1 in 10 London cycling deaths result in driver being jailed, says Evening Standard

In an ideal world drivers would be just as terrified of driving into a cyclist as cyclists are when there is an aggressive or careless driver close to them.

Wouldn’t it be nice if all vehicles had black box recorders, with fines and imprisonment for tampering with them, and cameras that have to be kept clean? Then there would be plenty of evidence for every collision, and maybe motorists might just drive a little more sensibly.

Hey it might also help prevent some of the 3,500 or so KSIs on the road every year, and speed up traffic flow because there would be fewer “accidents” on the roads.

A possible mechanism could be that the government mandates black box recorders, and that the Bureau of Insurers leads an initiative to install them as part of a pay-per-drive initiative - some insurers already have data recorders - just need more sensors.

I think its quite obvious that motoring offences are treated more leniently than pretty much any other offence. Even when found guilty the sentences are light.
I believe an academic study found that sentences for such offences have been getting lighter just as those for other crimes have been getting harsher.

The reasons are pretty obvious - its a car-centric society and police, juries and judges alike are prone to identify more with the perpetrator ("there but for the grace of God go I") than with the victim.

I don't think there's a lot of hope for changing this. The one thing I wish something could be done about though, is that driving bans be more effectively enforced. They seem to be routinely ignored

(e.g. this guy - 11 previous convictions for driving while disqualified! Can't we come up with a way to prevent some people from ever getting into a car again?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10548652/Fathers-10...
)

Regarding the 9 out of 10 motorists who were involved in a fatality, and who did not go to jail, were they all guilty of carelessness or worse ? I personally had a near miss with a cyclist about three years ago. This was at a crossroads with a four way stop. I came to a complete stop, and there was a car approaching from the left clearly slowing down and intending to stop, so I set off again, and then had a near collision with a woman on a bicycle. She was on the wrong side of the road, she did not stop, she did not look, and finally she could not hear because she had earphones stuck in her ears. Now had I hit her and somehow managed to kill her should I have gone to jail after doing all the necessary ??? By the way my vehicle was a Trek 4300 mountain bike in that instance.

1/ road safety charity RoadSafe has previously told road.cc that it believes that drivers should be punished through longer driving bans, not custodial sentences.

2/ Typically, a custodial sentence is imposed when there is some aggravating factor such as the motorist not being insured, or being banned from driving at the time of the incident.

Roadunsafe obviously driving bans work

Also as I switched on, my first yahoo news story was about a banned driver in a 100mph+ chase endangering his own kids and partner let alone everybody else on the road the chase ended when he rlj'd and collided with another car and the fat so and so tried to run off.

when I worked in East London some years ago the Police did a number of blitzes on motorists and found that 1/4 of those stopped had no licence, no MOT, no insurance..and that was the ones they stopped!

And this was years ago, before the economic pinch of the banking collapse

I currently ride a lot of miles commuting (nearly 1000km / month), and half of my commute is through London from Camden to Hammersmith

Every day, I see absolutely shocking behaviour from motorists and other road users including public transport, HGV and Taxis:- jumping red lights, red light gambling, failure to indicate, infringing ASL, aggressive action against cyclist and pedestrians and the most common is a general lack of attention to other road users.

With the lack of attention drivers, when I look into the car interior the driver 9/10 times has a smartphone in their hand or are looking at a GPS mapping screen mounted on the dashboard

Where are the Police on these London roads? Rarely see them unless they are whizzing through on blue lights. Never see them pulling over motorists?

However, to my surprise there were some Police and PCSO at Shepherds Bush the other night stoping and informing cyclists to wear helmets and hi-viz (the cyclists all had front and rear lights and had not broken any laws I could see..)

Better enforcement is needed. That's a major road safety issue issue. The switch to a greater reliance on speed cameras was done on grounds of cost to a large degree. Speed cameras do need attention, but they don't have holidays or need pensions for example. Unfortunately, the types used in the UK also can't tell whether drivers are under the influence of alcohol/drugs, driving too close, in an uninsured/defective vehicle or have a valid licence.

Better enforcement would help all types of road users, not just cyclists but pedestrians, motorcyclists, and car, bus, truck and taxi drivers too.

And for offenders, penalties have to be tougher. I'd make driving while using a cellphone comparable to drink driving with an automatic 12 month ban if I had my way, as the statistics say the risks are about the same.

I was caught speeding a couple of years ago and did the safespeed course, which was very good. Since then I've been more careful to stick to speed limits.

There are some crap drivers on the road who shouldn't be trusted with a skateboard, let alone a 1.5tonne (or more) vehicle capable of exceeding the speed limit. And many of these same crap drivers would get behind the wheel, whether or not they have insurance or a valid licence.

How well are driving bans enforced? In the states it is all to common to hear of people driving on suspended license or without one at all

Locally to me, a driving ban didn't stop Nicholas Lovell from killing Ross and Clare Simons: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-22621623

As the CTC have rightly pointed out, the number of police on our roads has dropped year-on-year as local authorities turn to cheaper solutions like speed cameras.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/traffic-police-numbers-fall-29-in-10-years

Where's the impetus for this to change while accident rates continue to fall overall, and local communities focus the police's attention on pavement cyclists isntead of dangerous driving? There's a review of sentencing guidelines coming up later in the year but frankly I'm not expecting this to change the behaviour of the drivers on my commute one iota.

Horrifying stats. They should be something every cycle campaigner quotes rather than packing the airwaves with overly emotive language which I feel damages the cycling safety debate more than it helps.

Seems that LIFE is cheap! Who listens to us? We all know that 99.9% of Fatalities are the fault of the driver; and the arrogant attitude they adopt when behind the wheel. Or on the phone while driving, or altering their SatNav, or maybe eating while driving; maybe arguing with other passengers in the vehicle? AND the left turn driver who (in his/her opinion) has right of way; doesn't care if they knock a cyclist off the bike!
Let the punishment fit the crime; and it is a crime to cause the death of another person. Being sorry is way too late! Loss of life cannot be retrieved. Luckily these morons are a minority on our roads? but a LIFE LONG BAN for killing someone should be the minimum sentence they receive. Maybe a long prison sentence for the blatant offender with no remorse.

Life is precious for everyone; we need to take care of all lives.

So 9 out of 10 drivers walk free after killing someone....

I accept that jailing a driver does not change what has happened, that a complete driving ban is on a personal level the correct punishment.

However what message does it send out? That you can kill someone and walk away? That however crap your driving it doesn't really matter. That the lives taken by car drivers are worth less than others?

How many car incidents are because the car, cyclist, etc broke, ie a wheel fell off car swerved and killed someone, and how many SMIDSY?

How do you make drivers understand they are responsible to those around them?

It's sad really, not that there should be automatic jail-time (figure most of the cases it's not intentional, just careless) but the majority of these drivers should be taken of the roads (semi)permanently as they demonstrated not to be able to to handle a potential killing machine with responsibility.
In cases of over speeding and drunk-driving jail-time should sought.
I also wonder in what number of cases the victims (and family's) are compensated in money for their grieve (not that money can be a compensation for a life but, a large fine for damages can be a punishment too)