Shootist wrote:
You seem to miss a few points yourself. This incident occurred at 10am on what was described as a fine day. The police will have had a top 'accident' investigator assess the situation and their opinion was that excessive speed was not an issue either on the road or because of the conditions. ad you may accept (but probably won't) that these investigators are damned good. Tread on road tyres is there for one purpose only, and that is to disperse water (and some debris). On a dry road a slick tyre will give the best possible grip. On black ice there will be no significant difference at all between bald tyres and brand new ones freshly scrubbed in. Speed was not an issue. The bald tyres did not contribute in any way to the collision. The driver got what is the standard punishment for three bald tyres. A punishment that in itself and regardless of circumstances I regard as inadequate but that is a separate issue.
The incident itself was tragic, it goes without saying, but any driver on that road at that time could have experienced exactly the same result. It was one of those very rare traffic collisions that was actually an accident. The only way of ensuring such a thing can never happen again is to close the road off completely whenever the temperature is likely to fall below a certain point. Or perhaps have a man with a red flag walking in front of each vehicle as it proceeds. To describe the driver's actions as 'abhorrent' implies deliberation on his part. There is no evidence for this that I am aware of.
Here's what the top 'accident' investigator said at the inquest . In his opinion the state of the tyres was irrelevant but the speed the man drove at was excessive for the conditions.
Driver ‘could have avoided' cyclists
Jun 26 2007 By Roland Hughes
THE driver of a car who killed four members of Rhyl Cycling Club when he lost control on ice "could have avoided them" – an expert claimed yesterday.
A collision investigator told the inquest into the deaths of the cyclists on the A547 near Abergele that Robert Harris should have had full control of his car after the initial skid.
PC George Skinner also blamed Mr Harris, of Abergele, for failing to drive at an appropriate speed for the road conditions and said that had he done so, the accident could have been avoided.
PC Skinner arrived on the scene within half an hour of the tragedy and confirmed some ice on the road.
But he said yesterday that the ice was on the road only in patches, and that there were enough dry patches on the road for Mr Harris to regain control of his vehicle.
He said Mr Harris should have paid attention to freezing conditions that morning, and not driven at 55mph, his estimated speed before the crash.
"It would have to be accepted that he failed to observe the ambient temperature display in his vehicle," the officer said.
"He set off on his journey having scraped ice off the window of his car, and subsequently drove through countryside where visible frost lay.
"He drove in an inappropriate manner for the prevailing conditions."
But he added: "In my opinion, there was sufficient grip available to the driver to control the vehicle.
"Had he driven according to the prevailing road conditions, as had the vast majority of motorists before this collision, then I am of the opinion this collision could have been avoided."
Mr Harris had told the hearing last week that his car slipped on ice and he was powerless to stop the vehicle veering into the cyclists’ path on the A547.
He had been driving from his Abergele home to work as a security guard at B&Q in Rhyl when the collision happened last January. He told police in the days after the crash: "I just lost control – I tried to counter the skid.
"All I could think of was not to hit them."
Last August, Mr Harris was fined and handed points for having three defective tyres, although PC Skinner said they played no part in the handling of the car on the day of the tragedy.
The inquest also heard that the force of the collision projected Wayne Wilkes 37 metres into an adjoining field, and Dave Horrocks 31 metres.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/in-dept ... -19356834/not to have had any influence on the crash!!!!!!!!!,fined less than £200 plus points and allowed to drive home from the courts of "justice".
