To think this woman should not be put in prison?

[Nooyoiknooyoik]

Bizarre and very unfair Link

Watch the video. Because with that comment, you clearly didn't.

Well I’m sure she’s up there in heaven thinking the same thing. Have you never made a mistake?

It’s the walking off and going shopping that’s the thing that’s out this woman in prison. Most of us could have lost our temper but i would have thought that most of us would have watched in horror and not left the scene and most of us would live with the guilt and trauma for the rest of our lives.

This vile woman caused an elderly woman’s death and then casually walked on and did her shopping. In 18 months time when she’s freed, no doubt she will still not be remorseful, while her victims family and the driver of the car will continue to suffer from the pain and trauma of her death.

It is a shared path then according to the judge. And a guy on a bike passed on it on the news too. But how are the public to know bikes are allowed there if the police don't know either?

I think the police should do a shared path awareness campaign regarding cyclists and pedestrians.

If you look on google maps, there is a cycle crossing that crosses a road and that joins onto the pavement further down.

There is no clear designated point where the shared pavement starts and ends. You can say for sure where it definitely is shared, and for sure where it definitely isn't. But, the area where the accident happened is a dodgy area.

I agree entirely that cyclists shouldn't cycle on pavements, or, even feel like they would be safer if they do, but, this is partly due to appallingly badly designed cycling infrastructure - I've literally seen bus shelters placed blocking cycle lanes, cycle lanes alongside terraced housing so that cars coming out of side streets have to block the lane in order pull out into traffic safely, stupid 2m long shared pavements, contraflows.

I watched the footage, she was walking towards the traffic which is moving pretty quickly, her actions led to the poor lady cycling to fall into the path of the car, she could see the car coming, where did she think the lady was going to go? She's at fault and should be punished. The fact she showed no remorse and just left the scene and went shopping says a lot about her. It's appropriate she's punished.

There is a clip on the Huntingdon News page that looks like she pushed her just as she went past.

This is clearly not a designated shared cycleway.

It is. And has been for as long as I can remember, ie the last 26 years since I moved here.

Perhaps it's difficult for people because they feel that they too might have been angry to see a cyclist on the pavement. What they forget however is that they probably would not have sworn at them aggressively or made such an threatening gesture, forcing them to fall into a busy road and into the path of traffic. That person then went off and did their shopping. They belong in jail.

Yeah I was just moving up and down the street on Google Maps too. It does look like shared use but could be clearer.

Although even if it was plainly and obviously for pedestrians only, that wouldn’t justify manslaughter.

People defending this woman are appalling.

‘Accident’ is a word that is throw around a lot as a way to absolve people of responsibility and mentally remove the human element.

I’ve always taken the stance that there is no such thing as an accident. Literally every single thing that causes injury or death can be traced back to a cause - human error, design flaw, equipment failure, the list is endless. Sometimes the cause is virtually indeterminable, like a multitude of design failures compounding one another and causing a structural element in a building to fail; sometimes it’s an ‘act of god’, like someone being hit by lightning. Of course, you could argue that no one should be out during a lightning storm but the odds of being struck are so low that we still view it as a blameless event.

But other times, it’s very, very obvious what caused injury or death and this is one of those scenarios. If the poor woman cycling hadn’t been forced onto the road by the pedestrian, she’d still be alive. The court decision was totally correct imo.

There are loads of shared use paths where I live that look like "normal" pavements.

And not every one drives so maybe they don't understand all the rules. And yes I watched the full video @AlwaysGinPlease . And who suggested cars and motorcycles can use the pavement🤔they cannot! And @FixTheBone I agree with you.

Her decisions led to a death. What she did amounted to common assault and that led to someone dying.

Prison seems right

I bet she wouldn't have acted in such a threatening manner if the cyclist had been a big, scary looking lad in his 20s.

Furthermore, the attitude of SO MANY PEOPLE on this thread towards cyclists - i.e. several posters suggesting that Mrs Ward was responsible for her own death - explains why so many cyclists do use the pavement, even when (as was clearly not the case here) it isn't a designated shared path - they're fair game for anyone to run over at will, apparently.

@dawngreen what rules ? Like push someone in front of a moving car and they are likely to die? 🙄

I'm astonished at the victim blaming here. The amount of people defending a mouthy aggressive murderer that pushed a woman in front of a car and left her dying to go shopping. Jesus wept.

It does look like some versions of the clip are slightly less cropped than the bbc one, and look even more like a push.

3 years is not adequate.

Accident or not (and I think she lashed out), some accidents are caused by reckless behaviour and so reach a criminal standard.
Similar to if a driver killed someone "by accident" they could still be prosecuted if their conduct fell below standards.
The pedestrian was reckless, didn't consider consequences and killed someone's loved one. I think the court got it right.

Are you fecking joking 🤯

Exactly. There is more to this than the video clip that has been shared in the public. It's foolish to think otherwise.

It was not an accident. She did something that could have been predicted to have an adverse result. It was manslaughter. She deserves prison.

She didn't come anywhere close to making contact. She pointed with her finger at the road.

territorial about the pavement" and "resented" the cyclist being there

Last time I looked you weren’t supposed to cycle on the pavement. So yes I think most pedestrians would be territorial about the pavement in regard to cyclists being in there.

I am wondering with this verdict can cyclists now cycle on the pavement and pedestrians shouldn’t be so upset if they have to dodge a bike because obviously the cyclist shouldn’t have to slow down, stop and get off or just not be on the pavement.

Judge Enright added that "consideration of other road users is the lesson of this tragic case

If he wasn’t referring to the car or the cyclist
When did the pavement become the road.

Something is very wrong.

It’s almost like they had to bring the case and it was already a done deal the way it was reported on before the end of the trial

I suppose we can’t do anything about cyclists on the pavement now. We just have to put our lives in danger in case a cyclist accidentally falls off there bike.

We must learn to not be so territorial of the pavement

Similarly, the cyclist could have predicted that if she drove up the pavement toward pedestrians that someone might shout at her.

It's clear she made contact in the longer clip