What a difference a week has made for Scottish cyclists.
It began on a sombre note as 4,000 bikers pedalled on parliament in a poignant protest led by families of Audrey Fyfe and George Dalgity two Edinburgh cyclists killed three decades apart by the same thoughtless driver.
Gary McCourt’s sentence caused outrage a few weeks back when the sheriff commented on the 75-year-old Audrey’s failure to wear a cycling helmet and McCourt got just 300 hours community service and a five-year driving ban.
Audrey’s daughter paid tribute to her mum: “She had the energy and enthusiasm of a 40-year-old and was an inspiration to everyone in the cycling community, Scottish country dance world, the ramblers and the church.”
Now thousands have backed the family’s call for an appeal over McCourt’s sentence and a legal answer to a simple question. Surely a man who has killed two people with a car shouldn’t drive again? And yet cyclists weren’t holding their breath for quick progress. After all, cycling deaths are commonplace.
Last week alone an eight-year-old lad died after colliding with a mobile crane in Aberdeen, a 17-year-old died after being struck by a car in Macclesfield, a 21-year-old Falkirk labourer was killed after an accident with a truck on a Highland road and a 61-year-old father of four cycling in Teesside died when a lorry hit him.
So far, so usual.
But then one silly, boastful trainee accountant went way too far and may have helped change attitudes for good.
The 21-year-old Norfolk lass, Emma Way, was zipping down a country lane when she knocked a cyclist off his bike, through a hedge, didn’t stop and drove on without a second thought. But then the daft lassie boasted about the incident on Twitter: “Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier I have right of way, he doesn’t even pay road tax! #bloodycyclists”
Fellow cyclists spotted the barmy tweet and circulated it, the biker involved confirmed the incident, newspapers, TV, Norfolk police and Emma’s own employers got wind of it all and the young airhead demonstrated she could back-pedal fast.
Emma hired a lawyer, went on Breakfast TV, claimed the cyclist actually hit her and swore he was upright when she left the scene. Emma, pur-lease! If you “saw he was upright”, why tweet that you knocked him off his bike?
Indeed, what about an earlier tweet criticising a slow-driving “clueless crazy fool” for making you late or the “wha’s like me” picture of your speedometer at 95mph? Tell me Emms ain’t that a bit over the speed limit?
Anyway, that ill wind did blow some good. Indefensible Emma may have helped turn the tide against dangerous cycle-blaming drivers.
A Bristol court finally handed down a proportionate sentence to a motorist who killed a couple cycling on a tandem. He got 10 years jail and a lifetime driving ban. The next day two of the UK’s biggest driving schools AA and BSM announced they’ll give learner drivers cycling awareness training from now on. BSM boss Mark Peacock made the common-sense point that even the best cyclists have to avoid potholes and wobble in strong winds.
AA boss Edmund King made a pledge to end the “two tribes” attitude displayed between some drivers and cyclists, and Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown announced he’s off to Amsterdam for lessons in cycle-friendly road design.
Hooray.
Scotland won’t become McCycle heaven overnight, but this week was a start. And the public-spirited Fyfe and Dalgity families have led the way.
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