Road Rage and Riding Furiously

The Cork road rage case caught my eye this week, partly because a friend once responded in a similar fashion - chucking a driver’s keys into a field in Oxfordshire - and partly because it took me back to an article I’d read in The Bicycle from December 1947.

It was a test case involving 21 riders from the British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC) charged with riding furiously on bicycles.  At this point in time racing on open roads was illegal.  This case went to the heart of whether their entire model of racing could lawfully exist on British roads. Had it gone against them - the sport may have looked very different today.

The full article is below. The cross‑examination extracts reflect an era of vintage police work - an amusing read. The defence case turned on a simple point: none of the prosecution witnesses could identify the riders alleged to have been “riding furiously”, because during the race they were known only by their numbers.

Poor PC Maynard got a proper grilling. He hadn’t spoken to the riders at the race itself, but later at the swimming baths. That tied him in knots. He later admitted that he had assumed a car on the highway was a private motor when it was, in fact, a marshall following the race. There was no evidence the cyclists had endangered anyone, and crucially - nobody was hurt.

The famous “riding furiously” offence? Not in the Highways Act 1835, it’s in section 28 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 - an archaic piece of legislation that technically is still in force:

“Every person who rides or drives furiously any horse or carriage, or drives furiously any cattle.”

Case dismissed.

I’m perplexed about furiously driving any cattle. Might have to look that one up later.