Am I missing something here?

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

including what is effectively a motorway slip road? i assume every time you're on a dual carriageway in a NSL with signal controlled lights showing you green you slow down to 45 when it's perfectly clear?


and of course if you were observed travelling through "any signal controlled junction at 45mph" you'd be reported for the consideration of being prosecuted for dangerous driving, even if your light was green? of course not, that's a stupid thing to suggest and reality reflects that


yet again, if it's that clear cut in the eyes of the law, why is it dealt with using FPNs and not dangerous driving convictions? surely the latter would be a greater deterrent?

@Dr Rich - this is disturbingly relevant:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png

still i'm sensible to know when a thread is stagnating, so i'll leave this parting shot:

if it had been a car driver who'd jumped the red light, and a motorcyclist not paying attention and speeding would you be quite so eager to hang him from the highest tree without the slightest hint of the car driver doing anything wrong?

You bet I would slow down - what if a car jumped the lights ?

Or to be more trutheful - I would be watching the junction like a hawk, not be texting on a mobile.

And even more truthful - I would be expecting there to be a hidden speed-trap

It was actually under similar circumstances I picked up 3 of my points.

I had been stopped by the lights on the dual carriage-way, they turned to green, I forgot where I was (ie in a 30 mph zone on a Dual Carriageway) and accelerated hard.

The Speedcamera at the point where the 30 went to a 50 got me - the limit didnt change to make my speed legal until a further couple of hundred meters.

As said, I am not squeaky clean.

Bottom line - 2 wrongs dont make a right in this case, he was wrong to jump the lights - god knows I am tempted to kick about 20 of these idiots that do it in London on a daily basis- but she still was driving dangerously, and texting and caused a death.

As you have posted hypothetical questions in this thread

What if he had been travelling in the same direction as her on the Dual Carriage way (which would have about the legality of running a red light) and she rear-ended him because she didnt see him?

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

You bet I would slow down - what if a car jumped the lights ?

what if the ******** behind rear ends you because you braked?

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Or to be more trutheful - I would be watching the junction like a hawk, not be texting on a mobile.

but if the lights were red would you jump them?

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

And even more truthful - I would be expecting there to be a hidden speed-trap

unless you're speeding on the approach to a signal controlled junction surely you have nothing to be concerned about?

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

What if he had been travelling in the same direction as her on the Dual Carriage way (which would have about the legality of running a red light) and she rear-ended him because she didnt see him?

if he was riding in a legal manner (ie: not drunk swinging across to the third lane or riding at night with no lights) and she simply ran him over then the blame would be squarely on her shoulders, in that hypothetical set of circumstances her texting could be argued to have prevented her seeing the cyclist, where a driver would normally be expected to see him, and that would be the grounds for dangerous driving

however this is nothing like the case we have here

he performed an illegal manoeuvre when he jumped the lights, at a junction where the road layout means that it would not be reasonable to expect someone to approach from the right. you can keep saying "expect the unexpected" or "what if..." but in reality you cannot drive in such a manner as to remove all risk from the roads. in this case he obviously wasn't watching the road, what if he'd simply cycled into the path of two HGVs side by side, they come up that way from the ports and can't go anywhere or stop, if you're not going to watch where you're going when jumping red lights then quite frankly you're asking to get run over, it was coincidental that the driver of the vehicle that hit him was on speeding whilst on the phone at the time...





now, don't avoid it, answer my question:

if it had been a car driver who'd jumped the red light, and a motorcyclist not paying attention and speeding would you be quite so eager to hang him from the highest tree and charge him with dangerous driving*

*bold text changed to reflect that fact that you said he was wrong to jump the lights

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

The blame lies right on the cyclist here IMO, the speeding and text-age are just additional factors.

bloody hell!!!

i think we actually agree on something