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news
Celia Ward falls into path of car after being confronted by Auriol Grey (via Cambridgeshire Constabulary and BBC News)Remove conflict between cyclists and pedestrians, urge campaigners in wake of manslaughter case
Cycling and disability rights campaign groups have urged for highways authorities to remove conflict between cyclists and pedestrians in the wake of a court case that yesterday saw 49-year-old Auriol Grey jailed for three years for manslaughter after causing cyclist Celia Ward, 77, to fall off her bike into the path of a car, sustaining fatal injuries.
> Three years in jail for pedestrian convicted of manslaughter after cyclist’s death
CCTV footage of the incident in Huntingdon in October 2020 showed Ms Grey telling Mrs Ward to “get off the f*ck*ng pavement” and gesturing towards the cyclist. While it is impossible to tell from the video whether contact was made, the pedestrian’s hostile demeanour caused Mrs Ward to swerve and lose control of her bike.
In a statement released following the sentencing, Camcycle, the cycling campaign group for Cambridgeshire, said that action was urgently needed in locations where there is “unnecessary conflict” between cyclists and pedestrians if Vision Zero targets are to be met, citing road traffic casualty data compiled ahead of a meeting of the county council’s Highways and Transport Committee next week.
Camcycle, which is the UK’s largest cycling campaign group outside London, said: “All deaths on our roads are avoidable tragedies and this case is particularly heartbreaking.
“It highlights a situation in which people walking and cycling were placed in unnecessary conflict next to a busy road of fast-moving motor vehicles. Cambridgeshire County Council has committed to reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads to zero by 2040, but reports published this week show that it is not currently on target to meet this goal.
Highlighting that “318 people were killed or seriously injured within the last year, leaving too many families suffering,” the group said that “no-one should be hurt on their way to school, work, the shops or to see loved ones.
“It's time to turn positive words and policies on safe routes for walking, cycling and wheeling into action on streets across the county,” it added.
Grey, who plans to appeal against her sentence, has cerebral palsy and is partially sighted, but sentencing her yesterday at Peterborough Crown Court, Judge Sean Enright insisted that her actions “are not explained by disability.”
Despite that, much of the mainstream media coverage of the sentencing has focused on her disabilities.
Fazilet Hadi, Head of Policy at Disability Rights UK, told MailOnline that the sentence appeared “extremely harsh,” but echoed Camcycle’s call for highways authorities properly segregate road users to provide safety for all.
Ms Hadi, who is also a non-executive director of Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, told Mail Online: “This was a really tragic incident, where Celia lost her life, and I feel sadness and sympathy for all involved. The sentence given to Auriol does seem extremely harsh.
“With the number of cyclists increasing, we need proper separation of pedestrians, cyclists and cars, so that we can all keep each other safe. Government and councils need to review guidance, to ensure safe streets.”
While the hierarchy of road users introduced to the Highway Code in January last year makes clear that road users who can do the greatest harm have the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger or threat they pose to other road users – so, a cyclist would bear that responsibility towards a pedestrian – in this case, which in any event predates that change to the rules of the road, what the prosecution described as the “hostile and aggressive” manner in which Grey confronted Mrs Ward was clearly a factor.
It is unclear whether the location where the incident happened is a shared use path – both Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Cambridgeshire County Council have said they are unable to determine the status of the footway either way, while the judge in his sentencing remarks yesterday was clear that he believed it was designed for people both on foot and on bikes.
While cycling on the footway where it is not a shared use path may be punishable by a fine, Home Office guidance first laid out by former Labour minister Paul Boateng in 1999, and backed by the Association of Chief Police Officers (now the National Police Chiefs’ Council) is that police officers and local authority civil enforcement officers should exercise discretion.
> Transport minister: Responsible cyclists CAN ride on the pavement
Boateng’s guidance, subsequently reiterated in 2014 by Conservative former transport minister Robert Goodwill, stated: “The introduction of the fixed penalty is not aimed at responsible cyclists who sometimes feel obliged to use the pavement out of fear of traffic and who show consideration to other pavement users when doing so.
“Chief police officers, who are responsible for enforcement, acknowledge that many cyclists, particularly children and young people, are afraid to cycle on the road, sensitivity and careful use of police discretion is required.”
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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56 comments
It is good that pedestrian and disabled groups join us in campaigning for proper, segregated cycle facilities, and makes a positive outcome more likely.
Quite what we will do with all the unsuitable, narrow shared use facilities already in place will be interesting. That said, this incident is extremely unusual, and cyclists and pedestrians normally mix without too much trouble.
Yes - if we can all realise we're fighting over scraps but have a common cause.
Also agree that with existing "just get them out of the way of the cars" infra we have an issue. (We're still addicted to building it too!). It's baking in conflict. I'd say it's also setting a pretty low ceiling on active travel.
Note the pressure on good motor-vehicle-free paths. People are really keen to be away from traffic to walk their dogs, amble three or four abreast with friends, teach their young children to ride. And why shouldn't they?
Unfortunately those activities - unless very infrequent - are just not compatible with lots of people efficiently cycling at a reasonable speed (say 8 - 15 mph) to get from A to B. It also doesn't tend to address the elephant in the room (literally taking up all the space). It's not a zero sum game and we don't want to scare those who use motor vehicles ... but where it's easier to drive than cycle (most find it is) people will drive.
Yes - cyclists and pedestrians can co-exist. Is it pleasant or convenient? Not really as numbers increase. Here's how to do it and allow for growth.
We've already been through all this - It sounds nice on paper, but in reality there isn't space in most of the UK for nice wide segregated infrastructure like you've mentioned, and it would be far better to fix the roads and the better examples of cycling infrastructure that we already have. The only way you could build the kind of thing you want is if you started nationalising people's front gardens or knocking down their houses.
One place where I will agree is on new housing and new roads - too much of this is built with active travel as an afterthought, when it should be baked in to every high level plan on day 1.
It also doesn't help to have laws which are then effectively decriminalised - cycling on the pavement is one mentioned in the article above, and another would be pavement driving and parking. Rather than sprinkling more meaningless words about hierarchies of vulnerability etc, enforce the laws we already have with stiff penalties and people's behaviour will change.
Where you have the space build the cycle infrastructure. Where you have given large amounts of space to motor vehicles take some of that back to build cycle infrastructure. Where there is genuinely not space do as the Dutch do and make cars the guests on certain designated streets (fietsstraat). The excuse that the U.K. is somehow uniquely unable to do any of this is just that, an excuse.
Exactly this - it's really hard to change anything but it can be done. We have lots of excuses! Share where possible, separate where needed. If you have a problem at some particular point, look outward at the network.
In which one of your previous incarnations, Nigel Garage, Nigel Garrage, Garrage at Large, TTDanger, Youallarecyberbullies, LanceStrongarm, Great Eastern, Rakia or one of the others?
Why does he have so many entities? is it because he gets censored for having an opinion that goes against the prevailing narrative? sounds very lefty Guardian to me..
Because under previous names he's been suspended and banned for persistent and obvious trolling, racism and releasing of other users' personal details. I think there might have been a bit of antisemitism way back as well.
This account(ant) is now cancelled.
For the avoidance of doubt, anyone banned from this site who then returns under a new user name will be banned again (and re-registering with the same email address is a bit of a giveaway).
Good, cheers Simon. Using the same email? In the immortal words of Blackadder, about as subtle as a giraffe in sunglasses trying to get into a polar bears-only golf club.
Great news.
Would someone get banned for discriminatory comments (of a protected characteristic no less) against a dead woman?
Asking for a friend.
I always fancied being called "Jimmy the Greek" when I was a kid. Don't know why, just thought it sounded cool. I've grown up a bit since then.
Pretty sure Jimmy The Greek was on an episode of Minder BITD ... and if he wasn't, he should have been.
That's probably where I got it from, lodged in my subconscious somewhere. Either that or from The Sweeney.
You now want to be "James the Greek"?
Well after watching The Godfather the other night (in my opinion one of the greatest films ever) I wouldn't mind being called Sonny, even though I'm of pensionable age.
My father-in-law has been called Sonny since he was a kid (his real name is Sylvester – Indian Catholics very keen on Papal names – so it's an improvement) and he turned 100 last July, so age need be no bar!
(PS Surely the only people who don't think that The Godfather is one of the greatest films ever are people who haven't seen it?)
....but is the Godfather II better than the Godfather and one of the rare occasions where a sequel trumps the original.
"Rare"? Wrath of Khan is better than The Motion Picture; The Empire Strikes Back is better than A New Hope. Not so rare, methinks...
Not so rare...
I think Terminator 2 is better than the original, and Aliens is at least as good as Alien, although it doesn't have the advantage of the surprise inflicted on those old enough to have seen Alien in the cinema without having heard all about it beforehand. Admittedly, you also had to suffer the main disadvantage of the cinema in the bad old days: being surrounded by deadbeat smokers- almost incomprehensible now
Still freaks me out. As does the Jaws scene when the head rolls out of the boat. You know it's coming and it still gets you. Hitchcock's films are the same. He really was the master of suspense.
Went to see Jaws at the cinema a few months ago, I'm sat there thinking to myself "dont jump", "dont jump" at that scene. Still jumped
Aliens and Alien is another.
Plenty of examples in the other direction though.
Never quite sure about that, they're both so brilliant, when I'm watching the first one I think that's the best, when I'm watching the second I think that's the best. Not masses to choose between them, probably having De Niro in the second just edges it.
I think we'd all agree Godfather III was a disappointment - good film but not a patch on the first two.
Well if you ever go to Chesterfield you will be called "youth" however old you are.
I thought Phil the Greek was a war hero who married the heir to the throne in 1947.
Well that's confusing - I thought Phil the Greek was the guy who cleared the tables at Micks all night caff on Fleet Street in the seventies. I wonder if it's still there? Some fond memories of that place.
Of course there is space.
All you do is take it away from motorists.
Quite simple really.
Unfortunately, neither central government or local councils have the balls to do so.
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