Cycle couriers are still riding illegal brakeless racing bikes — and one was caught on his MOBILE — in same area mum Kim Briggs was fatally hit by Charlie Alliston’s bike
COURIERS are still riding illegal brakeless racing bikes blamed for the death of a mum of two.
We photographed seven in just a few hours including one rider using a mobile phone.
They were cycling the bikes known as “fixies” in the same area where Kim Briggs, 44, was fatally hit by Charlie Alliston’s bike last year.
Alliston, 20, went on trial for manslaughter but was convicted of causing bodily harm by “wanton or furious driving”.
It was the first case of its kind and he is facing jail.
But two days later The Sun on Sunday watched couriers race around the busy streets of Whitechapel and Shoreditch, East London, near where Kim was struck.
Some had heavy packs strapped to their backs.
Kim’s husband Matthew, 44, slammed cyclists on the Olympic-style bikes with no front brakes.
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The bikes can be slowed only by the rider locking the pedals still, which are directly linked to the rear wheel, or pedalling backwards.
The Pedal Cycles Construction and Use Regulations 1983 states all fixed wheel bikes must have a front brake.
Matthew, a company director of Lewisham, South East London, said: “I would just urge them to read my story. To understand what happened to my wife, mother of two, the most wonderful woman, who went out to work and didn’t come back. Why would you take that risk with somebody else’s life?
“And even at the most selfish why would you endanger yourself?”
The Met Police released a video showing an officer taking four times the distance to stop on a fixed wheel bike compared to a normal cycle.
But fixie courier riders insisted the bikes were safe.
One, who did not wish to be named, said: “Of course it takes a cop 12ft to stop on a bike he’s not ridden before.
“A courier who knows his bike can stop in one foot. We ride these bikes because you have so much more control. Your whole body is the brake.”
We are passing our findings to Matthew, who is campaigning for new laws covering cyclists who cause injury or death.