Sir, – Paul Waldron (Letters, May 9th) wrote an excellent letter after a cyclist received serious injuries following being run over by a motorist making an illegal right turn.
However, I totally disagree with his penultimate paragraph: “Where someone is seriously injured or killed by a vehicle, the actions of the driver involved are clearly dangerous, not careless.”
In December 1967, I was at home for Christmas, away from studies in a university in Dublin. (My parents were living in the UK at the time.)
I picked up my father’s car from a garage in the local town after having a service. I was driving along a street, cars parked on both sides, doing approximately 20-25mph, when a small boy ran out from behind a black Morris Minor. I swerved to the left and bumped into a parked van. The boy ran into the right side of my car. He unfortunately died the next day.
READ MORE
His parents visited our house before Christmas and told me not to worry, as it was not my fault.
My actions that day could not be described as dangerous or even careless. I have lived with this throughout my life since, remembering the incident as if it were yesterday.
Waldron may have been referring to incidents between cars and cyclists, but these incidents can surely be caused by either the car or the cyclist, depending on the situation. – Yours, etc,
DR BRIAN BYRNES,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.
