-
Well, as I don't understand the point he is trying to make, either, I can't really tell if I find it distasteful. :)
It is true that there are many, many motoring offences in which it is not possible to prove intent to the satisfaction of a jury, but there have been a couple of such cases. I remember reading about two murders of cyclists in which people used their cars as weapons. (I can't find them now, as I don't remember the names of the victims.) I think in both cases the conviction depended on the testimony of witnesses.
Obviously, the burden of proof when potentially locking someone up for life should be high, but there is certainly an imbalance in how such cases are dealt with. Drivers are often not prosecuted because of a lack of evidence or procedural errors.
-
Police officer hits and kills a young woman in Berlin, story gets weird:
https://berlinspectator.com/2019/08/16/berlin-a-sad-story-becomes-a-scandal-1/
-
I've read a few articles in German about this, which contain quite a lot more information; the authorities are now seeking to reassure people that an initial attempt at obscuring the issues is being dealt with as a separate investigation. The police president (the German version of 'commissioner') has changed the procedure for investigating such incidents, in that before the same police division whose officers were involved would investigate it, and it now has to be a different one. Let's see what happens in the end.
As for the crash itself, the speed and manner of driving were entirely contrary to police procedure whether or not the driver was drunk, although that's an aggravating factor, of course. The car parking arrangements in the central reservation are hazardous not only because of the way they have to be accessed, but also how drivers are expected to re-enter the carriageway. As the police driver was going much too fast, she had no chance to see his car, but this sort of manoeuvre is definitely not what you want on a major street like this even in slower-moving traffic.
The area this happened in is one of Berlin's modernist blight areas, essentially constructed to try and project a 'vision' of a modern 'socialist' state. There have been talks in Berlin for years to tighten up the streetscape and create better, closer frontages (although I'd be surprised if the carriageway envelope in itself were addressed). I suppose our closest equivalents to the tunnel leading to Grunerstraße are Hyde Park Corner or the Euston Underpass.
RIP Fabien Martini.
-
Since she was the victim (and I don't believe the nonsense that it was a planned stunt), I don't have any problem with her posting those shots. Obviously, anyone who follows 'influencers' needs to have a difficult conversation with him- or herself.
-
It's always worth another reminder that quite a few crashes involving pedestrians don't get reported widely--unless there's some sort of reporting angle like this:
RIP.
-
A multi-vehicle crash in South-east London, with one man in critical condition:
I've been to Chislehurst High Street, which in the daytime is quite beautiful and bucolic-seeming, but I suppose there will be some worse driver behaviour at night. Hope the victims recover.
-
I forgot earlier to read this memorial page ...
https://www.gedenkseiten.de/fabien-martini/
... which I'd opened in a tab. It turns out that she actually wanted to start a career with the police. The writer also surmises that she would still be alive if she hadn't had to be where she was when she was killed because she was due to do some work which had been pulled forward compared to the original plan. Needless to say, her family are completely inconsolable.
-
Ha, well, yes, that doesn't look too 'real'.
-
I had a Very Scary Crash on my bicycle. Fortunately I had a Very Handsome Man there to bring me a Refreshing Red Bull and Snacks (#sponsored, #ad) as well as a friend to take Beautifully Edited Photos of my trauma. All in all a Truly Magical Day.
https://twitter.com/ellenlikesbikes/status/1163966133743038471
-
Makes note to only crash in the golden hour
-
Here's a terrible crash against a tree:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/24/essex-car-crash-driver-arrested-two-die
As I've said a couple of times on the 'motor vehicles crashing into buildings' thread, while crashes against a wall now rarely seem to result in serious injury to the vehicle's occupants, crashes against trees generally do. That the force of impact is distributed over a smaller area, plus the possibility of the vehicle being spun around, are probably largely responsible for that. (I don't really know the physics of that, so if somebody knows more, please explain.)
-
Evening Standard focus on the victim:
(That driver is the grandson of the former King of Qatar)
-
Of all the ways of causing danger ...
RIP Anna Evans.
-
It always baffles me when people call for 4x4/SUV bans; their use clearly causes fatal collisions, but so does the use of all other kinds of motorised vehicle. A whole or partial ban on them is not a solution, just a hand-wringing gesture that comes out occasionally when terrible incidents like the one below occur, and a gesture that never really challenges the fundamental problems with hypermobility and mass motorisation.
-
"...every muscle appears to be energised – like a predator ready to
pounce."How Porsche describes its Macan SUV - the vehicle involved:
-
Here's a 14 year-old who steals a car and is pursued by police. Not massively surprising that he ends up crashing it (not that I'm suggesting the police could have known who was in the car, or indeed that it would end up being fatal):
However, I am very critical of police chases (as I've mostly said in the moped-enabled crime thread).
-
Anna Roselyn Evans' killer (see https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14878978/) has been jailed for eight years--he was drunk and crashed into the tent she was sleeping in:
He was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and disqualified from driving for twelve years and two months.. It turns out he was actually at the same campsite and he decided to drive his drinking mate's car around while drunk, mowing down tents and injuring three others as well as killing Anna Evans. The poor family.
The father-of-two, who held only a provisional driving licence, hit a tent, injuring two people, before driving over another tent, where Anna Roselyn Evans, 46, and her husband were sleeping.
It took five people to lift the car off Evans at the Rhyd y Galen site near Bethel in Caernarfon. She died nine days later.
-
Yes, very bad. Not clear what happened beyond the description that two buses going in opposite directions crashed into each other and then someone, who's been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, tried to drive through between them? More info will come through in due course. I just hope the other injuries are light. Terrible that someone who just took the bus then died.
TGR
spindrift
amey
GoatandTricycle
Juicy8
ric_a5-
Post a reply
About
Non-cycling crashes that deserve attention
Posted by
@Oliver Schick
Well it’s the intent part that the difficult thing to prove when a motor vehicle is involved weather it be GBH or murder is somewhat immaterial to my point.
There are lots of examples where in all likelihood a vehicle has been used in the heat of the moment as a weapon by the driver but end up being charged with a motoring offence become of the problems with proving intent.
This is fairly tame stuff, if your offended I’m sorry.