CYCLISTS who kill pedestrians through dangerous riding can now face a life sentence after a change in the law.

Campaigners have pursued the law change for several years, after several high-profile cases, including that of Monmouth pensioner Elizabeth Stone, who was hit and fatally injured on a street corner pavement in June 2021.

The previous maximum sentence, apart from the higher evidential bar of a murder or manslaughter charge, was just two years for "wanton and furious" driving – a Victorian law brought in for horse drawn vehicles.

Former St Thomas' Church warden Mrs Stone died in hospital four days after being hit by 29-year-old Stewart McGinn, who rode up onto the pavement and sped around the corner of Somerset Road and Wonastow Road straight into her.

Mrs Stone, known as Jane, was walking home from the cinema with friend Janet Bromley shortly before 10pm when the collision happened.

CCTV of the crash showed McGinn immediately remounting and riding off, leaving the retired teacher lying on the ground with fatal head injuries.

After handing himself in six days after the widow's death, he later admitted a charge of 'wanton and furious driving' and was jailed for 12 months, half the maximum sentence.

After his release in April 2023, the father-of-one was found dead in woodland at the bottom of Wonastow Road.

At the time of the court case in July 2022, it was revealed that there was no specific law governing such cycling, prompting former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith to launch a campaign.

And the death by dangerous cycling law received its Royal Assent as part of the Government's wide-ranging Crime and Policing Act last month, with Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander saying: “These changes will mean the tiny minority of cyclists who recklessly disregard others face the full force of the law."

Other high-profile cases which campaigners highlighted included the death of Kim Briggs, who was hit and killed by a cyclist on a bike with no front brakes in London in 2016, but who only received 18 months.

Her husband Matthew Briggs welcomed the law change saying: “I’m absolutely delighted. Since losing Kim 10 years ago, I have campaigned persistently to have this gap in road legislation closed and can’t quite believe we have finally got there.

“This is a victory for the many families that have suffered bereavements and endured a judicial process reliant on archaic laws as the only way to prosecute cyclists; laws which carried minimal tariffs and were complex to prosecute.

“I am so grateful to all these families who joined me in this campaign and to the Labour Government for finally passing this into law.”

As well as causing death by dangerous cycling, there are now other new offences of causing serious injury by dangerous cycling, causing death by careless or inconsiderate cycling, and causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate cycling.

Mrs Stone’s brother told Cardiff Crown Court in a victim impact statement at the July 2022 hearing his sister had been a “very active” pensioner, who had abseiled down the church tower to raise money for charity.

She was also a swimmer and long-distance walker, and had been planning her 80th birthday with friends on the night of the collision.