Electric bike rider ‘hit 30mph before killing pedestrian’
A WOMAN was knocked over and killed when a rider on an electric bike crashed into her at 30mph as she crossed the road, a court heard yesterday.
The e-bike was travelling at twice the speed limit for such machines after being fitted with a high-powered motor, the Old Bailey was told.
A witness on a conventional bicycle saw the e-bike speed past him and thought: ‘That’s fast.’
Cyclist Raymond Murphy said he was overtaken by the speeding e-bike as it swerved through traffic and he then saw ‘arms and legs everywhere, flying in the air’.
Bricklayer Thomas Hanlon, 32, is accused of ploughing into pedestrian Sakine Cihan, 56, at 10mph above the 20mph speed limit as she crossed Kingsland High Street in Dalston, east London, shortly after 5pm on August 28, 2018.
Mrs Cihan collapsed, bleeding from her nose and ears. Her ribs were also broken. She died from ‘catastrophic’ brain injuries in hospital the following day. As passers-by tried to help Mrs Cihan, Hanlon was captured on CCTV calmly walking away from the accident with his damaged bike, which had a buckled front wheel.
The jury was told that Hanlon was riding a vehicle which ‘appeared to be a bicycle’ but had been fitted with a battery motor making it capable of travelling at double the legal speed limit for e-bikes – which is 15.5mph.
Prosecutor Nathan Rasiah told the court this meant the e-bike was technically a motorcycle.
Hanlon was arrested at his home. He told officers he had bought the bike on the Gumtree website.
Dramatic CCTV shown in court captured the moment he collided with Turkish-born Mrs Cihan. She is seen crashing to the road and lying motionless.
Mr Rasiah said: ‘As a matter of law there are certain vehicles called “electrically assisted pedal cycles”, which do not constitute motor vehicles. But they have certain requirements and one of them is that the motor must not propel them at more than 15.5mph.’
He added that Hanlon’s machine could go much faster ‘and indeed on approach to the collision it was travelling at closer to 30mph, well in excess of the 20mph limit for that road.’
Mr Rasiah said the motor meant that, under the law, the bike was classed as a motorcycle, and required a licence, insurance and adherence to safety rules, such as wearing a helmet. ‘Mr Hanlon did not have an appropriate licence, he was not insured, and he was not wearing a helmet.’
Hanlon, from Hackney, denies charges of causing death while uninsured and causing death while unlicensed, as well as causing death by careless driving.
Hanlon told police he had tried to brake when the pedestrian stepped in front of him. He added: ‘She rushed out in front of me to cross and she didn’t even look at me, she didn’t look left or right... basically I could do nothing.’
The trial continues.