Cyclist slams "joke" sentence for pastor who left him paralysed after driving in to him

srchar wrote:

Good job she wasn't an atheist.

i remember hearing a joke, back during the troubles: so this bloke moves to Belfast, gets asked if he's Protestant or Catholic; "I'm an atheist ", he replies; "Oh right... But are you a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?"

brooksby wrote:

srchar wrote:

Good job she wasn't an atheist.

i remember hearing a joke, back during the troubles: so this bloke moves to Belfast, gets asked if he's Protestant or Catholic; "I'm an atheist ", he replies; "Oh right... But are you a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?"

No joke, mate.

Actual quote ... "Yeah, but are you a Catholic Muslim or a Protestant one?"  

Weird place in the 1980's; not much less weird now, I suspect.

aries2580 wrote:

I really wonder if the risk is worth the reward these days. I just get stressed on the road lol.

That's about where I'm at with it now.  I cycled with a road club for several years but I've had enough of close passes and inattentive drivers.  I just don't want to be on the road regularly any more - it feels like a matter of time until you get hit by a car, especially with the stupid speeds people drive round blind corners around here.

I've switched to mountain biking on the local bridleways in the week and then sticking the bike in the car and heading to Wales on the weekend to ride off-road stuff there.  Strange that I feel safer on a downhill track than a shared use public highway.

hawkinspeter wrote:

With this kind of debacle, I'm surprised that the government doesn't step in and announce a wide-sweeping reform of traffic offence sentencing.

Another one?

Announcement of course, not an actual review.

brooksby wrote:

Quote:

During her trial, the court heard that Adu “struggles on a daily basis to accept the fact that as a result of her driving, a person has been left with life-changing injuries" and that she "hopes a day will come when she can actually meet Mr Millar and apologise face-to-face."
Mr Millar told the Belfast Telegraph he had no interest in meeting her.

Good for him    All she wants to do is salve her own god-fearing conscience, so why should Mr Millar help her in that?

Especially considering the last time that they 'met', it didn't end so well.

I can't even imagine if I were in his place and actually got to meet the person that paralysed you through sheer lack of giving a shit about anyone else.

If she's identifying as a Christian, let's see her sell all her worldy belongings and give the proceeds to the poor - that would at least demonstrate that she cares about anyone other than herself.

brooksby wrote:

The problem I see in this particular case is that the motorist was a Christian pastor.  So, will get every protection they can find on the statute books because, "God, innit?".

I may be generalising a bit, never having been to Northern Ireland, but it looks like their local/devolved government is pretty much willing to bow down before the church.

When I lived in Belfast, I spent some time trying to get the government to make the roads slightly less dangerous for cyclists, but got the response that they didn't want to do that as it would encourage cycling and increase the ksi rate.

burtthebike wrote:

brooksby wrote:

The problem I see in this particular case is that the motorist was a Christian pastor.  So, will get every protection they can find on the statute books because, "God, innit?".

I may be generalising a bit, never having been to Northern Ireland, but it looks like their local/devolved government is pretty much willing to bow down before the church.

When I lived in Belfast, I spent some time trying to get the government to make the roads slightly less dangerous for cyclists, but got the response that they didn't want to do that as it would encourage cycling and increase the ksi rate.

How? I’d like to try.

aries2580 wrote:

burtthebike wrote:

brooksby wrote:

The problem I see in this particular case is that the motorist was a Christian pastor.  So, will get every protection they can find on the statute books because, "God, innit?".

I may be generalising a bit, never having been to Northern Ireland, but it looks like their local/devolved government is pretty much willing to bow down before the church.

When I lived in Belfast, I spent some time trying to get the government to make the roads slightly less dangerous for cyclists, but got the response that they didn't want to do that as it would encourage cycling and increase the ksi rate.

 

How? I’d like to try.

start writing to your council. And keep pestering them. Find out what inroads pro cycling groups are making. Bike fast is a good start.  Though until Stormount gets its act together there is no funding available and it’s highly unlikely that Karen Bradley will authorise release of finances for infrastructure.

In my experience it really depends where you live and what the attitude of motorists is. South and East Antrim is fine.  North Down and the Ards Pinnisula is a nightmare  as is Belfast itself. 

aries2580 wrote:

burtthebike wrote:

brooksby wrote:

The problem I see in this particular case is that the motorist was a Christian pastor.  So, will get every protection they can find on the statute books because, "God, innit?".

I may be generalising a bit, never having been to Northern Ireland, but it looks like their local/devolved government is pretty much willing to bow down before the church.

When I lived in Belfast, I spent some time trying to get the government to make the roads slightly less dangerous for cyclists, but got the response that they didn't want to do that as it would encourage cycling and increase the ksi rate.

 

How? I’d like to try.

Letters to DfT or whoever was in charge in Belfast fifteen years ago.  Possibly DoE.  Whatever, the response was "we'd love to, but we can't have more cyclists because it would look bad for the kis figures."

You're going to need to find out who's in charge now and work on them.