£35 fine and 3 points for killing a cyclist

[XG332]

Apologies if a repost.

http://road.cc/content/news/73826-taxi-driver-fine...

Wonder if the cyclist was wearing black at night, no lights and generally being idiotic otherwise this is pretty bad decision.

Essentially my life whilst cycling is worth less than a takeaway to some.

[budgie smuggler]

FFS I hope we're getting an inaccurate account from that story because otherwise that is a real piss boiler

here a link to the article itself, for some reason yours takes me to the homepage
http://road.cc/content/news/73826-taxi-driver-fine...

[Zigster]

He was convicted of driving without due care and attention. That resulted in the driver killing someone. Yet it resulted in a penalty of 3pts and £35 fine.

What the hell would you have to do to get 9pts and a larger fine?

[IroningMan]

Unless there's some selective reporting going on, that really is dreadful.

[barker22]

IroningMan said:

Unless there's some selective reporting going on, that really is dreadful.

This for sure.
No way would CPS have those facts of carrying someone on their bonnet and crashing into a tree 90 yards away after hitting road signs and only push for careless. There has to be way more than that. My bet is that there was the initial collision as the article says, then maybe the cyclist went nuts and threatened the taxi driver, jumped on the bonnet etc, would that be a defence for driving trying to get away with someone screaming 'I'm going to get you' on your bonnet. All theory of course.

[Gizmoish]

I agree there's probably mor to it.

But fundamentally, someone is dead and the person to blame has been fined £35.

[Elysium]

Unfortunately the news reports for this story are accurate.

[Elysium]

barker22 said:

IroningMan said:

Unless there's some selective reporting going on, that really is dreadful.

This for sure.
No way would CPS have those facts of carrying someone on their bonnet and crashing into a tree 90 yards away after hitting road signs and only push for careless. There has to be way more than that. My bet is that there was the initial collision as the article says, then maybe the cyclist went nuts and threatened the taxi driver, jumped on the bonnet etc, would that be a defence for driving trying to get away with someone screaming 'I'm going to get you' on your bonnet. All theory of course.

I can assure you that the cyclist did nothing like this.

[davepoth]

Zigster said:

He was convicted of driving without due care and attention. That resulted in the driver killing someone. Yet it resulted in a penalty of 3pts and £35 fine.

What the hell would you have to do to get 9pts and a larger fine?

The problem is, from what I understand at least, is that nobody could prove that the act of DWDCA caused, or was a result of the death. If he was dead from misadventure (for example, jumping a set of red lights on a crossroads and flying straight out in front of the taxi) then the only thing that the taxi driver did was crash into a tree because he had a corpse on the bonnet.

Because of that doubt, the court could only possibly convict on the basis of "corpse on the bonnet", which is why the fine and points were so low.

[Simond S]

So a taking a life through not being in control of your vehicle is half as bad as being 10mph over the speedlimit in a built up area.

That judgement has to be appealed.

[Legacywr]

Compare this to the guy who just got 22 months for driving his Frontera up Snowdon?? WTF?

[mudshark]

Oh dear

Court that handed down £35 fine for killing cyclist decides on £110 fine for hitting parked car

http://road.cc/content/news/74245-court-handed-dow...

[storminnorman]

I recall an incident on one of the traffic cops/road wars type shows where a dead cyclist was found at night on the side of a busy carriageway. Later in the night a BINI owner reports having hit something with damage to the car, but they drove home as they were unsure what to do. The police visited the driver, and they quickly established she had hit the cyclist - and she was understandably distraught.
If I remember correctly, no further action was taken on the driver as the blood alcohol of the cyclist was found to be very high - as well as a lack of reflective gear, dangerous cycling route etc. I could be wrong, but I'm sure she faced no considerable punishment.

I'm not trying to justify the incident in question here but it's possible there are more details and circumstances present. Nonetheless, the punishment given to the driver - whatever the circumstances - is still abhorrent as he must have had some degree of responsibility.

[Basil Brush]

storminnorman said:

I recall an incident on one of the traffic cops/road wars type shows where a dead cyclist was found at night on the side of a busy carriageway. Later in the night a BINI owner reports having hit something with damage to the car, but they drove home as they were unsure what to do. The police visited the driver, and they quickly established she had hit the cyclist - and she was understandably distraught.
If I remember correctly, no further action was taken on the driver as the blood alcohol of the cyclist was found to be very high - as well as a lack of reflective gear, dangerous cycling route etc. I could be wrong, but I'm sure she faced no considerable punishment.

I'm not trying to justify the incident in question here but it's possible there are more details and circumstances present. Nonetheless, the punishment given to the driver - whatever the circumstances - is still abhorrent as he must have had some degree of responsibility.

As you say, they didn't take any further action on the Mini driver as the cyclist was drunk, riding on an unlit NSL road at night without lights wearing dark clothing.

Why is the punishment automatically wrong and why must the driver have some degree of responsibility if you don't know the full facts?

[anonymous-user]

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/taxi-driver-f...

' was only charged with driving without due care and attention after the Crown Prosecution Service was unable to determine the cause of the crash and whether that, or the 90m bonnet journey, had caused the death.'

'Defence barrister Ian Bridge said Bhamra, a taxi driver for 26 years, had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder since the accident, felt unable to drive and had voluntarily handed back his taxi licence.'

also

'Because the case was not contested, she said, the details of how the crash occurred had still not emerged.'

no job ergo low fine

slimey toerag keeps mouth shut(probably on advice of solicter) about accident gets off.

Edited by The Spruce goose on Sunday 20th January 13:00

[RJJ]

Have to agree abysmal sentencing if it is the taxi drivers fault, because which ever way you look at it, a cyclist has died from a road traffic collision.

It would be interesting to ascertain the facts from the road traffic collision unit, as they would have had to carry out a full investigation and more than likely have the answers to what actually happened, and the events leading upto the cyclist on the bonnet. I do not understand why the taxi driver did not stop immediately, 90m is a fair distance.

Definitely need to integrate awareness of cyclists into the driving test now and vice versa a safe, defensive cycling course when you purchase a bike.

[Gizmoish]

RJJ said:

I do not understand why the taxi driver did not stop immediately, 90m is a fair distance.

Probably messing about with his sat-nav trying to work out where he was going because he was lost

/experience of Brum cabbies.

[Basil Brush]

Gizmoish said:

RJJ said:

I do not understand why the taxi driver did not stop immediately, 90m is a fair distance.

Probably messing about with his sat-nav trying to work out where he was going because he was lost

/experience of Brum cabbies.

The suggested stopping distance at 60 mph is about 70m. What was the speed limit of the road it happened on?

I have to say, I'm a car driver, motor cycle rider and cyclist, but I find this automatic assumption that car drivers must be totally to blame slightly ridiculous.

[RJJ]

Basil Brush said:

Gizmoish said:

RJJ said:

I do not understand why the taxi driver did not stop immediately, 90m is a fair distance.

Probably messing about with his sat-nav trying to work out where he was going because he was lost

/experience of Brum cabbies.

The suggested stopping distance at 60 mph is about 70m. What was the speed limit of the road it happened on?

I have to say, I'm a car driver, motor cycle rider and cyclist, but I find this automatic assumption that car drivers must be totally to blame slightly ridiculous.

Agree, would need to know the speed limit on the road.

Article states he hit road signs & finally collided with a tree, so does not seem he was in control and all of this with a person on the bonnet.

[davepoth]

RJJ said:

Agree, would need to know the speed limit on the road.

Article states he hit road signs & finally collided with a tree, so does not seem he was in control and all of this with a person on the bonnet.

Having a corpse blocking your windscreen is likely to put you off your driving TBH.