HC Deb 24 April 1896 vol 39 cc1634-5
MR. J. F. HOGAN (Tipperary, Mid)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has any objection to supplementing the Return he presented to the House on Thursday with another showing the number of fatal and serious accidents to members of the general public caused by cyclists in the streets of London during the first quarter of the present year; whether any special arrangements have been made by the police authorities to check and cope with the growing evil and danger of reckless riding by cyclists; and, whether he has any reason to presume that a considerable number of cycling accidents during the past three | months have not come under the official cognisance of the police?

*SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY

The Return which the police have prepared for me shows that the number of serious accidents caused by cyclists during the first quarter of this year was ten, and the number of slight accidents not requiring treatment, or at any rate detention, at a hospital, 174. In no case had the accident, a fatal result. No special arrangements have been made by the police, but they use to the full the special powers which they possess under i the Metropolitan Police Act, Section 54 of that Act providing that every person who shall ride or drive furiously, or so as to endanger the life or limb of any person, or to the common danger of the passengers in any thoroughfare, shall be liable to a penalty, and may be taken into custody without warrant by any constable who sees the offence committed. So far as serious accidents are concerned, the figures I have given may be taken as accurate; it is unlikely that any such accidents have occurred without coming to the notice of the police.