed liability.

I myself would not take my daughter out on her tag-a-along bike on a busy A road. 

I know that's only helping to make cyclists more invisible and I wish it were otherwise, but unfortunately dangerous drivers don't have any real deterrent.

Juries are loathe to convict drivers who kill cyclists under the current dangerous driving laws.

 

Avatar
roadmanshaq | 6 years ago
12 likes

Intimidating and bullying people on public highways should be a criminal offence. The cager scum who use their position of power to terrify children on bikes are lower than vermin.

Avatar
burtthebike replied to roadmanshaq | 6 years ago
2 likes
roadmanshaq wrote:

Intimidating and bullying people on public highways should be a criminal offence. The cager scum who use their position of power to terrify children on bikes are lower than vermin.

But are they lower than tories?  https://road.cc/content/news/246622-live-blog-conservative-party-continu...

Or, more likely, they are tories.

Avatar
jasecd | 6 years ago
10 likes

You can hear the righteous anger in Tom Jones' voice - I think he shows a fair bit of restraint in describing the events that many of us experience daily. The lives of all vulerable roads users should be treated with respect but to endager and intimidate children should warrant special punishment.

I'm not on Twitter but I'd encourage people to forward this to Jesse Norman.

Avatar
kil0ran replied to jasecd | 6 years ago
8 likes
jasecd wrote:

You can hear the righteous anger in Tom Jones' voice - I think he shows a fair bit of restraint in describing the events that many of us experience daily. The lives of all vulerable roads users should be treated with respect but to endager and intimidate children should warrant special punishment.

I'm not on Twitter but I'd encourage people to forward this to Jesse Norman.

I'm fairly mild-mannered but if you endanger my son and then moan about him being in the way and all the usual bollocks you get from close-passers I'm very likely to send you home in an ambulance. It's another reason I've stopped riding with my son - he hates confrontation and I find it very difficult not respond.

Avatar
kil0ran | 6 years ago
11 likes

Sad to say my 8yo has been scared off the road for now. One too many near miss to the extent he's even petrified when he's in the car.

I'm happy to risk my life and take my chances but how can someone actively decide to endanger a child? It's beyond me.

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