Cycling trauma
As An orthopaedic trauma surgeon I am weary of fixing fractures in injured cyclists and dealing with the carnage in working lives. I enjoy my job, but I’d rather not be in operating theatre with this unfortunate group.
Cyclists seriously injured in a road traffic incident and the families of those killed battle through a clumsy legal process before receiving compensation.
strict liability will enable cyclists and other vulnerable road users who are involved in road traffic accidents to be compensated fairly and quickly.
At present, the United Kingdom is out of step with Europe as one of only five European Union countries along with Cyprus, Malta, Romania and Ireland that does not operate a system of strict liability.
The concept of strict liability is confusing for many, with the terminology of strict, stricter and presumed liability confounding most members of the public who won’t know or care about the difference.
Campaigns for “mutual respect” for cyclists and drivers in my opinion will generate some change in road users’ behaviour. Cycling scotland has launched “nice Way Code” for mutual respect. It’s only fair that all road users adhere completely to the Highway Code and let’s not forget the vast majority of cyclists are also motorists.
Road justice must also be fair. There needs to be a fundamental change in the mindset of all road users. I hope we will end up with a form of presumed liability in the not too distant future.
(Mr) CHrIS oLIver Consultant orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon, chairman Scottish Cyclists’
Touring Club ConTRARy to myth, the purpose of enforcement cameras is generate income. Rather, to enforce motoring law which stipulates that exceeding the speed limit is an offence.
When drivers are fined for the offences of drink driving and mobile phone use while driv- ing, the fines are not seen as a “cash cow” but, quite properly, are penalties for having broken the law. Why should speeding be perceived any differently? no-one is obliged to speed any more than they are forced to drink and drive.
People often adopt a different stance, when one of their own is maimed or killed by a driver who could not pull up in time because of their speed.
STepHeN McbrIde I don’T know what GP did to dr John Cameron to make him so vitriolic about the profession (Letters, 1 August). It must have been bad.
He uses some extreme figures to make his argument, but it’s far more helpful to talk about what is normal.
If all of us dr Findlays out here could earn £200 an hour for outof-hours work, we would happily do a few eight-hour shifts a month and not bother about a 50-hour daytime week.
The fact is that doctors working full time in the salaried out-of-hours service in Grampian will earn about £80,000 a year – a good salary, but not the amount he implies. (some odd anomalies like that did happen just as the new arrangements were bedding down.)
In 2004, we became able to opt out of the responsibility for providing out-of-hours care.
As I was careful to explain, before that time, most GPs had come to commission that care from out-of-hours providers such as co-operatives or deputising services, and few were actually still providing that care themselves.
The amount we give up in order to not be responsible for out-of-hours care is based on the government’s own estimate of what they paid us for out-ofhours work.
I, and thousands of others, worked one in three or four nights and weekends for the princely some of £4,000 a year.
Accident and emergency departments are flooded not because of poor quality out-ofhours services but because of the sheer convenience of a walk-in service, combined with a 24hour consumer mentality.
GPs never pandered to that when they did out-of-hours work for their own practices.
(dr) roberT W LIddeLL Good to see hard work rewarded, though I firmly believe there should be time limits on active voting, say 15 years. We can now see a strong case put forward for a better federal UK with these two in the House of Lords.
- Danielrober2 While having nothing against the individuals involved, what exactly is the point of sending them down to the House of Lords each week? What return can we expect to get from the expense of it all?
- Onward Now we have around 800 peers: the only chamber that has more is the People’s Republic of China. It’s about time a few were made redundant.
- RealityChecker
An independent Scotland What have they done to earn this? £400 per day plus expenses. nice work if you can get it but you can’t get it unless someone powerful speaks for you.
- MB16
- FWFW I admired Annabel Goldie as leader of the Tories and she always played fair in her dealings with the snP minority government from 2007 to 2011. But it really is an abomination and an insult to democracy to have a legislative chamber selected by appointment and not by democratic election.
- Huntly Loon The House of Lords is from another age and has no place in a modern democracy.
- Banditti