“In four years Mike van Erp has filmed 1,400 drivers using their phones, leading to 1,800 penalty points, £110,000 of fines — and him being assaulted by disgruntled motorists. Is he a road safety hero or just a darned nuisance? Nick Rufford joins him on patrol”
I’ve watched a few of his videos. I should be surprised that he catches so many drivers in their phones, but in and around London? Not surprised at all.
helmet or not the liability for any injury would rest wholly with the driver.
I doubt that he’d find the fact that the liability rests with the driver comforting if he had a brain injury, or even died, because he didn’t wear a helmet.
There’s a saying in motorcycling - ‘The graveyard is full of people who had the right of way’. It’s a similar idea, in that it doesn’t matter who was right, or who gets the blame, if you’re dead.
I’m trying to draw a distinction here between a typical collision and a driver taking revenge on a cyclist. The argument of contributory negligence is unlikely to survive intact if it can be shown that the driver deliberately drove into the cyclist with intent to harm. Contributory negligence is however very real in more normal circumstances if it can be shown that an appropriately specified and correctly worn helmet would have made a difference.
As for the graveyards saying, that’s very true. And very sad. I don’t think it was intended to be about someone actually trying to kill you, more about learning to be calm, to let things go and walk / cycle / drive defensively. Words to live by. I know too many who’ve died doing it the other way.
