The AA has issued an urgent plea to the country’s thousands of commuting
cyclists to get proper lights and reflectors from today. Road users,
especially cyclists and pedestrians, risk death this winter if they don’t
light up properly. That’s the warning from the AA as the return to winter
time means that commuters will travel in darkness from today (Tuesday 27th
October) on.
“Far too many cyclists just don’t bother.” Says Faughnan. “On a wet or
misty November evening they may as well be invisible. It is virtually
impossible for a driver to see them. There is just no excuse for this. A
car driver with no working headlights would be prosecuted, and rightly so.
Cyclists must light up properly. Otherwise they are quite literally dicing
with death.”
The AA is asking cyclists to make sure that they have working lights and
wear proper reflective gear for their own safety. Now is the time to check
that bicycle lights which may not have been switched on for months are in
working order.
“From today drivers in their hundreds of thousands will be commuting home
in darkness.” Says public affairs manager Conor Faughnan. “It is
desperately important that all road users should go by the old saying: ‘be
safe, be seen’.”
The AA has also urged motorists to drive with extra care.
“Cyclists and pedestrians don’t knock cars down and kill them: it happens
the other way around. The onus is on us as motorists to drive carefully.”
Says Faughnan.