Independent

The crash provides a reminder that the Government’s push to get more people cycling, for public health and environmental reasons, does not seem to be matched by provisions to protect them from death and serious injury. Recent figures from the Department for Transport showed that 440 bicycle riders were killed or seriously injured between January and March of this year, a 20 per cent increase on the same period last year. CTC says the true number of injuries to cyclists may be far greater, since many incidents are unreported.

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In Holland, Denmark, Belgium, France and Germany, any motorist who injures a cyclist must pay compensation, unless the driver can show that the injured person clearly did something illegal or irresponsible. But in Britain, the cyclist must show the motorist was negligent. Consequently, the Rhyl tragedy may raise the same difficulties presented a year ago by the case of cyclist John Morris, who died in the New Forest after a motorist drove into him. Though the motorist fled the scene, he was sentenced to just 15 months for failing to stop, rather than careless driving, because police could find no witnesses.

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For Bill Twigg, the reaction to the tragedy – part of the same malaise about bikes that led Nigel Havers to issue his diatribe about how “cyclists who jump red lights and ride on pavements are all bastards” – has simply confirmed his conviction that motorists cannot accept that the roads are not their exclusive domain. […] “The 1888 Local Government Act laid down the right to ride bicycles on the highway and gave the bicycle the status of a carriage”