2011-01-06 - Rider Down/Fatality, Former British boxing champion - Gary Mason

I listened to 'Petrie' on LBC quite by chance whilst flicking through stations before Christmas. She was also having a dailymailesque rant about the 'war on the motorist' then. The usual gobshite - I pay roadtax in hammersmith but they won't let me park/drive wherever I want etc. But to launch a tirade on the back of a cyclist's (or anyone's, for that matter) death is shameful.

I'll listen first, but perhaps

http://www.bcc.ie/how_to_complaint/what_about_impartiality.html

is relevant.

Can't open the file with 7zip.

Can't open the file with 7zip.

Change the file type to *.rar and try again?

tried

It's a JPEG file, not a rar so far as I can tell:

$ file carapace.jpg
carapace.jpg: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.02

It's a picture of a woman with brown hair.

resloved?

BBC Breakfast TV doing a piece on "whether motorists should be more aware of cyclists" shortly apparently...

I listened to 'Petrie' on LBC quite by chance whilst flicking through stations before Christmas. She was also having a dailymailesque rant about the 'war on the motorist' then.

My friend's facebook update the other day was 'Just heard there's a war on motorists: news to me. Where do I sign up?'.

yes those james b comments are outrageous and designed to wind everybody up.

must be a troll. a childish troll.

Someone in my team printed out a story about this and left it on my desk for me to arrive to this morning.

When I asked wtf someone had done this, I was told it was supposed to be helpful and a cautionary tale of what happens when you don't wear high-vis and/or a helmet

shakes head

Someone in my team printed out a story about this and left it on my desk for me to arrive to this morning.

When I asked wtf someone had done this, I was told it was supposed to be helpful and a cautionary tale of what happens when you don't wear high-vis and/or a helmet

shakes head

Put a picture of Princess Diana on their desk with a note "Careful Now!".

BBC Breakfast was a load of dog vomit, how do you get from Mr Mason's horrible death to a stupid chat about whether cyclists should have insurance? The man is dead, there is no evidence he did anything wrong, WTF difference would insurance make?

Yebbut to much of the meeja especially the Daily Wail, cyclists are Public Enemy Number One.
It is quite common to use almost any event as a springboad for an anti-cyclist tirade.

RIP

Shame about idiots making it worse...

Wanted to add my condolences. RIP Gary.

This is so sad. When this news broke part of me hoped that some good might come out of this tragedy with Gary being relatively famous yet it appears the opposite is true. For fucks sake, no other victims of crime are vilified for no reason.

And cunts likes Petrie and that idiot who posted on here I really hope kharma catches up with you and gives you the kicking you deserve.

RIP Gary.

There's a nice tribute from BBC here.

Has anyone managed to download the LBC show? I'd like to listen (and complain). Otherwise I may just signup.

sign up, download it and upload it as a normal .zip file.

Guys I did not intend to ofend any one, I obviously have and for that I am sorry.

It's a JPEG file, not a rar so far as I can tell:

$ file carapace.jpg
carapace.jpg: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.02

It's a picture of a woman with brown hair.

carapace.jpg:
Dimensions:300x300
Size: 53.6MB

o.r.l.y...

↑ *same "picture of a woman with brown hair"
Size of file: 17.34 KB

carapace.jpg is not an image; it only looks like one.
For anyone with Windows/winrar:
open carapace.jpg with winrar directly, it will prompt for a password: enter:[code]ADSRvelope(toshidensetsu)[/code]+Afterthought: Apologies if any/all interested parties are Mac/Linux users+.

In any case, the radio show really is bleak.
Like a twisted "Down The Line", with a featured special helping of anti-cycling sociopathy included...

Fair play to Andreas{sp?}~ from 'London Cyclist' blog, for trying against all odds to put a balanced view across from the cyclist's POV (in a somewhat brief interview/skewed 'cyclist's right of reply', near the start of the show)

*(result of GIS for the offending chat show host)

very sad, RIP big man

Thoughts and condolences going out to his family and friends. RIP Gary Mason.

I was shocked when I read this.
Rest in Piece Gary Mason. God bless

never good

RIP my thoughts are with the friends and family you leave behind.

God, that LBC show is totally out of order ... talk about having a pre-fabricated viewpoint and a discussion standard like in a pub full of drunkards.

pascalo +1

Petrie Hosken just used the event of Gary Mason's death as a springboard for an unrelated, poorly-informed rehearsal of the usual tired old anti-cyclist rhetoric: helmets, red lights, bikes on pavements, insurance/road tax, bicycles are anonymous, blah blah. I downloaded the show from here (English version of link)
password here:

Update: Gary Mason died of multiple injuries, according to the post-mortem.
The accident took place in the early morning, so he might in fact have been on the way to work. It seems that the driver involved in the accident was arrested, but wasn't actually charged, as was widely reported earlier. The police are still appealing for witnesses. They breath-tested the driver, but are not releasing the results.

I have reason to believe that the police are looking at a possible 'death by careless driving' charge, rather than 'death by dangerous driving'. dbcd charge means they don't have to prove that the driver's behaviour would 'obviously' have led to an accident. However, nobody gets locked up for being convicted of 'careless' driving. A dangerous driving conviction can easily see the driver locked up.

The junction is known to be dangerous. Sutton Council bid for funding to improve it in 2009, but TFL turned them down. Looking at that junction, the winning boroughs must have bid for sites where road users/pedestrians were being mowed down daily.

Disturbing press photo. Gary's bike at the scene, 6/1/11. here:
Photo from Sutton Guardian.

A contact told me that the driver may use Gary Mason's visibility as a mitigating circumstance, as the accident took place well before sunrise (8.04am on 6/1/11).

Whatever happens in the legal arena, I'm still gutted by this. I could only feel worse if it was a FM, or someone I knew personally. Perhaps it's because I'm Southside, and he was 'South London forever', or maybe because I liked the way he had an unglamorous barrel-shaped torso, but was a great boxer.