Sally Shalloe

[TrevA]

Some of you might remember the case of Sally Shalloe, a woman cyclist who was killed last year, after a collision with a motor cyclist on the Nottingham Ring Road.

I've just seen this on the local BBC news feed;

Motorcyclist admits death by dangerous driving
Posted at
14:59
A man has admitted causing death by dangerous driving after a cyclist was killed in a crash with a motorbike in Nottingham.

Sally Shalloe, 52, a research fellow at the University of Nottingham died in the collision on Middleton Boulevard on 21 April 2015.

Motorcyclist David Staley, 32, of Bedale Road, Arnold, who was seriously injured in the crash, will be sentenced on 13 May.

A friend of my wife's is a friend of the family and I've found out a few more details about how the crash happened. Sally was actually crossing the Ring Road (Middleton Boulevard) at a toucan crossing, when the collision occurred.

[TrevA]

The motorcyclist has now been sentenced to 2 years in jail and a 5 year driving ban which will start when he is released from jail. He was doing 90mph in a 40 zone and was unable to stop in time before hitting the cyclist, who was crossing at a toucan crossing on the Nottingham Ring Road.

In a double irony, Sally was a keen motorcyclist herself and was also an expert on road safety.

[djnotts]

Unless and until start adding a "0" to such sentences road "manners" will never improve.

[Prof I Etsen]

Middleton Boulevard is on the signposted route from the Jubilee to the main campus of Nottingham University. According to the BBC, the judge described this as "an accident waiting to happen". Indeed anyone cycling or walking along this route must cross 11 lanes carrying heavy, fast-moving traffic, albeit assisted with the help of 4 separate pelican crossings. That is 11 lanes too many.

For many years, I have been arguing to Nottingham City Council and to the University of Nottingham that the ambition should be proposed to create a completely traffic-free route connecting the campuses. I have made it clear that I would not expect the ambition to be realised soon, but it should be put forward as part of the university/council masterplan - as an example of such an ambition, I gave the cycling bridge currently being built over the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal at a cost of 24 million euros, which was first entered in the master-plan for Utrecht council in 1993.

I have in the past never argued for such a traffic-free route on safety grounds and I remain very hesitant about doing so even now. The primary function would be to enhance the pleasure and conviviality of daily travel between the campuses. Developments at the University of Nottingham make the argument for such a route much stronger than when I first put the proposal forward: the Jubilee Campus has now expanded considerably but, more importantly, new student residences on and close to Jubilee mean inter-campus travel now occurs on a massive scale.

As part of the University's expansion, new traffic lights have been installed at the end of Triumph Road to facilitate the movement of cars to and from the campus. I guess that the University will have had to make a financial contribution for this change to the public road system. But I know of no changes that have been made to facilitate the movements of pedestrians and cyclists: the University's answer is to bus students between campuses. (When I started the buses were single-decker; they are now double-decker.) The only response I have ever had to my proposal was from the Head Of Estates who dismissed it as "unrealistic".

I wonder whether I am the only one to thing that it is scandalous to bus students, most of whom are (currently at least) fit and healthy, when the distances are so short. I wonder also why nobody in a position of influence in a UK university is willing to lead the way in setting ambitions for their students' welfare.

[ThePinkOne]

..... Or maybe if all red lights protecting pedestrian/Toucan crossings had cameras that gave automatic 6 points for passing at red they would be taken more seriously?

I was half-way riding across a Toucan crossing a couple of weeks ago, the road lights long time red, and a LGV approached far too fast, it was obvious it wouldn't stop so I did..... it slid to a stop well over the crossing, fortunately no-one was crossing from the other side or they would have been hit. The crossing is on lights into a big roundabout, much further and the LGV would have taken out the traffic on the roundabout too. I have driven that route, and there is no excuse- sighting of the lights on approach is excellent.

TPO

[Tonyf33]

So manslaughter carries a two year tariff, utterly ridiculous. We need to remove the ridiculous system that massively reduces sentences on the basis that soneone is using a motorvehicle as their choice of weapon.
Also people whom injure others whilst operating a vehicle should have tracking devices installed for the first two years afterwards.

[Guy951]

It's badly-worded, as these things invariably are, but I don't think the CTC, sorry CUK, forumites are aware of this...

Lifetime Driving Ban If You Are Found Guilty Of Killing Someone Whilst Driving.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/128648

[tyreon]

Lives wasted. Tragic+++

[pwa]

A very sad case. And so ridiculously unnecessary. I have often wondered at the mentality of motorcyclists who ride like that. It's not all motorcyclists, of course. There are lots of good ones out there. Some cyclists I know are motorcyclists. But there is a tribe of lunatic motorcyclists who seem to see their activity as a sort of video game, dodging, diving and positively embracing risk. Risk is the thrill. And because of that I don't think the length of sentences will make one iota of difference to their behaviour. They risk their own lives with what they do, so why would prison deter them? What might influence them is increasing the chances of getting caught. Detection. I hope that GPS devices might help with that in the not too distant future. Imagine if every motor vehicle had a "black box" constantly reporting position and speed. Spot checks at motorcyclists cafes on bank holidays to deal with anyone not carrying an active device. It may strike some as "snooping", but I don't care about that if it protects our loved ones from the nutters.

[TrevA]

It was said on the TV report that street furniture did play a part in the collision. There a large grey cabinet on the central reservation, that obscures the view of traffic in the outside lane for anyone waiting to cross at the toucan crossing. So the cyclist waiting to cross, couldn't see the approaching motorcyclist and vice versa. You can see the cabinet in the 3rd photo in this report:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-no ... e-36286775

No excuse for the totally irresponsible motorcyclist though.

[matlockmark]

...I have often wondered at the mentality of motorcyclists who ride like that. It's not all motorcyclists, of course. There are lots of good ones out there. Some cyclists I know are motorcyclists. But there is a tribe of lunatic motorcyclists who seem to see their activity as a sort of video game, dodging, diving and positively embracing risk. Risk is the thrill. And because of that I don't think the length of sentences will make one iota of difference to their behaviour. They risk their own lives with what they do, so why would prison deter them? What might influence them is increasing the chances of getting caught. Detection. I hope that GPS devices might help with that in the not too distant future. Imagine if every motor vehicle had a "black box" constantly reporting position and speed. Spot checks at motorcyclists cafes on bank holidays to deal with anyone not carrying an active device. It may strike some as "snooping", but I don't care about that if it protects our loved ones from the nutters.

This reminds me of when my wife and I rode the C2C route a few years ago. We reached the short section of the A686 to the cafe at Hartside on a sunny bank holiday afternoon. We were really frightened by the motorcyclists who seemed to be racing each other around the tight bends. I think they were taking advantage of the dry conditions to push their machines to the limit, using the whole width of the road and more or less disregarding the presence of numerous cyclists.

[hondated]

pwa I am one of those "sensible " motorcyclists I suppose at 65 I would be an idiot not to be but talking of idiots I agree with you on this matter.
Down here in Sussex I have yet to see spot checks on motorcyclists but what I can tell you there are plenty of unmarked police vehicles.
I know because I see them as I pass scenes of accidents and others that have been pulled up.
It is at times like that I am really pleased to be one of the old boys.

[Phil Fouracre]

Just don't get it. Had a decent bike years ago, and yup, did enjoy thrashing it, but, even then, only when it was 'reasonably' safe. If you really want to take risks, why not on a track, or if not, on clear open roads.
Thought the same about the story, not long ago, about the young lad who was killed when a car pulled out on him - he was doing just under 100 in a 30!! What is that about?

[ThePinkOne]

...I have often wondered at the mentality of motorcyclists who ride like that. It's not all motorcyclists, of course. There are lots of good ones out there. Some cyclists I know are motorcyclists. But there is a tribe of lunatic motorcyclists who seem to see their activity as a sort of video game, dodging, diving and positively embracing risk. Risk is the thrill. And because of that I don't think the length of sentences will make one iota of difference to their behaviour. They risk their own lives with what they do, so why would prison deter them? What might influence them is increasing the chances of getting caught. Detection. I hope that GPS devices might help with that in the not too distant future. Imagine if every motor vehicle had a "black box" constantly reporting position and speed. Spot checks at motorcyclists cafes on bank holidays to deal with anyone not carrying an active device. It may strike some as "snooping", but I don't care about that if it protects our loved ones from the nutters.

This reminds me of when my wife and I rode the C2C route a few years ago. We reached the short section of the A686 to the cafe at Hartside on a sunny bank holiday afternoon. We were really frightened by the motorcyclists who seemed to be racing each other around the tight bends. I think they were taking advantage of the dry conditions to push their machines to the limit, using the whole width of the road and more or less disregarding the presence of numerous cyclists.

The Hartside road has been used as unofficial motorcycle race-track for a long time. I lived in that area for a number of years in my youth, and the whole thing was just starting then. Even to the point where there was a "loop" over Hartside and back around another way being timed, and there were stories of big white vans to scoop up broken bikes before police found out. It was quieter overall in those days (and the C2C hadn't got up and running properly), but as the road got busier and the fatal crash rate increased, on dry sunny days the police took to sending their motorcycle patrols to Hartside cafe and the Air Ambulance would sometimes park at the top too.

That is quite a lot of years ago now, and I'm not sure how much scrutiny it gets- but Hartside does seem to still be billed as one of those "must do" rides for motorcyclists.

TPO

[Flinders]

Far too many cycle routes have a ridiculous number of junctions where the cycle route has to give way to traffic from multiple directions. That wasn't the specific case here, but it sounds like the rest of the route is of that sort.
Cycle routes are pretty appallingly designed in the UK. It's time to start again, and force councils to give bike routes the same sort of junction priorities that cars have (i.e, if you are going straight on, all traffic should give way to you, not you to traffic from four different directions).