Road safety: riders must take responsibility
Driver awareness and attitude has to be improved but equestrians also have to step up and follow the rules
‘People think horses are expensive toys for posh people’
BROADCASTER LIZZIE GREENWOOD-HUGHES
RIDERS have a vital role to play in improving conditions on our roads, according to speakers at the British Horse Society’s (BHS) Real Horsepower Safety Conference.
Industry experts and equestrians at the conference on 6 June stressed that as well as improving driver awareness and attitude, riders must step up.
Driving Instructors
Association CEO Carly Brookfield said it is up to all of us to be aware of the risks, rather than passing all responsibility to other road users.
She added: “What are you doing to keep yourself safe? Are you wearing hi-vis? Are you using routes you should be using? If you’re operating a stables, is it adequately signposted to warn of vulnerable road users?”
Ms Brookfield said if implementing these solutions is difficult, riders should contact bodies like the BHS so they can lobby local authorities for action.
She added that young riders or those unfamiliar with the rules of the road should consider taking certificates like the BHS riding and road safety test.
“If you know vulnerable riders who have never been involved in road safety education, encourage them to do this sort of thing, as knowing how to behave in traffic is really important,” she said.
BHS safety director Alan Hiscox said riders must understand the Highway Code.
The BHS has been holding rider responsibility events to help improve road safety awareness as part of its Dead Slow campaign.
“There are three phases to the campaign: the first stage was safer drivers, we are now moving on to safer riders,” he said. “Say thank you, show courtesy, don’t wander along on a phone — it doesn’t give a good image of riders.”
Broadcaster and rider Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes agreed improving riders’ image is key.
“Most people think horses are expensive toys for posh people, who waft about the lanes while real people are toiling away in their jobs,” she said. “And I think increasingly many people see horses as a menace on the road, often two abreast, slow to get out the way, spooking and jumping, and pooing on dangerous bends.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think we do a lot to dispel that image. The riders [the public] see on television do appear superior, the people look very rich. They see the hackers who don’t thank drivers.
“We need to tell drivers when they’re good and when they’re bad. We need to use our arms, voices, and when they do slow down we need to absolutely love those people, we need to beam at them.”
RECORDING INCIDENTS
RIDERS’ behaviour following incidents can also be significant.
Solicitor Cathryn Godfrey urged riders to take down as much information as they are safely able to record at the scene.
“If you can, make a record of what’s happened; do that as soon as you can,” she said. “Consider any witnesses. Photographs are really important if you can, for evidence of the road layout at the time. The next day the weather and lighting will be different.
“Notify your third-party liability insurers or at least check
the terms and conditions. You may think you were the innocent victim, and that may well be true, but a lot of policies have reporting clauses; you must let the insurer know within a certain time. If you don’t, they may not be as willing to pay out.”
Greater Manchester police community support officer Gareth Walker explained officers’ action once evidence is reviewed.
“If the driver doesn’t need prosecution we will send a letter warning them there has been a close call with a horse and link them to the BHS website,” he said. “Drivers can be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention or dangerous driving for serious offences.
“For more serious incidents that don’t need prosecution we look at a Section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002,” he added. “It means any person who commits anti-social use of a motor vehicle to cause alarm or distress — that’s close-passing, revving, use of the horn, tailgating — gets a warning that lasts on them and the vehicle for 12 months. If they do it again, their car gets seized.
“It’s good legislation to go back with to the police if you don’t get full satisfaction from what we do.”
He warned riders can also be held to account from recordings, such as from hat cameras.
“You have responsibility too,” he said. “If we get footage [from a rider] and they are at fault, we will treat them in the same way as the person they’re reporting.”
Mr Walker said riders do not need video to report an incident.
“If you have the registration of the vehicle, ring the police,” he said. “If not, use bhs.org.uk/ safety-and-accidents
“The more you report to the BHS website, the more they will contact us and say we’ve got a problem with this road, we will sort it out, we will do it together.”
MAKING A CLAIM
THE Highway Code’s wording is relevant if riders want to claim.
“Advisory points are marked ‘should’, others say ‘must’, like ‘you must not ride on footpaths’,” said Ms Godfrey. “If it says you must do something, technically it’s a criminal offence not to.
“I came across a rider who was on a footpath [next to a road], hi-vis on, a bus clipped her leg and the horse ended up in a ditch.
“The rider wanted to claim.
She was scared to get back on a horse and had lots of vet’s bills. The claim succeeded but she was on a footpath and shouldn’t have been. So she didn’t receive the full help and assistance she could have done through the law because she was committing an offence.
“I had another case with the same circumstances but the rider was on the road and recovered in full; there was no uncertainty.”
Ms Godfrey also urged riders to take care riding two abreast.
“Riding double file does make drivers slow down, but please remember if you’re going round a bend on a narrow lane, you need to get back into single file,” she said. “I’ve had cases of riders double file on a bend and it’s been successfully argued that the one nearest the middle of the road contributed to the injuries they and their horse sustained because there wasn’t space to get by.”
Ms Godfrey, also a Mark
Davies Injured Riders Fund trustee, urged riders to consider wearing helmets.
“It’s your choice but if you are injured in a fall, if that head injury is life-changing, can you cope?
“Parents can be investigated from a child-protection point of view if their children are not wearing hats on the road.”