NOS news•yesterday, 9:43 p.m
Hundreds of people took to the streets in several French cities today to commemorate the death of a cyclist earlier this week. A 27-year-old man was run over by a motorbike in Paris on Tuesday.
The French Public Prosecution Service suspects that he is the driver of the murder. The Public Prosecution Service is relying on camera images and testimonies which are said to show that the driver of the SUV drove about two hundred meters on a cycle path to avoid the evening rush hour.
There was a brief altercation with the victim on the bike path, after which the suspect intentionally ran into the cyclist. After the accident, the 52-year-old driver of the SUV was arrested.
The man was in the car with his 17-year-old daughter and was on his way to an appointment with the ophthalmologist, wrote French media.
People gathered in Paris, Dijon, Angers and Strasbourg, among others, to protest against the growing ‘motorized violence’. The participants, most of whom came by bicycle, want measures from politicians to improve the safety of cyclists on public roads.
Among the signs included were texts such as “an obstacle is not a cyclist” and “Less speed, more tender”. A moment of silence was also observed for the fatal victim in Paris.
In 2023, 226 cyclists died on French roads. That was an 18 percent increase compared to 2019.
2024-10-19 19:43:00
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