OT - Pedestrian killed by cyclists in Hell Ride, Melbourne

Quoting Shuggie <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Not sure if this has been posted before. This is the story about an old
guy who was knocked down and killed at a set of lights which changed in
his favour as a group of 200 cyclists beared down on him.

I can't help but wonder about;

"Had it been a car, its driver would be in deep trouble, facing possible
culpable driving charges and years in prison. It was a bicycle. He is not.

Police have charged a 30-year-old cyclist with failing to stop at a red light
over the Saturday morning collision that killed James Gould, 77, in Mentone,
but yesterday said there was little more they could do."

There's an offence of manslaughter in US law. Why can't he be charged with
that?
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]> Kill the tomato!
Today is Second Wednesday, August.

"David Damerell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoting Shuggie <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Not sure if this has been posted before. This is the story about an old
guy who was knocked down and killed at a set of lights which changed in
his favour as a group of 200 cyclists beared down on him.

I can't help but wonder about;

"Had it been a car, its driver would be in deep trouble, facing possible
culpable driving charges and years in prison. It was a bicycle. He is not.

Police have charged a 30-year-old cyclist with failing to stop at a red
light
over the Saturday morning collision that killed James Gould, 77, in
Mentone,
but yesterday said there was little more they could do."

There's an offence of manslaughter in US law. Why can't he be charged with
that?

And for our next geography lesson, we will be watching Neighbours in an
attempt to discern merely from the accents which country Melbourne is in...

Agreed about the charges though.

cheers,
clive

Shuggie said:

Just wondering, are there regular hell rides here in the UK?

James

no - its an illegal race gathering and locals here would call the cops. Even
if people got away with it initially the cops would be waiting next time to
deal with it; in the same way they deal with cruises, unlicensed raves
etc....

There are critical mass rides in some areas (mostly intended as a protest
action) but they are fairly slow-moving and it would be unlikely for a
pedestrian to be hurt during one.

Alex
--
Mr R@T / General Lighting
Ipswich, Suffolk, Untied Kingdom
http://www.partyvibe.com

Quoting Clive George <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

"David Damerell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

There's an offence of manslaughter in US law. Why can't he be charged with
that?

And for our next geography lesson, we will be watching Neighbours in an
attempt to discern merely from the accents which country Melbourne is in...

Good point. Sorry. I read a lot about the US "Death Rides", and it
confused me.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]> Kill the tomato!
Today is Second Wednesday, August.

Shuggie said:

Not sure if this has been posted before. This is the story about an old
guy who was knocked down and killed at a set of lights which changed in
his favour as a group of 200 cyclists beared down on him.

tinyurl.como57y6Open ↗
tinyurl.comjb553Open ↗

Just wondering, are there regular hell rides here in the UK?

James

Good a write up as any on what's been happening here: http://treadly.thingoid.com/2006/08/31/james-gould/

Here being Melbourne, Australia that is.

Shuggie said:

Just wondering, are there regular hell rides here in the UK?

No, but I have known plenty of club cyclists run red lights to keep the
group together (if the lights were red when the first rider reached
them, they'd probably stop).

When I stopped I was shouted at by the idiots behind who "had to" swerve
round me. It doesn't happen here, but it *could*.

Response to Zog The Undeniable:

Quoted message said:

No, but I have known plenty of club cyclists run red lights to keep the
group together (if the lights were red when the first rider reached
them, they'd probably stop).

A few years ago I accidentally got myself caught up in a club run going
through the middle of town. We all reached a red light, and waited.
After just a few seconds a couple of the leaders got bored,
dismounted, and walked their bikes through. Seeing this, a few more
scooted across the junction one-footed; seeing *that*, the rest of the
club clipped in and cycled across in front of oncoming traffic, leaving
me alone at the red light, looking like the class Goodie Two-Shoes.

--
Mark, UK
"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more
closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On
some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their
heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a
downright moron."

David Damerell said:

There's an offence of manslaughter in US law. Why can't he be charged with
that?

A regular on rec.bicycle.misc. who works in law enforcement has posted
on this topic, explaining why the cyclist would probably not be charged
with manslaughter under his state's laws. ISTR a cyclist in my state
being charged with manslaughter in my state (head on collision on
bicycle path), but I'm a bit hazy on the details. So even if Melbourne
were in the US, it would depend on which state Melbourne chose to locate
itself in.

mark