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Cycling in the dark (CC lisenced by Flickr user Boegh)Mum of cyclist killed in road traffic collision launches petition for all bikes to be sold with lights
The mother of a teenage cyclist who lost his life when he was hit by a van near Leeds last year has launched a petition calling on the government to make it compulsory for all bikes to be sold with lights.
The Yorkshire Post reports that at about 7.10pm on October 22, 2018, 14-year-old Charlie Fox was riding his bike with two 15-year-olds boys in Bullerthorpe Lane.
The driver of a Mercedes Sprinter van heading in the opposite direction attempted to overtake a white Volkswagen Polo on a blind bend and hit them.
A 28-year-old man from Castleford was arrested on suspicion by causing death by dangerous driving and released under investigation.
In her petition, Fox’s mum Rebecca Roe writes: “It needs to be made a requirement by law that bicycles be sold with lights.
“Cycling is encouraged by the Government, with more people using bicycles as their main transport. There are many cycle lanes on roads across the country but still legal to buy bikes without lights, despite it being the law to use them between sunrise and sunset.
“All vehicles sold must have working lights. The law needs to move with the times to keep cyclists safe whilst on our roads.”
The petition has so far attracted over 4,000 signatures.
Roe explained: "I don't want to change the current law of bicycles needing lights between sunset and sunrise, I just want bicycles to be sold with them so people and children can abide with the law a lot easier. At the minute, I believe people’s knowledge of the law is very little.
"I know some people consider this common sense but when children have been riding their bikes since the age of four, and you buy with reflectors, I think we are led to believe they are good enough for night – certainly dusk when this happened to Charlie.
"There are no signs up in shops when buying a bike to tell you the law, we are not told the law upon purchasing a bike and bike lights are not discussed at all.”
Among those linking to the petition has been the Labour MP for Kensington, Emma Dent Coad.
Please sign and RT this petition to keep young cyclists safe on the road. https://t.co/gkpltL9qM7
— Emma Dent Coad (@emmadentcoad) August 6, 2019
The tweet was criticised by a number of users who pointed out that Dent Coad recently opposed a proposed segregated cycle route through Holland Park.
“I've been campaigning on road safety for 25 years or so,” said Dent Coad in reply to one. “This was not a good scheme and wd destroy 27 trees.”
I cycle through your constituency lit up like a Christmas tree, and still I face two or three dangerous incidents every week
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) August 6, 2019
We’ve previously reported that Dent Coad left a public meeting about the Holland Park cycle route with a woman who had falsely claimed to be the aunt of a cyclist killed in Notting Hill.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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41 comments
I'd rather not have to pay for feeble lights I dont want with a bike. That I then have to remove to put something worthwhile on.
I suspect the majority of bikes are never used after sunset anyway. Whereas overtakingnon thr wrong side of the road on a blind bend is always dangerous how about we do something about that?
Battries will run out, a reliable hub dynamo could cost as much as a dirt cheap bike, let alone a set of lights that coulds make a difference.
Cars are sold with indicators, does not mean that they get used.
The poor kid's bike would have probably come equiped with a front reflector, which is not reqired by law, but are generally effective when illuminated by motor vehicle headlights.
Do modern hub dynamo lights turn off when the bike is stationary? That wouldn't be great for enhancing the kids' safety.
No, most have an internal rechargeable battery or capacitor that maintains the light for several minutes after stopping peddling.
Leaving aside the ins and outs of this particular case, what's being proposed isn't even a solution to the issue they're raising. If the petition was calling for those selling bikes to be legally required to advise customers of the law on the use of lights it might make some sense, but as it is it simply doesn't follow.
Apparent problem: people don't use lights after dark, because they buy bikes without being aware of the law requiring lights after dark.
Proposed remedy: mandate lights to be included in new bike sales.
Simply selling someone lights does nothing to ensure that they're actually used when required. Unless you're also going to mandate that the lights be welded on to the bike, they can simply be discarded and forgotten about. And unless you're going to require that they are fitted with light sensors that turn them on automatically in low light, even if they're kept on the bike it does nothing to ensure that they're turned on when the law requires.
It does still less to educate purchasers about the law. At least in the current situation it is the vendor's interest to inform you about the law, in an attempt to sell you lights as an add-on. If the lights are mandatory, there is no incentive for them to mention it.
On top of that, the whole argument seems to ignore that many, if not most, purchasers will not be first time buyers who will require lights. They may be
a) buying for young children who won't be allowed out on their bikes after dark
b) buying a second or replacement bikes, and already own a perfectly good set of lights
Forcing a set of lights they don't want on these buyers is egregiously wasteful, not just of their money (since the cost of the lights will be factored in to the bike price somewhere along the line), but of the resources and energy it will take to produce all these lights that will end up set unused in a cupboard or garage.
This business about cars needing to have lights so that they can be sold, when did the law change you used to be able to run motorised vehicles without lights fitted but only in daylight.
And oddly enough very expensive pedal cycles don't come equipped with pedals.
Does having lights fitted to cars when they are sold mean that people drive around with them not turned on at night, or with bulbs not working?
Both of these are against the vehicle lighting regulations.
Having daylight running lights mean that some drivers don't put on their rear lights when it gets dark.
It's also illegal to drive around without a licence, VED and insurance, should these be part of all new and used car sales too.
There really is no excuse for not have lights on a bike after dark if all bikes sold new or second hand have lights fitted to them at point of sale by law. A set of lights can be bought for around a tenner and should be costed into the purchase price. They dont necessarily have to be used or fitted in hours of daylight , but after dark there will no excuse for not having lights. This really is a no brainer. Let's not make this into a "helmet" issue.
It has nothing to do with the event that this is being hung on though, has it? So this is already a 'helmet issue', becuase it's being employed as a means of shifting responsibility, yet again.
For the unfortunate mother involved, I guess it's a means of trying to cope with tragedy by adopting an agenda, and I can't hold that against her, but it's sad that the balance of political power means the only thing people can think of is to focus on the victims, because there's no thinkable route to doing anything about the causes of the problem. This is how power works in general, I guess, it gets inside everyone's heads.
The MP, on the other hand, is a hypocrite.
Why do motor vehicles have compulsary lights and pedal cycles don't ?
Why do motor vehicles have compulsary lights and pedal cycles don't ?
[/quote]
Can you really not answer your own question?
Can you really not answer your own question?
[/quote]
Can you really not answer your own question?
What is your problem ? I am talking about the simple task of fitting ten quids worth of lights to a bike at the point of sale. In line with motor vehicles these need to be working during hours of darkness. If you think that proportionally more motor vehicles break the law regarding lighting issues that cyclists then you must live on a different planet to me or you are sadly deluded.
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Not really an answer to the question though.
What is it supposed to achieve, given the lights can be removed?
Not really an answer to the question though. What is it supposed to achieve, given the lights can rbe removed?[/quote]
It's not about whether lights can be removed it's whether or not they are being used, and if lights are made compulsary at point of sale then there is no excuse for not using them. Thicky!
Maybe something to do with 2 tons of speeding metal and all the horrendous deaths caused by them?
It's normal for a rhetorical question to be supplied with an answer.
I thought it was a riddle (like "Why is a raven like a writing desk?").
"Because a writing desk is a rest for pens and a raven is a pest for wrens."
Because one is good for writing books and the other better for biting rooks
Why do motor vehicles have compulsary lights and pedal cycles don't ?
[/quote]
They don't, motorcycles can have a daytime mot .
Because the two things are in no way comparable in terms of the danger they create? Because lights on motorised vehicles tend to be built into the vehicle while those on bikes tend to be removable?
Also, what does your question have to do with my post? Did you even read it? My point was about the implications of hanging such a campaign on such an event, not about what rules are appropriate for what travel mode.
Edit - honestly your question comes over as downright petty - as if the only thing that matters is that everyone else should face the same rules that you as a driver have to, because otherwise it's "not fair", regardless of whether it makes any sense.
So I guess your follow-up questions will be "why don't pedestrians have to have an MOT for their shoes?" "Why don't buildings have to have headlights?" "Why don't people sitting in coffee shops have to wear seat belts?"
Why does this seem to be the defualt action? Cyclist is killed by careless / dangerous driving and the first thing the parents / partner do is start up some petition for compulsory plastic hats or lights or hi-viz.
Never anything about - oh I dunno - tougher sentences for killer drivers, better infrastructure, more rigorous testing of drivers, more road policing, speed reduction measures....
She seems to be missing the point that SHE let him out without lights, SHE made the decision not to buy them (or make him buy them) and fit them and use them and that the driver made the decison to overtake on a blind bend. I still reckon the driver should take 100% of the blame - after all he made the decision to drive dangerously - but she needs to think about her part in the chain of events as well.
Oh come on - Mum must be feeling terrible about what has happened here. What she doesn’t need is people like YOU criticising and judging her. The petition - misguided as it is - is her way of dealing with the regret, the guilt, the anguish over the loss of her son, plus replaying what she did and didn’t do: that will be with her forever.
You were right about this being 100% the driver’s fault, right to suggest all the other factors that the petition could have been about. But we go on accepting that Bullerthorpe Lane and its ilk are “too dangerous”, so “stay in your room, Son”, or “hang on, I’ll drive you” are the more likely take-aways.
I wouldn’t die in a ditch over the practicalities of what is proposed in the petition being practised - your new Giant TCR comes bundled with a pair of USB LED lights that add a couple of quid. But not in isolation - what are the four wheeled brigade also going to do as well to make us all safer?
I'm afraid anyone putting PPE as the firstline of defence will be criticised. In this instance, the wording of such a reponse needs to be carefully thought about, but a critical response is valid and needed.
Agreed, I could maybe understand it more if it was just a tiny part of a bunch of things they were campaigning for to "keep cyclists safe whilst on our roads", but its not, and it seems to completely ignore the main cause in that crash, which is a motorist overtook another vehicle, almost certainly given the nature of that road completely unnecessarily on a corner where they didnt have full sight of what was infront of them or coming towards them, what remote difference would making it the law to sell a bike with lights have made to that ?
its like this example too, https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/daughters-launch-campaign-to-make-cycle-hel... a 74 year old cyclist is killed in a collision with a truck, the families response isnt to look at the road and think the road needs to be improved to make it safer to cycle on, or make the trucks less likely to hit cyclists, its to campaign for a law to make helmets compulsory to cycle with because even though they admit it likely wouldnt have affected the outcome, they feel their mum shouldnt have been able to cycle to the shops without being forced to wear one.
I understand the grief of losing a loved one, you want to make sense out of the senselessness in the loss, but focus on the real causes and problems, not the imagined ones
Same as Matthew (?) Briggs, following the Charlie Alliston/Kim Briggs case : he was all over the media seeking a general and unfocused revenge. Or was that a serious review of road safety? I do get those two mixed up...
To me it is always a shame that motorists such as killer driver Helen Measures don't encounter a fully loaded gravel lorry when driving on the wrong side of the road on a blind bend, rather than the defenceless Denisa Perinova.
My deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of Charlie Fox.
Can anyone please tell me why the driver in this case and the door opener that killed Professor Maria Bitner-Glindzicz seem to have been granted anonymity?
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