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news
Kim Briggs (picture via Metropolitan Police Service).PNGKim Briggs’ husband says he would welcome wider debate on road safety
The husband of Kim Briggs, the pedestrian who died in February last year after a collision with cyclist Charlie Alliston on London’s Old Street, says he would welcome a wider debate about the safety of all road users, reports BikeBiz.
Speaking to Carlton Reid for the Spokesmen podcast, Matthew Briggs spoke about the campaign he launched after Alliston, who had been riding a bike with no front brake, was sentenced last month.
The campaign calls on shops selling fixed-wheel bikes for use on the road to ensure they comply with the law, and also calls on the government to make cyclists who kill or injure people subject to the same laws as motorists.
The mainstream media have seized on that call for a change in the law and transport secretary Jesse Norman announced last month that the government would hold an urgent review of “cycle safety.”
> Government announces cycle safety review in wake of Alliston case
Last week, he also wrote to cycling organisations to tell them to remind their members of their legal obligations while riding a bike.
There’s certainly a case for updating the law, with Alliston was prosecuted under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 for causing bodily harm through wanton and furious driving.
But cycling campaigners have underlined that cases in which a pedestrian is killed following a collision with a cyclist are extremely rare and that there should be a wider review encompassing all road users.
When the Department for Transport published its 2016 annual report last week into road traffic casualties in Great Britain, British Cycling policy advisor Chris Boardman urged the government to do more to improve the safety of all road users.
> Chris Boardman urges government to protect all road users as deaths hit five-year high
Briggs told Reid: "If there is a wider debate about road safety on imperfect roads that we can make it work for all road users, that has to be a good thing.
He went on: “I think the government is listening to [the road safety] debate.
"And if that debate is widened, and we get progress, that has to be a positive."
He also said there needed to be a calmer debate between different types of road users, having experienced through the @Briggscampaign Twitter account he has set up how discussion can quickly become heated.
"I’ve been looking at my Twitter followers," he said. "I only have 400 – I'm not exactly Taylor Swift – it’s equally split between journalists, cabbies and cyclists. What could possibly go wrong?"
He added: "There’s an angry discourse out there and if that is translated out there on the road we’re never going to get anywhere.
“By calming it down, by not shouting at each other, we can get the progress that I want to see and we can also make the progress others want to see."
You can listen to the Spokesmen podcast here, and it is also available via iTunes.
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.
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43 comments
"The campaign calls on shops selling fixed-wheel bikes for use on the road to ensure they comply with the law" - is it any of the shop's business or responsibility on how you choose to use the bike you've bought from them? In the Alliston case, if the shop said "This is only for track use" and he replied "No problem, understood" then isn't that the end of their responsbility??
Exactly, no different to the shop being forced to fit a bell and those pointless wheel reflectors which I have a box of in my shed.
Also, means bike shops must fit a front break to all bikes as a legal requirements including fixies and bmxers.
He took his case up with online retailers who will still provide the break in the box should you wish to fit it.
What makes me laugh is him contacting bike shops to ask them to remove pictures of bikes with no front brake from their websites 'because they're illegal' despite the description clearly saying 'for track use only'
What's even more pitiful is the retailers replying saying 'Oh yes, so sorry, we've removed the picture and didn't mean to cause an offence'
Plenty of cars advertised online that are for track use only - does he want all those removed too? Shut up.
Perhaps he could have a campaign for car manufacturers as well to ensure that everyone buying a car:
doesn't speed
doesn't make any illegal modifications to the car
keeps it well serviced and safely maintained
.....
Once that's been done perhaps a campaign outside PC World to ensure that anyone buying a computer doesn't use it for hacking or for selling drugs on the dark web.
I can understand his grief but he's going about it in totally the wrong way.
Given Alliston bought it second-hand in a private sale (from someone who had used it for the track) it makes no odds what kind of checks a shop may do.
Bit like someone buying a car from a dealer (who might check they have a driving licence) then selling it later to someone with no licence.
He said he didn't want a witch hunt against cyclists. Then he started a witch hunt against cyclists.
Agree with BehindTheBikesheds - he started a fire and now wants everyone else to put it out.
If he wants to do something positive he could run a marathon or ride the RideLondon sportive for RoadPeace.
Vulnerable road users have always requested discourse but those in power, supported and blackmailed by the car lobby, don't want to know.
Couldn't agree more.
Not sure what planet this guy is living on.
Make incidents that cause injuries and deaths offences against the person.
There are laws for motorists that are simply not enforced even when death occurs. 'Should' in the HC should be changed to 'must' in many instances for motorists that if not done do have an effect on safety and be backed up in law.
This must also apply to pedestrians. Currently people riding bicycles are already being held to a higher responsibility for their safety and the safety of others, you get mown down, excuses given by police or even suggested blame. You hit someone stepping out right in front of you or other scenario that is impossible to avoid (but moton police fail to understand) then you're also to blame.
However we also need presumed liability laws and a system of justice that does not have an inherently large amount of discrimination and bias that has led to criminals causing harm to get off completely or have piss weak slaps on the wrist.
Yes we want more discourse but aiming that at one group only and ignoring the other groups and indeed the group that is the root cause of the 1700 deaths, 33,000 seriius injuries, 150,000 minor injuries and countless millions of collisions and near misses shows you how Mr Briggs is really just a moton himself.
Now he's trying to backtrack to offset the criticism .just get lost and focus on caring for your kids
it will be interesting to see just how much press coverage this gets - the cynic in me says that this move will quite possibly be the signal that his 15 minutes of fame is now over
He's right.
There needs to be discourse and safety improvements.
If we could update road safety laws to encompass 21st-century reality, we could have much more sensible laws with greater transparency.
If I could change ANYTHING in modern road laws, it would be ambiguous rules and laws which have multiple interpretations, even the police don't always know how to correctly apply these laws.
He is of course right.
However he is totally the wrong person to do this as he has no experience of what actually is involvced in road safety. This is clearly demonstrated by his myopic harassment of bicycle sales websites simply because pictures of bikes on their website are inaccurate and dont show bikes with front brakes. Despite the bikes actually being sold with them.
In short he is destroying the road safety message / campaign and that may well lead to the roads being less safe for cyclists at the very least....
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