An 81-year-old pensioner who was hit and killed by a bicycle in London’s Regent’s Park has been photographed.
Hilda Griffiths was crossing the road with her dog at 7am on a Saturday in June 2022 when she was hit by Brian Fitzgerald – who was traveling at up to 29mph in a 20mph zone.
The cyclist, a vice-president of Credit Suisse, was released without conviction after a court ruled that speed limits did not apply equally to cyclists and motorists.
Ms Griffiths’ son Gerald, 52, said “something has to change” after the cyclist who killed his mother was not prosecuted.
“The park is mainly used by families with children and people with dogs. I’m sure my mother is not the first to encounter a group like this, but she is the first to be killed by such a group,” he told LBC.
“Something needs to change in all areas of the law, not just the speed limit in parks, it needs to be in general.”
Hilda Griffiths (pictured) was crossing the road with her dog at 7am on a Saturday in June 2022 when she was hit by a bicycle.
Ms Griffiths’ son Gerald, 52 (pictured), said “something has to change” after the cyclist who killed his mother was not prosecuted.
Mr Fitzgerald said cyclists were not required to obey the 20mph limit because “the legal speed limit does not apply to cyclists (in the same way) as it does to motorists”.
He was doing timed laps of Regent’s Park, London, as part of a group when he crashed into Ms Griffiths as she crossed the road.
The bank executive claimed he had “no reaction time” to avoid Ms Griffiths, a retired nursery school teacher, who suffered brain haemorrhages, vomiting blood and several broken bones.
His death was not recorded as being the result of a road accident as it was 59 days after the incident, the Telegraph reported.
At the Muswell Hill Peloton Club, Mr Fitzgerald reached speeds of up to 29mph.
The group traveled the perimeter of the park counterclockwise at an average speed of 25 mph, according to their GPS devices.
But despite breaking the speed limit, police concluded there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute Mr Fitzgerald and took no further action.
Inner West London Coroners’ Court heard that there are no specific speed limits for cyclists and no legislation to prosecute them if they fail to obey regular signs for motorists.
Brian Fitzgerald was doing timed laps of Regent’s Park, London, as part of a group when he crashed into Ms Griffiths as she crossed the road (file image)
Detective Sergeant Ropafadzo Bungo agreed with Mr Fitzgerald’s representative that speed limits on the roads only applied to “mechanically propelled vehicles” and not cyclists.
He added that these rules were such because only drivers of mechanical vehicles are able to identify exactly how fast they are moving.
Although he expressed “sympathy” for Ms Griffiths and her family, Mr Fitzgerald argued Ms Griffiths had gone out onto the road without checking for oncoming traffic and therefore missed the group of cyclists.
He said his cycling trips were made even more hastened by the fact that the incident happened where the road was on a slope.
Ms Griffiths’ son Gerard called for existing laws allowing cyclists to ignore speed limits to be updated and said his mother was killed by a “cycling culture”, adding that the outer circle of Regent’s Park had become a ‘velodrome’.
Representing Ms Griffiths’ family, Ellen Robertson asked deputy coroner Jean Harkin to issue a report to prevent future deaths, on the grounds that cyclists were systematically ignoring “highly advertised” speed limits and endangering vulnerable people such as children and the elderly.
Ms Harkin refused the request and rejected recording the death as the result of an “accidental bicycle collision”, pointing out the lack of precedent for pedestrian deaths “in these circumstances”.
Richard Hallam, representing Mr Fitzgerald, suggested installing pedestrian crossings would help encourage cyclists to slow down to stop for pedestrians.
In a statement, the Muswell Hill Peloton Club called the death a “tragic incident” and said the safety of road users was its “top priority”.
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