Tonight in the local paper there was an article regarding a nurse who was knocked off her cycle on bonfire night.
Now nothing unusual about this I hear you say, however the motorist is not being prosecuted.
Firstly I have to state that I am both a cyclist and a motorist.
What upsets me about this lack of prosecution is that it does not act as a deterrent to other reckless motorists.
By design a motorist is driving a potential lethal weapon - one ton of metal is a lethal weapon in my book. This means that there should be an onus on them to drive defensively with due care and attention to other road users.
Maybe the more lethal your mode of transport is then the greater onus should be placed upon the driver of the more lethal vehicles. This means that the most vulnerable road user, i.e. the pedestrian is protected the most, then the cyclist, then the motorcyclist etc. Therefore the driver of the more lethal vehicle is required to disprove their neglect rather than the prosecution, usually the most vulnerable, to prove their guilt.
