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The Department for Transport says its amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill will “ensure that the tiny minority who recklessly disregard others face the full force of the law”.
As part of a series of amendments tabled on April 24th to the Crime and Policing Bill, branded “one of the biggest legislative updates to policing for decades”, cyclists who kill pedestrians by riding dangerously could be sentenced to life in prison, while cyclists who cause serious injury by dangerous cycling could face a maximum five-year term in jail.
If the legislation is approved by parliament, cyclists convicted of causing death or serious injury by ‘careless or inconsiderate cycling’ could also face up to five and two years in prison, respectively, the Telegraph reports.
The amendments, tabled by the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Home Office, and led by transport secretary Heidi Alexander, would update and replace the current legislation under which cyclists who kill or injure while riding recklessly can be prosecuted under the 1861 ‘wanton or furious driving’ law, which carries with it a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
The government is proposing to update legislation that is over 160 years old, to ensure that the tiny minority who recklessly disregard others face the full force of the law.
The move has been welcomed by Matthew Briggs, a longstanding campaigner for a dangerous cycling law, whose wife Kim was hit and killed by a cyclist riding a fixed gear track bike with no brakes in London in 2016, with the cyclist Charlie Alliston later being jailed for 18 months after being found guilty of causing bodily harm by “wanton and furious riding”.
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