French police launch hunt for fan who caused huge crash at Tour de France

The Dutch variants are 'opa' and 'oma,' so it is not Dutch.

I think he is already on the job. If they can't even spell what was written on the board correctly I wonder what other clues they are missing.....

Sounds like a job for Officer Crabtree.

Nigel Garrage wrote:

It was an ignorant and arrogant mistake by a young woman who was more concerned about 5 seconds of fame than the welfare of the riders. However, I think she has had punishment enough through the pictures and media, and I find the pitchforks being sharpened for her by the social media hypocrites extremely distasteful. The proximity of the fans to the riders has always been part of the thrill of the Tour de France, and I hope nothing changes in that regard. Sir Brady Wiggins raised a good point about personal and societal responsibility, and I agree with his call to get back to a time where personal and collective accountability are valued as highly as they once were - when people showed more politeness and courtesy.

Not often I agree with you but 100% this.

The disgusting amount of pitchfork social media comment around this has been horrible to witness. It was probably already the worst day of ther life before they started...as a fan she knew what she had done and obviously deeply, deeply regretted it, she didn't need death threats from tiny penised middle aged men added to the mix.

Enough!

There has to be a more pro-active approach from the organisers to try and minimise the chance of this happening again, whatever the idea is, it will still be almost impossible to police.

However, in the absence of a genius solution, it falls down to individual responsibility - actions and consequences! What really riled everyone yesterday was that this woman had gone to the race with no intention to watch it, simply to use it as a platform for her own selfish 5 seconds of fame. There was zero care towards anything other than that aim, including the riders safety.

We expect accountability and enforcement for close passes, so ignorance and a lack of awareness should also be disregarded in this case. If we cut people too much slack how will they ever learn?! So I'm sorry but I have zero sympathy for this woman. Her selfishness caused that accident and that same selfishness prompted her to flee the scene quickly, so I would contest any notion of guilt and regret in your assessment EddyBerckx. Also, this woman is neither a fan nor a spectator, she is at most a self absorbed opportunist. Death threats are obviously completely unacceptable and should be investigated in their own right.
 

The irony of this woman's demise, is that her quest to seek attention (and subsequently fleeing the scene), has propelled this into a viral storm, all of her own making!

Agree with this. No other global sporting event would allow a 'fan' to affect the result of said event. Don't allow fans on the road; fans aren't allowed on a football pitch during the game, etc

One gets fed up with people saying crashes are a part of cycling, so it will continue to happen. When they're caused by idiots at the roadside there needs to be a procedure, so riders don't lose time because of lunatic 'fans'.

All the UCI/ASO do is publish a  'respect the riders' poster/film. Not good enough really; need to be more hardline.

How do you know she was a fan and not just someone there for the day out, freebies and to get herself on tv ?

hirsute wrote:

How do you know she was a fan and not just someone there for the day out, freebies and to get herself on tv ?

i don't - no one else does either. Huge numbers of fans line the event with signs and costumes that serve no purpose other to get noticed for tv - in this case, not for the first time, a riders came down. Not saying she shouldn't be punished, just that it should be appropriate and not done via social media. 
 

EddyBerckx wrote:

Nigel Garrage wrote:

It was an ignorant and arrogant mistake by a young woman who was more concerned about 5 seconds of fame than the welfare of the riders. However, I think she has had punishment enough through the pictures and media, and I find the pitchforks being sharpened for her by the social media hypocrites extremely distasteful. The proximity of the fans to the riders has always been part of the thrill of the Tour de France, and I hope nothing changes in that regard. Sir Brady Wiggins raised a good point about personal and societal responsibility, and I agree with his call to get back to a time where personal and collective accountability are valued as highly as they once were - when people showed more politeness and courtesy.

 

Not often I agree with you but 100% this.

The disgusting amount of pitchfork social media comment around this has been horrible to witness. It was probably already the worst day of ther life before they started...as a fan she knew what she had done and obviously deeply, deeply regretted it, she didn't need death threats from tiny penised middle aged men added to the mix.

 

Enough!

Yes, and no.

I agree that no one should be subjected to the Tsunami of internet rage, but she should be arrested and be punished for this.

Imagine if a driver hit a cyclist, was vilified on Social Media (I know, never gonna happen) and then the Daily Mail suggest that the trial by Social Media was enough. I suspect the view would be different.

Do the crime, face the (lawful) punishment.

BTW, my penis is massive. I often hear my wife muttering 'what a massive cock'.

Do you have a large rooster?

Virtue signalling isn't going to grow your penis. This is my medium sized penis opinion. 

She's a twat that just ruined a lot of professional cyclists' entire year. Fuck her feelings. Hopefully she gets hung, drawn and quartered and then her head stuck on a pike. 

I do like me some sarcastic humour.. thing is, the silly miss could have stood back out of harms way and still be in camera shot for her message to her grandparents.

The social media response is irrelevant to the action the organisers should take.  A fine seems appropriate.

mudshark wrote:

The social media response is irrelevant to the action the organisers should take.  A fine seems appropriate.

yeah this, or community service cleaning up the route of litter etc

Surely at the very least she should be required to recompense teams for the material damages to bikes, clothing, other equipment and direct medical costs. Any fine should be in addition.

Mungecrundle wrote:

Surely at the very least she should be required to recompense teams for the material damages to bikes, clothing, other equipment and direct medical costs. Any fine should be in addition.

Disagree. the same action in front of folk who didn't have a large company behind them to provide crazy amounts of expensive kit would result in a much lower punishment.  I would doubt that this in itself has brought any team to the brink - these kinds of crash are hardly uncommon (notwithstanding the cause in this particular case), and so I  would have thought would form part of the race preparation plan already in place for each team (I'm not suggesting that I have anything to do with racing, I'm merely imagining what eventualities I'd prepare for)

Of course this may have been avoided had race organisers conducted a proper H&S risk assessment, and put measures in place to prevent people straying onto the course. This is hardly an unforeseen risk, something similar seems to happen fairly regularly, if not frequently.... For failing to do that that the organisers could be held liable through negligence. If, as Nige says, that proximity is part of the thrill then organisers (and by extension the teams) are accepting that risk as tolerable and sustainable.

I think the individual is a numpty and might be held accountable for any law they've broken, but chasing any further than that would be spite.

Yup, I'm with our Nige on this

Captain Badger wrote:

Mungecrundle wrote:

Surely at the very least she should be required to recompense teams for the material damages to bikes, clothing, other equipment and direct medical costs. Any fine should be in addition.

Disagree. the same action in front of folk who didn't have a large company behind them to provide crazy amounts of expensive kit would result in a much lower punishment.  I would doubt that this in itself has brought any team to the brink - these kinds of crash are hardly uncommon (notwithstanding the cause in this particular case), and so I  would have thought would form part of the race preparation plan already in place for each team (I'm not suggesting that I have anything to do with racing, I'm merely imagining what eventualities I'd prepare for)

Of course this may have been avoided had race organisers conducted a proper H&S risk assessment, and put measures in place to prevent people straying onto the course. This is hardly an unforeseen risk, something similar seems to happen fairly regularly, if not frequently.... For failing to do that that the organisers could be held liable through negligence. If, as Nige says, that proximity is part of the thrill then organisers (and by extension the teams) are accepting that risk as tolerable and sustainable.

I think the individual is a numpty and might be held accountable for any law they've broken, but chasing any further than that would be spite.

Yup, I'm with our Nige on this

 

Compensation is not about punishment though, it's about 3rd parties not being inconvenienced by the negligent actions of others.

Hence motor vehicle insurance to return 3rd parties to the same condition they were in before the crash caused by the insured. The likely inability for the average person to be able to meet the claim is why insurance is mandatory.

I would expect a claim by a single cyclist to have merit if their property was damaged by the negligent actions of others, even a pedestrian. The only possible reason not to appy it here is that the teams accept some level of risk from spectators in continuing to race under these conditions, and the organisers likewise accept the risk by taking no actions to keep members of the public off of the roads during the race, except in the final few km of a stage.

wycombewheeler wrote:

Captain Badger wrote:

Mungecrundle wrote:

Surely at the very least she should be required to recompense teams for the material damages to bikes, clothing, other equipment and direct medical costs. Any fine should be in addition.

Disagree. the same action in front of folk who didn't have a large company behind them to provide crazy amounts of expensive kit would result in a much lower punishment.  I would doubt that this in itself has brought any team to the brink - these kinds of crash are hardly uncommon (notwithstanding the cause in this particular case), and so I  would have thought would form part of the race preparation plan already in place for each team (I'm not suggesting that I have anything to do with racing, I'm merely imagining what eventualities I'd prepare for)

Of course this may have been avoided had race organisers conducted a proper H&S risk assessment, and put measures in place to prevent people straying onto the course. This is hardly an unforeseen risk, something similar seems to happen fairly regularly, if not frequently.... For failing to do that that the organisers could be held liable through negligence. If, as Nige says, that proximity is part of the thrill then organisers (and by extension the teams) are accepting that risk as tolerable and sustainable.

I think the individual is a numpty and might be held accountable for any law they've broken, but chasing any further than that would be spite.

Yup, I'm with our Nige on this

 

Compensation is not about punishment though, it's about 3rd parties not being inconvenienced by the negligent actions of others.

Hence motor vehicle insurance to return 3rd parties to the same condition they were in before the crash caused by the insured. The likely inability for the average person to be able to meet the claim is why insurance is mandatory.

I would expect a claim by a single cyclist to have merit if their property was damaged by the negligent actions of others, even a pedestrian. The only possible reason not to appy it here is that the teams accept some level of risk from spectators in continuing to race under these conditions, and the organisers likewise accept the risk by taking no actions to keep members of the public off of the roads during the race, except in the final few km of a stage.

It's hard to get a pedestrian to pay for damage to your car if they step out in front of you (rightly so)

The teams do accept a level of risk, as per my 2nd paragraph. The organisers are the ones resposnsible for race safety, not individual spectators, and have failed to make adequate assurance that this type of occurrence won't happen.

The particular individual is subject to the law, and if there is a case should answer it. But to me that's as far as this goes

bike and components are nothing and even the medical bills pale into insignificance when you consider lost wages, maybe even a career ruined and maybe a Tour de France lost by his team. Sue her for the lot.

The 'chainsaws' at the Giro were completely different. No-one was in any danger, no rider was impeded (at least no more than is normal on mountain stages). They're just very noisy props.

pockstone wrote:

'wearing glasses , blue jeans and a red and white striped jumper'

Where's Wally?

Wallete?

eburtthebike wrote:

pockstone wrote:

'wearing glasses , blue jeans and a red and white striped jumper'

Where's Wally?

Wallete?

That would be Wilma (or possibly her twin Wenda).