A cyclist jumpts a red light, gets killed by a driver responding to a green light and who is to blame ?
Apparently because the driver had sent a text a few seconds earlier, the court today found the driver to be at fault for the crash and she can now expect a prison sentence. This does seem an odd kind of justice.
Let's be clear, the driver should not have been texting, but did it impair her ability to drive after she had sent the text ? It is debatable I am sure. But the point remains would the cyclist have been killed if he had not jumped the light ? Of course not, there is not debate on that matter.
So when the burden of proof has to be so clear in a court of law, with the debate about "may be this" or "may be that" replaced by cold hard facts and evidence, it seems an odd kind of justive that the driver should be found guilty.
Yes, the criver deserves some sort of punishment, but I fear this is being used for political motives to drive home the government message about using the phone in the car.
4 comments:
Anyone texting while driving deserves to be sent down and to be disqualified from driving for life. It is the ultimate in irresponsible behaviour. ANYTHING might happen while a driver is messing around with their mobile phone keyboard.
The cyclist jumping the red light might reduce the length of the jail sentence.
On the news I heard that the driver was texting and speeding at the time. Then I heard that the cyclist had ridden through a red light. I don't know whether the first two claims are true, but certainly the cyclist rode through a red light. It pees me right off at how late I see car drivers jump red lights. It's madness for cyclists to do this. I tend to agree with Nich.
I regularly get cut up by cyclists who expect to be able to cut infront of me without warning and who force me to do virtual emergancy stops or cylsits without lights who I am epected to see in the dark. Even tonight when I heard about this story on the radio I saw very late a cyclist join the road shortly in front of me from a pathway, without looking at all, just expecting me to stop.
If the cyclist jumped the red light, then most of blame is theirs. But that the driver was texting means that their concentration was impaired. But there is no way that she should face jail because a cyclist jumped a red light and then got hit by her.
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