‘No front brake’ death crash rider: I’m not a thrill seeker
when they clashed heads during last year’s central London accident. Alliston admitted blaming Mrs Briggs in online posts after the collision but before he knew she had died.
In one he said: “I warned her pretty much to get the ***** out of my way – which she didn’t.”
He also complained that his £470 fixed-gear track bike could have been damaged, saying: : ***** me and my health, I can heal and recover. The bike cannot.”
The defendant claimed Mrs Briggs was using a mobile phone at the time of the accident, and added: “She put not only hers but my life in danger.”
Cross-examined by Duncan Penny QC, prosecuting, he said he was not thinking straight when he posted the comments shortly after the February 2016 incident. He added: “I do hold my hands up and admit everything that got said in that time was stupid and not thought through and it was not meant.”
Alliston, of Bermondsey, south London, denies manslaughter and causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving. He claimed yesterday he did not know it was illegal to ride the bike without a front brake.
He said: “It was a few split seconds prior to the impact so a brake at the time wouldn’t have made a difference. I was cycling at a safe and reasonable speed personal to myself. I was capable at the time of controlling it.”
The trial continues.