POLICE have launched a crackdown on cyclists who are “putting their lives at risk” by riding without lights during terrible conditions at the darkest time of the year.

Officers stopped 33 riders in two hours at Bournemouth’s Cemetery Junction and offenders were given the choice of paying a £30 fine or turning up a police station in one week with a set of lights.

The police plan to run another operation after Christmas in another area of Bournemouth.

PC Rob Hammond warned riders that they were putting lives at risk – and endangering the traffic around them.

He knew of three cyclist deaths at or near that junction in the past four years and said language school and university students were the biggest offenders.

Dangerous cyclists are a major complaint for drivers and he added: “People expect the police not just to stand around idly while people commit minor offences.”

PC Hammond, a cyclist himself, said: “The problem is, lights can fail, they can be stolen, they get taken off when you change bikes – you have got to give people a bit of leeway.

“Cyclists on the whole are quite law-abiding. Like in most cases, it’s the minority who give the majority a bad reputation.”

The Echo returned to the same spot two evenings later and counted 30 riders in one hour. Numbers were down because the weather so bad and the university and language schools were closed.

Of the passing cyclists, 37 per cent were breaking the law by not using lights, and 87 per cent were breaking the highway code by not wearing helmets and brightly coloured or high visibility clothing. Only four cyclists had all the obligatory and recommended equipment.

David Brown, a Poole councillor and Echo cycling blogger, said: “The law is probably not enforced enough because there are too many cyclists out there breaking the law on lights. But that number is a drop in ocean compared to the problem of law-breaking motorists.”

Cllr David Smith, cabinet member for communities, and a cyclist himself, said: “Cyclists are nearly always top of the agenda at public meetings, for riding without lights or on the pavements. Cyclists without lights are putting themselves in extreme danger.”

John Hayter, of the Dorset Cyclists’ Network, said: “A few years ago lights were unreliable and expensive but these days they are powerful and any sensible cyclist will use them.”

Bournemouth University said it runs education campaigns on cycling safety during the year and it has a Bicycle Users Group which also spreads the message.