The dildo of consequences rarely arrives lubed.
I’m really not a fan of the cops arguing that the cyclist was partly to blame, though, and a €1000 fine is pretty damn low for breaking someone’s leg and wrecking a good six months of their life.
To be fair, I also fail to see how wearing a helmet would’ve prevented his leg from being broken as well
Yeah, the helmet is a bit much.
Not wearing appropriate clothing and headphones while on the road is a fair point though.
What’s clothing that allows me to not be at fault for being run over?
I thought traffic laws are only about having two breaks, lights at night etc
I’m not talking about being at fault.
I don’t care about court, I’d rather not be run over.
This case seems like an honest accident, I don’t think the driver is too blame too much here. The cyclist got into a blind spot (which is why I hate roundabouts for cyclists) and got hit.
Nobody seems truly at fault here, but making others more aware of yourself, and being more aware yourself might have made this avoidable.
Bad road design is yet again the biggest party to blame here.
Not wearing appropriate clothing and headphones while on the road is a fair point though.
I’ve nearly been hit several times (like tires screaching to a halt) while wearing high-viz clothing with the right of way.
It makes no difference when the driver isn’t paying attention.
It makes a huge difference if you yourself are paying attention, which seems hard wearing headphones.
And honestly, you said it yourself. “Nearly” hit. Could’ve been worse if you weren’t wearing high-viz clothing.
I cycle daily and just notice how little people are aware of blind spots, cyclists and drivers alike. No harm in driving a little slower, even when you have right of way.
It makes a huge difference if you yourself are paying attention, which seems hard wearing headphones.
What about the driver? Did he listen to the radio? If it seems so hard to pay attention while wearing headphones, why is it still allowed to sell car radios?
wearing high-viz clothing […] how little people are aware of blind spots
How does wearing high-viz clothing help you when you are in a blind spot? And why does no one ask which colour the taxi was? Was it high-viz or maybe gray or black like most cars?
Drivers also aren’t allowed headphones where I’m from. If the cyclist had a boombox strapped to his bike, that would be comparable to a car radio, but headphones block your perception of external sound a lot more than music from a speaker
Where I’m from, drivers are sitting in sound proofed boxes called cars. The newer the car, the better the sound isolation. So unless the taxi was a convertible, the comparison is invalid.
When I’m wearing my headphones I can easily understand someone talking to me. When I’m sitting in my car I don’t hear a word when someone is talking outside the door.
No its not. The driver is at fault.
Do not blame the victim.
The driver was at fault.
The article lists four things about the cyclist.
- “not wearing a helmet”
Admittedly a no-go for me. There a lots of options for anyone.
- “was wearing “relatively” dark clothing”
“Relatively” already gives the impression that we aren’t talking black, just that it wasn’t a signal or hi-vis color.
- “using an earphone”
This wording makes me think the cyclist used one earbud and not both or full headphones. So he could hear his surroundings well.
- “his front light may not have been working”
Not even a fact, but a possibility.
To summarize, he was a traffic participant in a non-signal color, listening to music. That’s it.
Of course cyclist are more vulnerable than cars, but anyone who sees fault in the cyclist behavior is often overlooking similar or worse behavior in drivers.
Nobody ever asks the owner of a black car if they have a death wish or ask someone to turn of the radio, because they can’t hear the traffic as well.
I wish people would hold all traffic participants to the same standards.
More importantly the driver hit the cyclist from behind. The front light, helmet and earphones are all irrelevant to the accident. It doesn’t matter if you hear that a car is behind you or not, if the car just slams into you. If you cycle somewhere except extremely rural areas you will hear cars all the time and you can’t turn around to look at every car approaching form behing
What would be relevant instead are back lights and reflectors. The article mentions that the police had found a back light, which indicates it was broken off the bike by the hit.
areas you will hear cars all the time and you can’t turn around to look at every car approaching form behing
I do that and cars significantly slow down because they think I will turn left.
For me, riding on the road without lights would be a good point for placing blame on the cyclist. I don’t care what vehicle you are, you’re on the road at night, you need lights.
But would need to be proven, of course. “May not have been working” means literally nothing, could be from the drivers testimony “I didn’t see no lights” kind of thing
“His front light may not have been working”. Officer might as well have written “Cyclist might possibly be a pedophile”.
the taxi driver’s view may have been blocked by traffic signs.
Quick quiz, what do you do when you cannot see if it is safe to proceed on entering a roundabout?
Floor it!
It’s a broken leg, not head injury. That should’ve been the end of that argument.
helmets provide a flat +5 armor value, if you wear 10 helmets you are impervious to most forms of damage.
In my criminal justice system we break the judge and the police’s legs and give them 1k. We keep doing that until they take these crimes seriously. Then we break the legs of the town planners until they build sustainable transport solutions. Imagine how quickly people would learn the benefits. We would be living in paradise in no time.
To those downvoting this comment, heads up it’s parody and I feel it’s a disservice trying to hide it. And you know what’s crazy? I have multiple friends IRL who have had both of their legs simultaneously broken by cars plowing into them from behind while they were waiting at a red light. I also had a roommate who spent over a year in recovery after he was right-hooked by a van in a crosswalk and dragged underneath for half a block at 35MPH as the asphalt grated off his clothes and skin leaving his spine and skull visible. Is that too much violence for you? Too graphic? I have a downvote button too, if you’d like others to not be bothered by hearing of all this suffering.
