Video: Shane Ross surprised by girl (11) with “40 flowers for dead cyclists”

Caoimhe Collins (11) waiting to pounce and present Shane Ross with flowers highlighting the number of cyclists who have died while he has been in office. On the left is a shot of the flowers which some who were present said were left behind by Minister Ross

Minister for Transport Shane Ross has been caught by surprise at a public event being presented with a bouquet of 40 flowers, representing the number of cycling deaths in Ireland during his term in office.

He was attending an event in Dublin city
centre today to launch a new Dublin Bus initiative. It will see its drivers trained
using virtual reality technology to give them a view of the roads from a
cyclist’s perspective.

Caoimhe Collins (11), whose father Peter
is a cycling activist, stepped forward at the event and presented Shane Ross
with the flowers, explaining to him what they represented.

“There’s 40 flowers to be exact, each
flower represents each person who has died while cycling on their bike during
your administration,” the school girl told Shane Ross.

“I don’t want to die cycling my bike and please can you build proper cycling infrastructure for me and my friends and sisters to cycle on.”

Caoimhe Collins (11) and her father Peter, who is active with @IBIKEDublin, present the minister with 40 flowers, representing the cyclists 'who have died under this government' pic.twitter.com/hdvt5Jk6X5

— Rónán Duffy (@ronanduffy_) November 7, 2019

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Ross accepted the flowers and replied to Caoimhe Collins as those present looked on.

“Caoimhe, thank you very much indeed for
what you’ve said and we will take it to heart,” he told her. “We are trying to
do all we can to protect cyclists and we’ll continue to do that.”

He added later that he was very sorry
about the recent deaths, especially that of Neeraj
Jain who died in Dublin city last week.

Some social media users shared photos
after the event showing the bunch of flowers placed on the ground having apparently
been left behind by Ross.

The presentation of the flowers, which
caught Shane Ross by surprise, comes a week after Neeraj
Jain (34), from India, was killed while cycling as he crashed with the driver
of a cement lorry on South Circular Road, Dublin.

Cycling groups, led by I Bike Dublin,
have staged a number of die-ins in recent days in protest at what they see as
insufficient cycling infrastructure in Dublin.

The die-ins have been held outside
Dublin City Council’s head off on Dublin’s south quays and outside Leinster
House in the south inner city.