The husband of a woman who died after she was struck by a cyclist later convicted of causing her bodily harm has called for changes to the law to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.

Kim Briggs, a mother of two, died in hospital a week after Charlie Alliston collided with her on his fixed-gear bike, which illegally had no front brake, in east London.

Alliston, 20, who is facing jail after being convicted on Wednesday of causing bodily harm by “wanton and furious driving”, an offence under a piece of 19th-century legislation, but he was cleared of the more serious offence of manslaughter.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Matthew Briggs, Briggs’s husband, said he was calling for cycling to be incorporated into the Road Traffic Act to allow offences of death by dangerous cycling and death by careless cycling to be considered.

“In that sense it’s not so much a new law as just bringing the current law up to date,” he said.

“If this were to happen again – which I inevitably think it will – the police and the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] have a more coherent framework to reach for so that for the next family having to go through this it’s more straightforward.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Charlie Alliston was convicted of causing bodily harm by ‘wanton and furious driving’. Photograph: Lauren Hurley/PA

Briggs said his campaign for a change in the law was not “witch-hunt against cyclists”, adding that he had lived in London for 27 years and cycled himself.

“This is dealing with a specific issue of reckless cyclists and those people who choose to ride fixed-wheel bikes without the additional front brake,” he said.



“With the fixed-wheel bike without the front brake the only means of braking is reverse pedalling … That’s totally inadequate and we’ve seen that with my wife’s death.”



During Alliston’s trial, the jury was told the former courier did not know that it was illegal to cycle on the road without a front brake.

Briggs said ignorance of the law was “absolutely no defence” and said he regularly saw cyclists riding fixed-wheel bikes without a brake, of which he estimated 90% were couriers.

He said: “There’s a degree of a fashion statement around that … there’s almost a fetishism around this. But as we’ve seen with my wife’s death they are potentially lethal, not just illegal, they are potentially lethal.”



Asked what he would say to a cyclist considering riding a bike without a brake, he said: “I would urge them to read my story to understand what happened to my wife. Mother of two, the most wonderful woman, the most fun-loving woman, went out to work and didn’t come back because of this. Why would you take that risk with somebody else’s life, and why would you endanger yourself.”

Alliston was released on bail. He will be sentenced on 18 September. The judge, Wendy Thomas, warned he faced a custodial sentence but said it was not a certainty until she had heard mitigation at the sentencing hearing. She added: “I have not seen one iota of remorse from Mr Alliston at all at any stage.”