Following the prosecution of London cyclist Charlie Alliston, the husband of a woman killed in a 2016 cycling incident in Pewsey in Wiltshire is calling for police to reinvestigate the collision.
The Gazette and Herald reports that Diane Walker was struck by a cyclist on Pewsey High Street on May 13, 2016. She was airlifted to the Great Western Hospital and died two days later but no charges were brought against the cyclist.
A jury at the Old Bailey this week found Alliston guilty of a charge of causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving under section 35 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861 after he hit and killed Kim Briggs.
Briggs’ husband, Matthew, has called for the law regarding dangerous cycling to be brought up to date.
Edward Walker now wants his wife’s case to be reopened and investigated.
He said: “The police said that under the 1947 Road Traffic Act there wasn’t anything they could do in an accident between a cyclist and a pedestrian.
“At the time of my wife’s death I went to our MP Claire Perry and said that the 1947 act is 70 years old and that cycling accidents should be included in the Act. This is the same argument the person in London is going down in relation to the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.
“Wiltshire Police don’t seem to have taken this or the 1991 Road Traffic Act into consideration. We will see what happens.”
11 thoughts on “In wake of Alliston verdict, Wiltshire man calls for police to re-investigate 2016 cycling incident that resulted in his wife’s death”
I could find only a single
I could find only a single report of this incident, and it does not attribute blame, and it is difficult to see what could poosibly be achieved by re-opening the case. From this report, it is impossible to tell who did what, but the police investigated at the time and found no case to answer.
http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/towns/pewseynews/14503456.Traders_rush_to_help_after_bike_tragedy/
Is this what we have to look forward to for the next six months? Calls for any collision involving a cyclist in the last ten years to be re-investigated? I wonder if they’ll be doing the same for drivers.
Did the cyclist have a front
Did the cyclist have a front brake?
Interesting that the report
Interesting that the report says she was “struck by a cyclist” whereas this report on the same website: http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/1185583.Man_seriously_injured_in_road_accident/ describes a man being “struck by a car” rather than by a motorist.
srchar wrote:
Wouldnt “struck by a cyclist ” mean that the cyclist reached out and struck her? Otherwise, she was struck by a bicycle, surely?
I belong to the same club as
I belong to the same club as the cyclist involved in the Pewsey accident, he wasnt riding dangerously or fast it was a very unfortunate freak accident with a terrible outcome. I agree that the law should be updated and it should also include jaywalking not that im saying that was the case in either of these recent cases, but it is epidemic in London to the point where pedestrians are referred to as ipeds.
Everyone on the roads has a responsibility to look out for others.
itboffin wrote:
Jaywalking rules would be a very, very bad idea. Google the American bloke in a wheelchair trying to cross the road, and getting done for jaywalking.
brooksby wrote:
Jaywalking rules would be a very, very bad idea. Google the American bloke in a wheelchair trying to cross the road, and getting done for jaywalking.— itboffin
How about jaywalking whilst staring at a phone?
hawkinspeter wrote:
I’d be quite happy to ban walking *at all* while staring at a phone! 😉
Have you been mis-sold PPI?
Have you been mis-sold PPI?
I fully support the husband
I fully support the husband in this case as it would set a precedent and require the Police to fully investigate every cyclists death arising from being hit by a car that they had previously written off as “just an unfortunate accident” after all what’s good for the goose…………..
And you think that would
And you think that would happen? Why hasn’t EVERY incident involving a pedestrian being killed now seen family members with pitchforks? Surely there’s another few hundred deaths that need looking at before this one case from last year. Again, it’s a witch hunt!