let’s roll! Bruno Studer, Renaissance MP for Bas-Rhin, has tabled a bill on willful attacks against cyclists
Silent demonstration in tribute to a deceased cyclist on a bridge near Strasbourg, January 13, 2007. (Photo by 039; illustration). — G . VARELA/20 MINUTES
Increasingly frequent, attacks against cyclists, whether voluntary or not, appear almost daily in the miscellaneous columns of newspapers. In memory again of the serious accident which occurred in Gironde last week where a group of 14 cyclists was voluntarily broke by a motorist. In memory also, the same evening and chance of the news, of an interview recorded and diffused on France 2, of the words pronounced by the singer Michel Sardou to the audience. against cyclists who do not respect the Highway Code. Remarks which highlighted the concerns of the deputy; Renaissance du Bas-Rhin, Bruno Studer, who wishes to better protect, legally, cyclists. He has just tabled a bill for this.
The latter had already deposited an amendment, long before the facts. An amendment considered however inadmissible but for purely legal reasons, underlines the deputy. While he “was well aware of this inadmissibility,” his intention was above all to set a milestone in the maze of a modification of a law. “It remains a subject that may have other hooks in other texts,” says Bruno Studer.
A bill decided upon after having been alerted by residents of his Bas-Rhin constituency after an accident. Himself being “a great believer in the use of bicycles in urban and peri-urban areas – he travels 6,000 kilometers per year at bike – he deposited this time a bill relating to intentional attacks on cyclists.
Voluntary offense or not, punishable by the same additional penalty
If the latter already punished these offences, it is the suspension or cancellation of the driving license which are among the additional penalties which questions the deputy. “The period of suspension of the driving license is in fact the same, whether it is voluntary or involuntary, or even longer in the event of involuntary violation with aggravating circumstances” assures the deputy. A paradox identified by Master Michel Benezra, president of the legal commission of the association “Mon Vélo est une Vie”, explains Bruno Studer and with whom he collaborates on this issue. “It’s a small incongruity. Legislative Penal Code, is the responsibility of the elected official. The new text proposal is ultimately quite simple: it’s just differentiating in the additional penalty which concerns the driving license, its modulation according to the voluntary nature or not of the offense.” ;
This penalty currently provides for suspension until up to five years of the driving license (a suspension may be limited to driving outside professional activity). With this text, the additional penalty remains “obviously subject to the judge”s assessment” insists the deputy, but could pass to ten-year suspension for willful violation.
“”The spirit of this law, c’ is still send a counter signal to something that is taking hold in public discourse. The idea of recalling that beyond debates that there may be on the behavior of each other, and I know that cyclists are not blameless, there are vulnerabilities that exist and that must be protected nurture those who need to be, underlines the elected official. It’s not a text that will change the face of the world, but which I think is important, symbolic, because it reminds us that we do not do justice to ourselves and that if we do, it’s special ;really serious.”