Driver murders cyclist equipped with 2 rear lights, still avoids jail time

You shouldn't ride in a bike lane on the left side of the road. You should only ever ride in a bike lane on the right side of the road. I know that people like to walk on the left for safety, but this isn't that.

One of the best reasons is simply other cyclists who would be trying to use the lane correctly. There usually isn't enough room to safely pass by eachother. So someone going the wrong way doesn't work.

It’s not peripheral vision that’s the problem. Is that cars and trucks have become armored mini tanks as the size=safe race has escalated.

You can’t see shit out of most modern vehicles for the last 20 years. Add to that the 30% of the population that apparently can’t look away from their phones for more that 3 minutes and biking near traffic has become too risky for me most hours of the day.

My city has lots of protected bike lanes but one still has to be careful because someone rolling out of McDonald’s WILL be more focused on their burger or drink than you crossing the bike lane. Every single one, every single day. Even the ones you expect to know better, like ambulances. And my city allegedly has some of the best cycling infrastructure in the UK.

Really how else can you explain him not seeing a cyclist. Where was he looking instead of the road?

I don't doubt it was not deliberate, but if you drive you're responsible for avoiding even the danger of endangering others.

Besides facing some actual punishment he should loose his drivers license for life. How can the let him drive again if he can't explain how he didn't see a cyclist on the road? That is actually the bigger issue for me here.

My sister had a friend who reacted to her confusion with aggression. And as an absolute moron, she was confused lot. I really hated her.

I mean could be intentional. The best way to murder someone in the us is to accidentally run them over.

Eh, I hear you, but here in FuckCars, the mens rea is driving two tons of lethal metal, mistakes are on you buddy.

Yeah, but you're in one of the most hyperbolic communities on Lemmy, why are you expecting level-headedness? In here, every fender bender is a violent assault.

We can blame the driver and the government, both of them.

I think if you drive a big heavy thing around, you have a moral obligation to fucking pay close attention so you don't accidentally kill someone. And if you're incapable of driving that carefully, sell your car already. I think that's basic morality.

I think we also need better infrastructure and much stronger traffic laws so that drivers have legal incentive to fucking drive carefully like they already should have been doing but many are not because they don't give a fuck.

You can absolutely blame the driver. I'm a cyclist but I drive too. I've never felt like infrastructure has put me in a position where I am forced to kill a a cyclist. There needs to me more strict testing for drivers and fewer people should be allowed to drive.

Sounds like a normal accident with a reasonable sentence for that country for an accidental death

Neither is such an accident normal, just normalized by insane amount of cyclists getting killed by car drivers, nor are "reasonable" and "reasonable for that country" the same thing.

Knowing that renting a car, drinking some alcohol and then running him over is the by far best method to kill someone without the risk of actual punishment might be the factual reality in my country, but I still refuse to accept this as normal or reasonable.

I would tend to agree. I came into the thread wanting bloody revenge, but after reading the article, I didn't feel like that. It seems to have been an unfortunate accident, and the guy stayed behind and performed CPR, then plead guilty and showed remorse.

I would very much like to know what the sentencing guidelines are for negligent homicide in circumstances other than driving.

Statistically anything making you more visable to drivers does more for safety than a helmet. (Not advocating against helmets) I think 2 rear lights is relevant, it goes to how little attention was given to the road.

Two rear lights don't really make you twice as safe. Silly thing to focus on.

every time i had an incident and the drivers just excused themselves with the "i didn't see you", i upgraded my lights to brighter, more visible ones.

except the last one, 2 weeks ago. Now it would be absurd to buy an even brighter light. I just told them to "look" and drive slower if they can't see. If you don't see a cyclist using a bike line on a Dutch roundabout under street lights, no bike light can help you.

*premeditated, also there's a whole world outside of the US, and US law is a really fucking bad baseline for good law regardless. Because the US is a backward shithole run by children.

I think that's a US thing. 

The UK requires intent to kill or greviously injure, which was also missing in this case.