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Brian and Debbie DorlingWidow of Brian Dorling urges cyclists not to jump red lights, for their family's sake
Debbie Dorling, whose husband Brian was killed when he was hit by a lorry at Bow Roundabout in 2011, has urged cyclists not to take risks such as riding through red lights since that could lead to them being partly blamed for their own death – and affect how much compensation their family might receive should the worse happen.
Mrs Dorling was talking about her husband’s death this week as part of a report on cycle safety by Channel 4 News sports correspondent Keme Nzerem.You can watch the video here.
Speaking at the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park where Mr Dorling worked as a quantity surveyor as the site was developed for London 2012, she said: “Brian went through a red light and that had all sorts of consequences for the court case and the final damages we got as a family.
“It’s been a horrible time and cyclists, please – if you’ve got families, don’t put yourself in a position whereby you could put your family in our position.”
As we reported last August, Mrs Dorling received a High Court settlement of £210,000 from the lorry firm McArdle Group and QBE Insurance.
The original amount of £330,000 had been reduced by more than a third because Mr Dorling was found to have ridden through a red light.
The driver of the lorry involved in the fatal crash also drove through the red light, and subsequently pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving.
At the coroner’s inquest in 2013 into Mr Dorling’s death, Martin Porter QC, representing his family, suggested he may have gone through the light on red to get away from the lorry.
But as the lawyer pointed out today in a message on Twitter, "I maintained at Brian's inquest, the red light was not causative - same outcome on green."
Coroner Mary Hassall recorded a narrative verdict and described the design of the cycle superhighway at Bow as "an accident waiting to happen."
Nevertheless, for the purposes of assessing the amount of compensation payable in the civil action the following year, Mr Dowling was found to have been partly responsible for his own death due to riding through the red light,
Removing himself from the danger posed by large vehicles was the justification used by journalist and author Jack Shenker earlier this month for riding through a red traffic signal on High Holborn in Central London.
He was fined by police as part of Operation Safeway but told road.cc he felt compelled to ride beyond the advanced stop line at the traffic lights to position himself ahead of a bus, before riding them while they were still red.
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.
Latest Comments
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Is the basic question of gear hardness/easiness here not equally expressed as "how far will the bike go each time I pedal it?"...
- Born_peddling 26 min 54 sec ago
MCR cycle euro capital???? Have had to read this article very carefully and repeatedly.... I know a good swath of Manchester locals and lovers of...
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You're joking right? Unless it's a bridal path there's very few "quiet" roads and the so called quiet roads are usually used as speed runs for...
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He's probably busy doing his festive 1000. Apparently some similar-looking fellow is having this Christmas off......
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I have the same problem with my front facing cameras so I wipe them regularly but the rear ones never seem to get wet. One is mounted on my...
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As the excellent John Crace calls him, Jimmy Dimly, was telling us all not to be obsessed with the whole Rwanda thing a couple of weeks back.
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A better reply would be....
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How come he's riding a bicycle from his 1950s future?
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Think that my Toyota already has this.
- Hirsute 5 hours 48 min ago
Is he trying to put the wall back ?
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32 comments
I was waiting in an ASL, at a set of lights, on red, last Monday. One of the 'too cool for school' brigade, decided the red wasn't for him, and ended up across the bonnet of a cab as a result. The poor taxi driver was properly shaken up. The rider was bruised, and his bike won't be going anywhere soon, but I digress. I completely agree with Mrs. Dorling. It's better to arrive a bit late, and be able to make excuses. I wonder if the insurance company would have taken back the entire pay out, if the truck hadn't jumped a red as well.
I am a cyclist/commuter who -admittedly- jumps about half of the red lights during every commute. There are some fundamental mistakes in approaching this issue in my view, based on my daily commute of 15 miles in London.
Cyclist boxes at traffic lights are mostly ignored by drivers. Whatever you do, you end up standing between two vehicles. I am an avid cyclist who mostly flows with the traffic, i.e. not really slow. But I never feel confident when I start on green next to cars, goods vehicles etc. Ideally, there should be separate lights for bicycles, turning green about 5 seconds earlier than those for cars to give cyclists a head start.
Left turns: I am not sure about this but I think I have read somewhere that it is legally a grey area. I jump most red lights on left turns unless there are pedestrians crossing. This is even more important as most cyclist casualties happen on left turns, when cyclists "behave" and start next to lorries etc. turning lef.
The fundamental mistake, both from authorities and pedestrians, as well as some part of cyclists, is to consider cyclists in the city as "vehicles" and expect from them to work in the same framework as motorized vehicles.
Everybody on a bicycle would agree that a cyclist is technically much closer to a pedestrian than a 2 tonne scrap metal (=car). I don't understand why pedestrians (me as well) of whom 90% regularly jump red lights (I do), condemn cyclists doing the same thing, as long as no pedestrian is endangered. As a cyclist, I have a much better overview of the situation than any car driver. I have no dead angles, where suddenly a pedestrian can appear. I have no restriction to my view when I approach a light.
In my view it is nonsense to expect cyclists to behave like cars, cabs, lorries, trucks etc. It is the way how you make cycling more dangerous, riskier but not safer.
No it's not. Who told you that? You can do the equivalent in some US states but if you do it here (and you admit that you do), you are breaking the law. Do please stop it!
So, don't split the lane, stay in the lane, taking primary. Don't move in-between motor vehicles at lights. If you can't see the ASL being clear, just stay behind in the middle of the lane. Is, and feels, much safer.
No, it isn't. There is no "turn left on red" rule in the UK. At all.
Totally agree. The "Idaho Stop" rule should apply to bicycles, as should left turn on red. But today they don't.
Loading/unloading is always legal, parking and waiting restrictions are covered by single and double yellows coupled with signs, if there are carrot marks on the kerb then no loading/unloading either. Was a delivery driver for many a year, covering the time when new on street parking attendant system started up, all my drivers carried the relevant pages from the highway code so we could educate the 'wardens'.
(Also blue badge holders often needed 'educated'.)
Highway code rule 247
The problem comes if you are saying 'it's OK, it's only me!' Because if everyone does that you have no rules at all.
You should really look at it as there are rule breakers and rule keepers. And whether they are a motorist or a cyclist the rule breaking is not without consequence.
It probably leads to the traffic jams that make motorists pull their hair out, causing some to break the rules because they are tired of being stuck in traffic....which causes an accident.....
The point being that the rules are meant to help the system work and it makes more sense to work with it than against it......doesn't mean you can't change it if it doesn't work for you.
But cyclists will be taken more seriously if they work with the rules than against them.....I'm not saying I've never jumped a red. But it's the exception, not the rule and you cannot say that about some....
I'm sorry but thats bullshit feed to us by the mass media motoring lobby. I don't have to stop my fellow cyclist from braking the rules to be taken "seriously". Why don't you apply the same collective responsibility to motorists, their the ones killing people in their thousands. Dealing with the misdemeanors of cyclists is like shuffling deck chairs on the titanic.
I apply it equally to anyone using the road. You should too.
In a perfect world I would totally agree, but we're not, we should be forcing on the people who cause the most harm, and that's motorists
The idiots that keep jumping the lights at Theobalds Road keep finding themselves dealing with the on-coming traffic that is going over on amber. Some day I will see one come a cropper.
Most of them don't seem to understand that lane selection will also help them.
Fundamentally if their understanding of the infrastructure and the rules were better they would probably not put themselves at as much risk. Fact.
The lights where the Boris biker was crushed by the left turning lorry? I imagine if they had jumped the lights then they'd have been safe. But that's just one case, and proves nothing I suppose.
Lights don't keep me safe in any respect, so I ignore them. I do the safest thing, which is more likely to keep me alive than dutifully waiting at the lights when nothing's coming.
No. You do what you like and expect everyone else to suck it up. But if everyone applied that logic (which is pretty much how it goes down in the third world) you'd be asking for rules.
You'd have to know what the circumstances were for that left turning lorry. But what I can say is that there are a hell of a lot of cyclists in the ASL who park themselves in the wrong lane there. They show themselves up as not knowing what they are doing on the road. If you fail to look over your shoulder on a track cycling test you fail. And pretty much everyone of the cyclists I see each day would fail on that count alone - and a track is a far simpler set of rules than the road.
My point is twofold: 1) the standard of road cycling is poor in London, and 2) if you know what you are doing you can be safe and within the rules. Simple.
Having lived in Africa for many years, I hope you realise how true this comment is. The majority of people there have this 'it doesn't apply to me' attitude and the place is a complete **** up on every level. If the system can be screwed, it will be and it is so badly screwed nothing works properly.
Having now moved back to the UK, I am loving being back in an environment where a majority of people have some degree of self discipline. Maybe that's why I get so upset about these idiots who have this attitude: I have seen what it leads to...
*marginally safer* maybe. It sort of assumes everyone else is following the rules, else it has little impact.
The Westminster stats showed only 12% of incidents was the cyclist's fault, 67% entirely the driver's, and the rest split / not determinable.
So, it *may* help with 12% of incidents.
Me following the rules of the road is not going to keep me safe from others breaking it.
Plenty of cyclists who 'knew what they were doing' ended up dead. Of course, every time it happens their fellow 'l33t experts' always seem, with the benefit of hindsight and a bit of creative thinking, to be able to find some evidence that they didn't know what they were doing after all, and thus the rule you cite remains untarnished.
Thus those 'who know what they are doing' never come to harm... because its an entirely circular self-sustaining concept!
Those who _truly_ know what they are doing get a car, of course (as Clarkson might say).
I can't be bothered arguing about red lights (don't jump them myself, though last week I nearly got knocked down as a pedestrian by a driver jumping them, despite my being a really elite expert pedestrian) but I can't say I care for the general implication of your comment here.
As for (1) - the attitude that you need to be an 'expert' to dare cycle in London, and that if you are less than highly-skilled at dangerous sports it will be your fault if you die, is precisely why so few do it.
The real problem is that the standards of road design, driving, and road-policing are all rather poor in London.
I too have not been cycling recently due to a cycling related injury and driving to work instead, and have had cause to note how many cars drive through red lights.
even when stopped alongside one chappie who had initially stopped for the red light, he let the pedestrian cross, and then drove off again through the red light, or the chap who decided the red light was clearly only the starting point of negotiation and sailed through to a chorus of horns. In fact some junctions have now become so bad on my commute,due to an insistence by the local council to install traffic lights everywhere as traffic calming measures, that the light sequence is virtually ignored and its common now to see upto 3 cars cross a junction on red, whilst the opposing traffic is now already on green and trying to move.
so on aggregate Id say its the majority of motorists who drive through red lights, there arent any cyclists about on these roads, because they are too blooming dangerous to consider cycling on, but they arent riding through red lights, so thats all ok then.
you two are responsible like myself for our own actions and will you actually admit that jumping red lights is dangerous and wrong and should be condemned (unless in a rare occasion about saving an injury) ?
I don't jump red lights, mainly because of the advise media coverage I'm afraid. But in terms of overall road safety cyclists jump red lights is such a small issue. It's the proverbial "dead cat on the table" let's deal with the 5 deaths a day caused by motorist, then I join you with a pitch fork going after cyclists jumping red lights.
no pitchfork at all, just pointing out no good saying motorists do it but we are OK to do it ?
It is about sharing and learning to live alongside each other which when I have rode in France is a totally different feeling.
except I posted on here about watching it twice in two days over last weekend. Of course the usual apologists said could not be bothered to wait etc and totally forget they are breaking the law.
If we cyclists wish to see car drivers and others extend common decency to us on the road, then it is the responsibility of every cyclist to do the same and obey the law of the road.
Really, I extend common decency to motorists despite the fact that they are responsible for 21,000 deaths and serious injuries on the roads every year.
And how about the endless motorist exceeding the speed limit and spending more time on facetwat rather than having there eyes on the road.
I'm not responsible for the actions of other cyclists. The same way I don't hold every motorist responsible for the HGV driver that killed all those people in Bristol a couple of weeks ago.
It will change nothing, RLJing, paying road tax etc, just sticks to beat cyclists with. I am not for a moment condoning idiots jumping lights, but even if every cyclist was a saint you would still get abuse.
If the law was the issue, don't you think motorists might look at themselves first? Find me a motorist who doesn't break the law everytime they drive and i will show you a liar.
I drive. I cycle. I don't break the law.
you might be the exception that breaks the rule, someone who has never driven at 31mph in a 30? never seen your speed creep up when on the motorway? never stopped on a yellow line just to load something into the car???
That's legal. Even on a double.
from experience not very often, read the accompanying signs and study the kerb.
and some people idea of stopping to load something....
Confirmation bias, you're looking for it.
Or did those studies look at another set of cyclists when they counted everyone, not just the ones doing something you get upset by?
what would have happened if he hadn't gone through? Would the lorry have simply run him down?
I don't know hence the question.
I do know I have had near misses where cars have jumped the lights I have been waiting at, (they squeeze past me)
Sad case. Clearly if you run a red light you are entirely on your own and risk confusing other road users. However it seems that in this case his decision to run the light had no effect on the outcome. But drivers can be confused into running red lights. This week i flashed a driver in front of me as his tailgate was open, this confused him sufficiently to drive through the red light we were both halted at.
If you see a cyclist ride through a light in front of you, it is a mixed message, perhaps you have failed to see a filter light. I think this can encourage motorists to accidentally follow.
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