Story response - Existing laws should be enforced

As far as I know, in law, a scooter is a bicycle, as is a ‘hobby horse’ or a pennyfarthing etc. It is illegal to ride a bicycle on the footway.

It is also an offence to ride a bicycle on the public highway without it having two working independent brakes, one on the front wheel, and one on the rear (a fixed wheel counts as a brake, but is a poor substitute). Very many of the scooters and bikes being ridden by these kids have no brakes at all. Indeed many of them are not even designed to have brakes. They are not ‘road legal’ and were never intended to be.

Even the bikes that were originally sold with brakes frequently now have none, or brakes that are very obviously no longer in working order; the lack of cables and brake levers is a dead giveaway to any reasonably observant person. Why are they not being prosecuted ?

When I was that age you wouldn’t have gone a day without being pulled up.

Furthermore, according to my text book on the subject, anyone who causes or permits a person to ride without two brakes is guilty of the same offence as the rider; in other words, the parents can be (and should be) charged as well. Even a dealer who sells a BMX bike without making it clear that it is not road legal, could be on thin ice, but I don’t know if this has ever been tested in court.

Mr Bunney, get our police to enforce the law (not forgetting lights as well). Lack of enforcement of such simple basics is a foundation stone of lawlessness and anti-social behaviour (yes, and it can lead on to theft and dishonesty, and worse) because the kids grow up without respect for the rule of law or for authority.

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