Lights are green for traffic, but a group of supervised school cyclists were caught on dash-cam going through red traffic lights, during the return journey on a mass school cycle day, organised by the Leicester City Council on Friday 5th July 2019 here in the city.
This was captured on Dash-cam at the junction of Hinckley Road and Wyngate Drive Leicester.
After posting this video showing school cyclists going through traffic lights on red. Parents started asking questions. and leaving comments.
Some comments from our Facebook post.
“God forbid if a fatality or injury happened, if they were being taught how to use the road safely and they were supervised by the teachers surely if the lights had changed to red the teacher should of stopped the remaining group and wait for the green light not put them in danger of a collision, the adult teacher should of known better”
“Why are we teaching them to go through on Red lights“
“OMG thank god they did not get hit by a car“
“What about safeguarding“
”The staff should be ashamed! This isn’t teaching kids how to ride safely! This is showing them how to get killed”.
“Absolutely Ridiculous behaviour. If these were cars they all would've gotten tickets from the red light camera !! Great way to teach cyclists the rules of the road & stay safe. The teacher in charge should be changed for gross negligence & endangering children”
We contacted the school for a comment on this.
A Leicester City Council spokesperson said:
“Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have raised this incident with our ride leaders and will be talking to them about how we could handle such situations differently in the future.
“Children’s safety is of the upmost importance and we acknowledge that we need to set the highest standards for children to follow"
This is what the law says on cycling.
Under the Road Traffic Act 1988 all road users, including cyclists, must not cross the stop line when the traffic lights are red.
There is no exceptions for any type of groups.
More about the mass cycle day
Around 400 schoolchildren and adults from 11 schools will take part in a mass ride into the city.Friday 5 July)
Leicester City mascot Filbert Fox will be leading in the young cyclists as part of the annual schools’ bike ride.
The ride gives Year 5 & 6 schoolchildren from across the city and county the chance to put into practice the Bikeability skills they have learned and make the most of the city’s cycle tracks and neighborhood routes.
On Friday 5 July, schoolchildren set off on their rides – supervised by teachers and ride leaders to converge at Cathedral Gardens, in front of Leicester Cathedral, from 11.30am.
Once there, they’ll seen a demonstration from mountain bike stunt rider Danny Butler, enjoyed a comedy show with comedian Jay Foreman and was awarded with Bikeability certificates by deputy city mayor Cllr Adam Clarke.
View the comments on our Facebook post.
https://www.facebook.com/644428992410357/posts/1875565759296668?sfns=xmwa