England and Wales.
Saved you a click. Put this in the title.
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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That’s fine, but do it for cars first.
The amendments tabled on Thursday will bring the offence of death by dangerous cycling in line with motoring laws, the Department for Transport says.
So, drivers who kill pedestrians currently get life in prison? I've never heard of this happening.
Me neither. I suppose the main point is that the maximum sentence of two years is no longer applicable. Personally I think it may be justified in some cases with larger e-bikes. I've seen people doing maybe 40 or 50 k on shared pedestrian paths with their bicycles that are basically electric motorcycles with pedals. If a kid stepped out in front of them I wouldn't want to see what happens. An adult might get their leg broken, or even killed if they fall in a certain way. Not to mention the risk of permanent damage...
I doubt this law will be maximally applied to cyclists on regular bicycles, not enough weight and speed. Put them on the heaviest, fastest e-bike though, and the equation comes out different.
I was going to say.... meanwhile, car driver kills a motorcyclist and all they have to do is utter the phrase "I didn't see him". Big oopsie!
Cyclists are punished more severely than motorists because cyclists killing pedestrians is a violation of established hierarchy, whereas motorists doing the same is a reinforcement of it.
Of course, Conservatives would dream this nonsense up.
just 0.6 per cent of pedestrian fatalities involve a collision with a bike.
Typical Conservative strategy: Focus on a non-issue, and make it seem so outrageously important, that people can't help but be outraged.
The UK Government reports 9 pedestrian fatalities involving cyclists... from 2018 to 2022. During the same period, there were over 1600 deaths caused by drivers of motorcycles, cars, buses, or trucks.
And for some balance, this pedestrian only got three years for killing a cyclist.
I mean, sure, I guess? If you manage to kill someone on a bicycle then you did something extremely wrong.
But obviously this is just bait to take the conversation away from the much bigger car fatalities.