UK

Cyclist accused of killing pedestrian 'sprang up shouting at her'

Charlie Alliston is accused of the manslaughter of Kim Briggs
Charlie Alliston is accused of the manslaughter of Kim Briggs Charlie Alliston is accused of the manslaughter of Kim Briggs

A CYCLIST accused of killing a mother-of-two by ploughing into her on a racing bike sprang up and began shouting at her as she lay mortally injured, a court heard.

Charlie Alliston was allegedly travelling at 18mph on a fixed wheel track bike with no front brakes before he crashed into 44-year-old Kim Briggs as she crossed a busy east London street in February last year.

Mr Alliston, then aged 18, is on trial at the Old Bailey charged with manslaughter and causing grievous harm by wanton and furious driving under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.

David Callan was walking along Old Street at about 12.15pm on February 12 when he looked up and saw the crash, according to a statement read in court on Tuesday.

He said: "I had my head down looking at something on my mobile phone when I heard a shout.

"It was a loud shout and seemed like a male voice conveying urgency like a warning or alert.

"It made me look up immediately, just in time to see a collision between a cyclist and a pedestrian.

"The cyclist flew through the air and the pedestrian fell at the point of impact.

"The cyclist clattered to the ground further down the road but quickly sprang to their feet and shouted something at the pedestrian as they took a step towards the pedestrian who lay on the ground.

"It seemed like the same voice I heard immediately before the collision."

Mr Callan said he saw other people had come to the HR consultant's aid so continued on his way.

Mrs Briggs suffered "non-survivable brain injuries" and died in hospital a week later, jurors were told.

Mr Alliston's "fixie" bike was not legal to use on the road without it being modified to add a front brake, jurors have heard.

In January last year he had bought the £700 Planet X bike second-hand for £470, telling the seller William Ringwood he used to be a courier and wanted to use it for track cycling.

Crash investigator Edward Small, who studied CCTV of the incident, concluded that Mr Alliston would have been able to stop and avoid collision had the bike been fitted with a front brake.

The defendant had been travelling an average of 18mph before he spotted Mrs Briggs step out into the road, jurors heard.

He was a minimum of 6.65 metres away when he swerved and tried to take evasive action, the court heard.

Tests on a conventional mountain bike found a stopping distance of around three metres but Mr Alliston's model was four times longer, at some 12 metres, the court heard.

Cross-examining, Mark Wyeth QC asked Mr Small if there could be a margin of error in his calculations of the average speed at which Mr Alliston was travelling before he saw Mrs Briggs.

The expert replied that any difference would only have been a "fraction of a mile per hour".

Mr Alliston (20), of Trothy Road, Bermondsey, south London, denies the charges.

Mr Wyeth suggested that Mr Alliston had the right of way as the lights on the stretch of Old Street were green and Mrs Briggs could have avoided danger by using a pedestrian crossing less than 10 metres away.

Mr Small agreed.

Asked whether Mrs Briggs was looking at her mobile phone when she stepped into the road, the accident investigator said he could not tell "one way or the other" as she was partly obscured on the CCTV by a parked lorry.

The case continues.