If they didn't know it already: what the death of Nick Abraham must teach all motorists

What sad news about Councillor Peter Abraham's son Nick, who died on Tuesday after an accident on the Portway.

I never met Nick, although comments on our website show he was a vivacious, popular young man who was loved by friends and family alike.

But I have met Peter and his wife Pearl - kind, good-humoured people - on several occasions and my sincere condolences go out to them at this difficult time.

This is of course no time to start yet another debate concerning the priority shared between the city's motorists and its cyclists, of whom Nick was one.

But this tragic incident, as well a handful of other cyclist deaths in the past few months, again demonstrates the fragility of human life.

Just last night, my wife and I were very nearly knocked down on a pedestrian crossing at the top of Blackboy Hill.

We had been jogging around the Downs and were walking across the Upper Belgrave Road junction, which has two lanes of cars - one filtering up towards Westbury-on-Trym and another take cars around the turning towards Redland.

One lane of cars stopped as we approached the crossing and the other lane appeared to be clear but, being tall, I saw over the queue of waiting traffic a car was approaching the crossing at high speed.

Thank God that we waited before walking out into the far lane because the middle-aged driver of the BMW clearly didn't see us until she was about 10 metres short.

She screeched to a halt, eventually stopping right in front of us with the entire length of the car lying well over the crossing.

Had my wife, who is shorter than me and would not have been able to see the car approaching, been on her own, she would almost certainly have been knocked down.

It was a chilling experience, one that made us feel sick with fear for what might have happened.

Worst of all the driver then simply mouthed a brief apology and sped off towards Redland at a similar speed.

Not all motorists are such bad drivers but they must realise what they are in control of.

Cars driven responsibly are fantastic, comfortable ways of personal transport.

But as Nick Abraham's family will tell you, a car can also be a giant wrecking ball.