Sad stories make for bad law and this is one of them.
The parents of a teenager who died after crashing while riding an electric bike have urged cyclists to wear helmets to ‘prevent families going through this same tragic hell’.
Okay, recommending people wear helmets is fine. However, all is not as it seems.
Owen David Jones, 17, from Crawshawbooth, Lancashire, headed down Goodshaw Fold Road in Loveclough, Rossendale, on May 11 this year at speeds of up to 30mph on a Sur-Ron E-Bike electric bike, which had been modified to go faster, he borrowed from his friend Marley.
Marley, who was also with another friend Jack, warned Owen ‘not to use sport mode’ but after he didn’t return for 10 minutes, the two became concerned.
When Marley and Jack got to the bottom of the hill they saw Owen lying unconscious with his head against the kerb and blood coming from him.
Owen was not wearing a helmet.
The helmet is incidental, frankly. The bike was modified and therefore illegal. A cycle helmet would have made little, if any, difference at that speed.
After the inquest Owen’s parents Lisa and Richard called for greater legislation over electric bikes and scooters.
And here we get to the nub of the matter – more law. There is already law and Owen broke it, so how would more law have helped?
The Sur-Ron bike Owen had been riding at the time of the crash was not road legal and had undergone several modifications to allow it to be ridden faster.
Yesterday’s inquest heard that as the bike Owen was riding was not road legal it did not have to conform to any safety features.
Although we are not told the full details…
However, despite the modifications, Area Coroner Chris Long found that these had not contributed to the collision.
So more law wouldn’t have helped.
Owen’s parents said: ‘Four months ago we lost Owen from a severe brain injury caused by coming off a Sur-Ron E-Bike. If he was wearing a helmet, we’ve no doubt the outcome could have been very different and Owen would be here today.
Er, no, not necessarily. A cycle helmet is not designed to work at those speeds. Also, see above – not only was the vehicle illegal, so more law would have made no difference if that had been the cause, and it would appear that it had no bearing on the cause of the collision, so more law wouldn’t have helped.
‘More legislation is needed for e-bikes and e-scooters. I regard the operation of many e-bikes as more akin to a motorcycle road bike than a bicycle.
No, it isn’t. There is already perfectly adequate legislation in place (the vast majority of E-scooters are illegal on public roads). We do not need laws made in order to appease grieving relatives. When someone breaks an existing law, it does not follow that we need more.
I don’t give a fuck about this Owen and his parents.
Ah, but you see, passing more laws Sends a Signal, that Such Behaviour will Not be Tolerated.
I recall exactly that argument being made, by a sitting MP, in response to a journalist’s question as to why a new law was required when the incident in question was already illegal. (Back in the old days of course, when journalists occasionally made a stab at holding politicians to account).
Maybe more law would make the bike even more illegal than it was already, so the lawbreaking idiot would still be dead but would have broken more laws… there, that’s all sorted then!
I could go faster than 30mph when I had a bike as a young man, no helmet either, they had not been invented.I was lucky, I never came off but if I had it would have been my own fault.
I can cycle faster than 30mph as an old man. I do wear a helmet and I also abide by the rules of the road. I’ve only ever had one moderately serious prang when a car turned right directly across my path.
According to auto correct I have had one moderately serious orange.
I’ve always found grapefruit to be the most serious fruit.
Especially when it squirts right into your eye!
He was riding a motorbike without a helmet. That’s been illegal for about 50 years. I’m not sure how a new law would have helped him.
And when it was made illegal hospital transplant units started to struggle suggesting that it was a change for the better.
I wonder if his parents arranged for organ donation?
It’s strange how nowadays a simple ‘No’ is rarely enough to interrupt somebody in the throes of emoting.
Perhaps we should promote a killo-no (a thousand times no) or a mega-no (a million times no) although I expect there would soon be negation inflation to giga-no, peta-no etc.
In the other direction you could express milli-cares and micro-cares for how little you are concerned about some issue. So for greater legislation over electric bikes – that’s a nano-care for me.
The issue isn’t the electric bike, it’s the idea that we need even more piss poor ill conceived and unnecessary legislation.
It’s two age old cries coming together:
Something must be done!
and
There oughter be a law agin it!
A new law is something, ipso facto, we need a new law.
Indeed and we need to say ‘no’ loud and clear.
A Darwin Award beckons. I must say that I enjoy the site of a spandex covered arse whizzing up the inside of an artic and thinking, 2 inches of polystyrene against a 10 ton axle. Hmm I wish you well with that.
Something I’ve noticed as a motorcycle instructor is a general lack of situational awareness among younger riders. I am finding that increasingly I am refusing to sign off CBT certificates for this reason.
Of course! They’ve grown up conditioned to fear no consequences because none have existed for them.
They are rapidly finding out with us. We send out emails saying that they must wear suitable footwear and jeans as a minimum. No tracksuit bottoms and trainers – highlighted in bold letters. When they turn up late and in tracksuit bottoms and trainers they are swiftly introduced to consequences. No training and they have lost their money according to the T&Cs that they have signed. Cue begging and pleading. As the late Mrs L used to say; ‘your failure to plan is not my emergency.’
It’s become a daily occurrence, but we are getting more skilled with a firm refusal. Call it a relatively cheap life lesson.
I was looking for a feather to knock myself down with a few days ago. The reason? I saw two cyclists riding together actually make a hand signal.