Detectives investigating a crash between a 76-year-old woman and a cyclist today released a CCTV image of a man they would like to speak to.
The Brighton OAP was left with serious injuries following the crash in North Road, near the junction with Kensington Gardens at approximately 5pm on Saturday 31 August.
She was taken to hospital for treatment and has since been discharged, pending further treatment.
The cyclist, a man, left the scene without exchanging any details.
An investigation was launched and a number of enquiries have been completed to date. Officers would now like to speak to the man pictured as they believe he may have information that would assist the investigation.
Anyone who witnessed the collision, has any relevant CCTV or dashcam footage, or who recognises the person in the image is urged to come forward.
You can do this online via the Sussex Police website or by calling 101 quoting serial 341 of 01/09.
This makes me think that cyclists should have registration plates, like other road vehicles. The ability to have a lack of accountability gives rise to incidents like this. If this were any other vehicle, they’d stay, because they would know they’d be instantly found out if they fled a scene.
The Government thoroughly examined the idea of registration plates for bicycles recently and concluded that setting up, maintaining, verifying and enforcing it makes it not viable. Do you have a way to make it viable?
One way to make it more viable would be to introduce a system similar to vehicle registration, but with lower fees and simplified processes. The registration could be digital, reducing the cost of infrastructure, and focusing on urban areas where incidents are more likely. Additionally, enforcement could be linked with existing road cameras, which could be adapted to read these plates.
The benefits would extend beyond accountability for incidents like hit-and-runs; it would also encourage responsible cycling, better adherence to road laws, and provide data for city planning. But, of course, the counterargument is that this might disincentivise cycling, which is key to reducing traffic and emissions.
A pilot scheme in major cities could test the viability without a nationwide rollout, addressing concerns raised by the government while allowing for real-world data to influence the decision.
Agree with Benjamin above, it’s about time cyclists have to have some sort of registration. They can kill someone and just cycle/walk away without a hope of being found, even if they have killed someone.
There are so many unregistered vehicles of one kind and another on our roads now, it’s getting to be a real hazard as they are all unregistered and do not have to take tests of any kind.
Or at least make it an offence to leave the scene of an accident where people have or may have been injured.
There’s no reason why the law couldn’t treat all road users equally in this regard, as leaving the scene of an accident should be unacceptable regardless of the vehicle used, at least in my opinion.
But if you’re on a bike and pedal off home after causing an accident, how can the police trade you? This is why number plates are needed for cycles on the road.
“They can kill someone and just cycle/walk away” is clearly emotive exaggeration. Yes they can and it has happened three times across the whole country in the last five years. The elephant in the room of this conversation is the 1500 people who are killed across the whole country every year by motor vehicles, including by some of the estimated one million uninsured drivers. This was a horrible incident and I hope the cyclist is traced and helps police but exaggeration doesn’t help anyone.
I really think the police need to take the issue of antisocial riding more seriously and start issuing on the spot fines, partciularly to the menace of balaclava-wearing fat-bike riders with no lights on riding straight through pedestrian crossings at ridiculous speeds. I’m not surprised at this story and it likely won’t be the last.