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news
Texting while driving (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 licence by Paul Oka:Flickr)Texting at the wheel sign snapped and removed from cyclist's roadside memorial three days after it was put up
A sign warning drivers of the dangers of texting at the wheel has been removed from the spot where a Kent cyclist lost his life just days after it was put up.
On September 7 2013, 18-year-old Daniel Squire was riding on the A258 at Ringwould in Kent when he was hit and killed by a van driven by Philip Sinden. Although Sinden admitted exchanging texts with his girlfriend immediately before the incident, he was cleared of causing death by dangerous driving and of causing death by careless driving.
Squire’s parents have campaigned to raise awareness of the dangers of mobile phone use while driving and Kent Online reports that in the lead up to the fifth anniversary of his death, his mum Tracy Squire placed a ‘Texting and driving – why risk it?’ sign at the site of the collision.
On Tuesday, she received a phone call from a police officer informing her that the post had been removed by a member of the public. A flower bed and ghost bike at the site were untouched.
"It was there only three days,” said Tracy. "They couldn't get the whole of it out of the ground so they broke it in two and left the rest. As if our hearts are not broken enough, especially this week of all weeks."
She added: "If somebody was really upset by it, I'd take it down. If they thought it was dangerous or offensive, we'd take it down.
"It's to tell people to stop texting when driving. It was a sign sending out a good message, nothing bad at all. It's not a cruel message. They've got no right to go up there and do this."
A police spokesman said: "Kent Police was made aware on Tuesday, September 4 that a display installed by a member of the public had been removed from the A258 near Ringwould.
"The display had been erected next to a memorial to remember a cyclist who died following a collision in March 2015. Officers are carrying out initial enquiries into the incident."
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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9 comments
A survey by the RAC in 2016 show that 19% of people admit to texting at wheel and 31% admit to using a handheld mobile phone https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/shock-statistics-reveal-alarming-rise-in-illegal-mobile-phone-use-behind-th/
The percentages not admitting to these offences are probably a lot higher.
This probably goes some way to explaining how there are a lot of people out there who sympathise with Philip Sinden and could be responsible for removing this sign.
It also explains how he was scandalously acquitted of both dangerous and careless driving.
iandusud, picking up time is often worse, when unemployed in Birmingham I tried not to get out just before school closing time. Mothers, running late, racing to pick up their little ones, who obviously aren't in the car yet, a danger to everyone around them.
Most of my experience of school run mums is with drop off, as that coincided with my commute, but there was a route I used to ride sometimes if I had time off midweek that would take me past a school and if I timed so that came past the school near pick up time it was very dangerous. So much so that in the end I would avoid that route if the timing wasn't right.
There are a lot of very bad drivers out there but among the worst are school run mums. When I was commuting in London the most dangerous places to be was around schools at drop off time. Driver's (mainly women) would drive along, on the phone half the time, not looking where they were going as they hunted out a place to park that wouldn't involve walking any more than absolutuely neccessary, stop anywhere without warning, park two or three abreast, and do u-turns without looking behind (well they probably did look behind because they wouldn't want their Range Rover or whatever being t-boned by a car, but probably figured that a cyclist would happily slam on the brakes to avoid a collision.
How old is that stock picture? A Samsung with a physical keyboard?
"How *dare* you publicly tell people not to do something that they shouldn't be doing anyway! Bl00dy do-gooders!"
The one that winds me up is the stickers on the back of people's cars saying "My driving may annoy you, but not as much as the black box annoys me!" or whatever, like "I'm terribly sorry that I'm obliged to obey the law."
'Baby/child/little scrote on board' and then they drive like utter cretins. I balled out one 'mother' as she sped into her cul de sac almost wiping me out on a cycle network lane, I literally screamed at her to put the phone down and that she was a disgrace the fact she was on her phone with her kids in the car never mind she nearly hit me.
What did she say to the person on the other end "have you heard this, shouting at me because I'm on the phone"!. She was having a go at me for upsetting her kids, I shouted back well they'd be even more upset if their mother was in prison for killing someone whilst she was driving and on her phone. I was so fucking angry!
I initially thought it might have been hit down in an accident, but I see that isn't so. It is hard to understand people's motivations at the best of times, but to be so heartless as to remove a sign from what is clearly a memorial is utterly beyond my comprehension. I wonder if they tried getting the local media involved the person who did it would say why. Where was Sinden at the time?
This is just so sad, and my thoughts are with Daniel Squire's parents.