One year ago today cyclist Amy Gillett was murdered by a car in Germany. She was on a training ride with her Australian team mates five of whom were also injured. The driver had her license for only 4 weeks at the time of collision. Cycling along with running are the only true sports (car racing is not a sport, it is entertainment at best)where the participants are at risk from being killed by a car.
A foundation has been set up to honour Amy Gillett and reduce the number of cyclists killed by cars... imagine I had to write "...reduce the number of drivers killed by cyclists."?
7 comments:
Murdered? Please. I'm there with you as far as car culture is concerned, but was part company with this emotional view.
There are many accidents where that word would be justified but in this case it was a terrible accident.
This emotionalism is a terrible way to advance anything.
The driver in this case was charged with involuntary manslaughter and five cases of negligent assault. She was eventually fined about $2000CDN and had her license suspended for 8 months. "Accident" is a nice word for auto apologists to describe this case.
While I agree with you that "accidents" do occur this is certainly not one of them. -ds
Putting aside the auto-apologist snark for a moment, it should be noted that being charged and being convicted are two different things altogether.
No question that negligence by the driver occured, and the driver was duly fined and suspended, but to now claim intentional murder smacks of vigalantism and flies in the face of the facts.
Sometimes activism demands removing well meaning emotionalism from the picture and adopting a reality based approach, you can argue the sentence till the cows come home but rule of law is an important principle.
There are other cases involving cyclists that demand our attention because of poorly applied law, this is not one of them.
Huh? the driver was convicted. Her sentence was reduced to reflect her young age. Apparently they used Germany's version of the Young Offender's Act.
It is hard to make a case for an "accident" when you yourself point to the negligence. On the flipside so to may be "murder" as it requires intent. Because the case went purposely under the radar it is hard to figure out what was brought out at trial. It is also hard to argue that one does not know what possible results there will be when one drives in a reckless and negligent manner. As this driver was just given a license there is no doubt someone mentioned to her along the way that if you drive like a fool there is a good possibility that you will kill yourself or someone else. Possibly why the OPP treat all collisions in Ontario causing deaths as homicides until there is evidence to the contrary.
There is no arguement to the application of the law, maybe the sentence. The response to the death of this cyclist has been a formidable organization to prevent similar occurences.-ds
It is Murder for sure, 80% of drivers should be taken off the road do to extereme lack of skills, but cars are a HUGE cash cow for most govermnents, thats why it is so easy to get License .and cell phones should be baned from cars and it should be inforced by the police
here in washington dc there was a female athlete who was killed on a training ride
she was a close family friend
her husband was my soccer coach for many years growning up
she was an inspiration to all who ever met her or followed her racing
after her death her eldest daughter made a documentary about her life
Judy's Time
about Judy Flannery
the senseless deaths by automobile could be avoided
better education early on
driver's ed should have more than a sentence in the handbook about how to behave around cyclists
all professional drivers (cabs, buses, delivery folk. truck drivers) should all have an education on how to behave around cyclists
it is dangerous
but it does not have to be as dangerous as the car drivers are making it
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