A police van caught on camera following two teenagers who died in an e-bike crash was half-a-mile away when the pair were fatally injured, a top cop has said.
South Wales Police (SWP) insists officers were not pursuing Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and Harvey Evans, 15, when they crashed on a council estate in Ely, Cardiff, on Monday night.
Their deaths sparked riots in the area after it was claimed the ‘best friends’ were being chased by police moments beforehand – something SWP initially dismissed as a rumour before CCTV emerged showing a marked van following the boys minutes before the crash.
I have complained about e scooters before. Once more lives have been lost due to this idiotic craze. For once, I’m with the police. They were not responsible for the deaths. Even if they were chasing the little scrotes. They were riding a motor vehicle illegally on the public highway. The police have a duty to stop this. While the information coming out of this is inconsistent – the riot was unjustified and the deaths were entirely self inflicted. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. They may have only been teenagers, but they will have known that they were breaking the law – as indeed, the two I saw recently giving the police the run-around the other week. They know and they still do it. No, I don’t think they deserved to die, but I’m not shedding any tears over it either.
I notice that the usual platitudes are being put out about these two. I remain unmoved, having seen just this kind of behaviour on our roads by similar teenagers and had to take avoiding action because of their reckless riding. However, if anyone is to blame, it is the parents who allowed this to happen, not the police for following them. You see, someone bought this contraption for them to ride. Someone allowed them to take it out onto the road, knowing full well that it is a motor vehicle subject to the usual laws that apply to all motor vehicles, yet is untaxed, uninsured and the riders unlicenced. But, yeah, it was the police what dunnit.
“if anyone is to blame, it is the parents who allowed this to happen”
Them and the politicians, educators and journalists (going back a couple of generations) who created an environment in which parental discipline is seen as wrong, even abusive. Does anyone think the parents had any control over them at all by this point?
Didn’t have, or didn’t care to use?
I notice the family released photos showing them as sweet little children, which was an act of futility when the ‘Mail’ had already harvested more recently posted photos from their social media showing them smoking and flashing gang signs…
A few years ago it would have been small scrambler type motorbikes. I used to see these racing around housing estates and on the disused railway cycle path when cycling home from work. Often these would have no number plates on them, helmets were optional. There would be the occasional fatality followed by hand wringing from some and shrugs from the rest of us.
How bad are the riders who come to you for their CBT LR, this bad?
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Some of them, yes.
Hell’s bells, I thought that guy was the worst that I’ve ever seen. No road skills and no situational awareness whatsoever. I’m thinking that he’s probably dead by now.
And I have terminated training for just this kind of riding. Precisely to stop an accident like this happening. And, yes, it is a certain demographic – they have terrible riding and roadcraft skills, but think they are God’s gift to riding and a CBT is a certificate of attendance. They find out differently when they come to us. I’ve been doing my best to thin out the Deliveroo ranks. I can’t stop them riding illegally, which many seem to do. I can’t stop them going to another school that will give them a certificate. I can make sure my name isn’t on their certificate. The DVSA approach is that we should certificate them, because at least then they are riding legally and therefore insured. I and my colleagues beg to differ on that one. Some of them really are terrifying.