Tag: pedestrians
Six people are injured after car ploughs into pedestrians in north London hit-and-run horror
Harringay: Six pedestrians injured in hit and run
Boy, 9, rushed to hospital with fractured skull after pensioner has ‘medical episode’ and ploughs into two pedestrians
A BOY was rushed to hospital with a fractured skull after a pensioner suffered a medical episode behind the wheel and ploughed into him.
The driver, 67, also crashed into a 46-year-old man and all three were rushed to hospital.
A pensioner suffered a medical episode while driving yesterday afternoon and crashed into two pedestrians[/caption]
Emergency services scrambled to the Country Durham village of Eaglesclife yesterday afternoon, following reports of a serious crash.
Police said it is understood the pensioner suffered a medical episode, which saw him crash into the boy and man.
The boy was rushed to James Cook University Hospital with a fractured skull, where he was expected to stay overnight for treatment.
The 46-year-old was taken to the same hospital, and while he was being treated for his injuries they were not believed to be serious.
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The driver was rushed to the University Hospital of North Tees.
A spokesperson for Cleveland Police said: “At 3.40pm this afternoon (Saturday 15th October), a green VW Tiguan collided with a man and a child on Yarm Road after it is believed the driver may have suffered a medical episode at the wheel.”
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Pedestrians could soon alert Ford drivers with a mobile app
Ford plans to demonstrate a new pedestrian safety system for its latest automobiles this week. It takes the form of a mobile app that pedestrians use to alert Ford drivers’ infotainment dashboards without relying on line-of-sight. The app uses BLE to communicate with vehicles that support Ford SYNC, telling drivers…
Ford thinks Bluetooth LE can keep pedestrians and cyclists safe from cars
One good thing that came out of the pandemic is that more people picked up cycling. In the first three months of 2021, American consumer spending on bikes and cycling accessories increased by 34 percent year on year to $8.2 billion. However, the pandemic also saw more die and suffer injuries while biking. According to the National Safety Council, 1,260 cyclists were killed in 2020, a 16 percent increase from 2019.
It’s a problem that Ford thinks technology can address. On Monday, the automaker announced it’s working with Commsignia, PSS, Ohio State University, T-Mobile and Tome Software to explore how a smartphone app could warn drivers of pedestrians and cyclists they may not see. As someone sharing the road with a car, you would install the company’s software on your phone. With the help of Bluetooth Low Energy, vehicles with Ford’s Sync infotainment system would see you as “beacons.” If the car then determines there’s the potential for a crash, it will warn the driver using audiovisual cues.
According to Ford, its approach has a few advantages. One is that Bluetooth LE is nearly ubiquitous. The technology has been part of the Bluetooth protocol since 2009, meaning every modern smartphone has access to it. If you own a Ford vehicle, you won’t need to bring your car to a dealership for a hardware upgrade since the Sync system features Bluetooth compatibility. The other advantage of using Bluetooth LE is that your car won’t need to see pedestrians and cyclists before it can warn you. Ford and T-Mobile are also working on a version of the app that uses 5G instead of Bluetooth LE.
In practice, the company’s approach is reminiscent of the COVID exposure notification apps some countries and states deployed at the beginning of the pandemic. As you may recall, those also used Bluetooth LE. However, despite backing from Apple and Google, they were never effective due to low usage. In Canada, for instance, the federal COVID Alert app was only downloaded 6.9 million times and logged 63,117 positive tests. Put another way, nowhere near enough Canadians downloaded the software to make it an effective contact tracing tool. Ford’s app is likely to experience some of the same issues.
As an avid cyclist, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen riding their bikes at night without an LED light to make themselves visible to traffic. On the other hand, statistics suggest motorists have been driving more aggressively in recent years, leading to the aforementioned increase in cyclist deaths as well as vehicle crashes. Any kind of intervention would be welcome, but Ford’s app isn’t likely to be a meaningful solution if it ever comes to market. While the Bluetooth LE solution to COVID had only one uphill climb, apps like Ford’s have two: adoption by cyclists and adoption by automakers.
Terrifying ‘knockout game’ in which strangers sucker-punch pedestrians returns to NYC
Five injured after car ploughs into pedestrians in Harrow
Cyclists who kill pedestrians face tough jail sentences under crackdown proposed by Transport Secretary
KILLER cyclists could face harsher sentences after the Transport Secretary vowed to crackdown on road safety.
Grant Shapps wants cyclists to face the same punishments as motorists with a new “death by dangerous cycling” law.
The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps proposed the new law to sentence killer cyclists[/caption]
Cyclists who knock down and kill pedestrians could face longer than two years in jail[/caption]
His suggested rule change aims to end an “archaic” legal loophole which currently means bike-riders can only be jailed for a maximum of two years for killing a pedestrian.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Shapps said that grieving families of victims “have waited too long for this straightforward measure” to punish aggressive riders.
He said the proposal would target a “selfish minority” of reckless cyclists, but could also “impress on cyclists the real harm they can cause when speed is combined with lack of care”.
In comparison, “death by dangerous driving” can land a motorist a maximum of 14 years in prison for offences before June 28 this year or a life sentence for those offences after the law change.
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Stricter sentences have been demanded since the tragic death of Kim Briggs, a mum-of-two who was killed by a reckless teenage cyclist on a banned bike without brakes.
The 44-year-old passed away in 2016 after suffering head injuries from when Charlie Alliston, 20, crashed into her in Old Street, London, on her lunch break.
But Alliston was only sentenced to 18 months behind bars after a judge cleared him of manslaughter and found him guilty of “wanton and furious driving”.
The second law, which Shapps called “archaic”, was designed back in 1861 for horse-drawn carriage collisions – not 18-year-olds riding for “thrills” like a stuntman.
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The Transport Secretary pointed out how victims’ families who want to prosecute a killer cyclist face a dilemma between a “legal relic of the horse-drawn era or … manslaughter, a draconian option”.
The law would also bring justice to the families of pedestrians killed in more recent years by zooming cyclists.
Two years ago a 72-year-old man was struck down in Tower Hamlets in a bike hit-and-run leaving him with fatal head injuries.
Shapps also drew attention to cyclists who think they are above road laws, for example, those who skip over red lights.
“We need to crack down on this disregard for road safety,” he said.
The minister then raised the importance of creating safe cycling habits as an alternative commuting option amid rising fuel prices.
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He wrote: “As we move into an era of sustained mass cycling, a thoroughly good thing, we must bring home to cyclists – too often themselves the victims of careless or reckless motoring – that the obligation to put safety first applies equally to every road user. There can be no exceptions.”
The Transport Secretary made the proposal for the new law of causing death by dangerous cycling to be included in the Transport Bill, due before Parliament in the autumn.
Charlie Alliston who killed a mum-of-two on his brakeless bike was given 18 months in prison[/caption]
Kim Briggs was killed by head injuries from his reckless cycling[/caption]
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