Victim’s statement is heartbreaking.

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/13328806.82_year_old_motorist_given_suspended_sentence_for_fatal_west_Dorset_collision/

At the end of the story they missed a bit out.

…and it’s my difficult task to pass the proper sentence for you.”

but because it’s difficult I won’t bother and just give you a derisory minimum amount instead.

That’s horrible, I feel so sorry for his family.

Awful. Just shows how vulnerable we are to people who shouldn’t be driving.

Words fail me.
What is it going to take to get the police/judiciary/govt to start passing sentences that actually reflect the gravity of the crime committed?

Unless I am mistaken, the driving licence expires when your 75, so he’s been driving for 7 years with no licence or insurance, yet apparently unaware.
As a copper once told me years back ‘ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law’.
I know sending the guy down would bring the man back but it does beg the question of what consequences are there for manslaughter with deadly weapon nowadays.

“This is a classic case where everyone intimately involved in this incident has had the most appalling experiences

“So I’m letting the driver off”

🙁

As above, sending this bloke to jail is really not going to help the family to carry on their lives.
But you wonder what is going on with justice & the law when someone can mow someone else down, kill them and essentially receive no punishment (apart from their own guilty conscience).

From the article linked to:

Miss Branford-Wood added that witnesses to the collision saw no braking or avoiding action taken by Richards immediately prior to the impact.

Richards, of Wesley Close, Charmouth, was reported to have said at the scene: “He came out of nowhere, I didn’t see him.”

So, he didn’t see the cyclist in (presumably broad daylight) and ploughed straight into him from behind……
HE CAME OUT OF NOWHERE……. 🙁 Did he really?

“This is a classic case where everyone intimately involved in this incident has had the most appalling experiences and it’s my difficult task to pass the proper sentence for you.”

So difficult in fact that I’m not going to do it.
Torn between feeling for the guy’s family and anger that this is allowed to continue.

If “he came out of nowhere” is your legal defence, you have too poor an understanding of the universe to drive a car

quite right bez.

From Out of Nowhere

“From out of nowhere” is a Faith No More song, not a viable reason for killing another road user. 🙁

There’s a few people lately who have really pissed me off. All I need to do is wait for them to get on a bike and follow them in my car the…

Foolproof it would seem and risk free to boot.

I don’t think there is much to be gained by sending an 82 year old to jail to be honest (though I am surprised they were so lenient given his lack of license) but this is the bit that really annoys me in these cases:

He also disqualified him from driving for five years and ordered that he take a retest if he is ever to drive again

Why do we ever allow the people in these cases to drive again?

They have demonstrated that they are fatally incompetent.
So why do we give them the chance to demonstrate it again at a later date.

The point is Graham that people know that if they kill us “when we appear from nowhere”* they will go to prison

The problem is that the courts treat it as if it was an unfortunate set of circumstances, beyond any one persons control , that conspired together to lead to an outcome rather than viewing it as driving that fell so far below the standard required that it was criminally negligent

Given he claims to have not seen him and just drove into him I would argue this has easily been achieved in this case.

He may be really **** sorry but he has still killed someone due to his staggering and criminal levels of incompetence/ not paying attention whatever
He also did this unlicensed.

If I fitted a gas boiler after my licence expired and it killed someone would that be ok if I really regretted it ?

* it clearly means i wa snot paying enough attention doesnt it

The point is Graham that people know that if they kill us “when we appear from nowhere”* they will go to prison

If I thought that would help then I’d be all for it, but I’m just not convinced it is effective as a detterent.

No one thinks: “Well I was going to kill that cyclist, but I’ve heard they are really cracking down on that…”

There’s a few people lately who have really pissed me off. All I need to do is wait for them to get on a bike and follow them in my car the…

Foolproof it would seem and risk free to boot.

Then you would have to suffer us lot, slagging you off for a few weeks, but better than prison, as prisons dont have internet as yet.

so very sad for the family and freinds of the chap who died,

So why do we give them the chance to demonstrate it again at a later date.

Its called rehabilitation.

Its called rehabilitation.

Driving isn’t a basic human right, it is only permitted under license subject to a test of competence.

I see no good reason to give that license back to someone who has shown that they are fatally incompetent.

To expand, rehabilitation is one of the 3 purposes of sentencing.
deterrant, retrobution and rehabilitation.
The idea being that the sentence balances these 3 purposes in the best interest of society as a whole.

Not saying its worked in this case, mind.

Cheers
Keith

Yeah, but the other purpose of sentencing is to protect the public.

This need overrides the others (i.e. we don’t rehabilitate child rapists to be school teachers).

So in this case deterrant is setved by the 5 year ban, retribution by the prison term and rehabilitation by the opportunity to prove his competence after 5 years… simplistically.

Sorry for awful phone typing…

just sounds like a tragic accident, not sure what some of you are getting het up for,

its not like the driver hasn’t shown remorse,

heres an image of the crash scene,

its not a straight road, its not a flat road, essentially at 60mph the driver is probably a bit further back that where the image was taken, if the cyclist was in the drops he would possibly be obscured from view,

the driver may have been distracted by someone tailgating and then pulling out to overtake in the junction box or to turn right, you just don’t know the details

too many factors and not enough facts in the news snippet to go on,

A suspended sentence in a case like this is meaningless.

Should be custodial.

just sounds like a tragic accident…
…too many factors and not enough facts in the news snippet to go on,

What we do know is that the court doesn’t agree it was just “a tragic accident” otherwise he wouldn’t have been convicted of causing death by careless driving.

not sure what some of you are getting het up for,

Because it happens all to often, the sentences are derisory, and it could have been any of us?

its not a straight road, its not a flat road, essentially at 60mph the driver is probably a bit further back that where the image was taken, if the cyclist was in the drops he would possibly be obscured from view,

If the cyclist was in the drops then he could easily have been doing 20mph, a third of the speed of the car, and so the first sight of him wouldn’t SHOULDN’T have been at the impact point, but somewhere well behind that silver car

the driver may have been distracted by someone tailgating and then pulling out to overtake in the junction box or to turn right, you just don’t know the details

Oh, well, they* should’ve said – being distracted is a perfectly valid reason for continuing along a road at 60 mph without looking.

*you know, either him, or those pesky witnesses to the collision who

saw no braking or avoiding action taken by Richards immediately prior to the impact.

Yeah dirtyrider no problem driving inappropriately for the road and killing a cyclist there.

Don’t know how to embed a googlemaps image, but this is the view leading up to the collision site, I think
https://goo.gl/maps/mn0K7

If the cyclist was in the drops then he could easily have been doing 20mph

he could have been doing 2mph

like i said, a snippet from a newspaper without any real facts is no basis for an argument

Don’t know how to embed a googlemaps image, but this is the view leading up to the collision site, I think

looks like an awful road to cycle on

Because it happens all to often, the sentences are derisory, and it could have been any of us?

it could have as easily been you driving, never had a accident?

looks like an awful road to cycle on

Why ? Shitload of wideopen sightlines and pretty broad lanes. You just have to hope that the drivers give a toss and are competent

he could have been doing 2mph

It’s a possibility, of course – he “could” have been a lot of things but I don’t ride “in the drops” as you specified, on an essentially flat open road at 2mph. If he wasn’t on the drops he’d have been MORE visible, which I’d imagined was your point when suggesting that he could have been lower. How do you know the driver was doing 60 ?

like i said, a snippet from a newspaper without any real facts is no basis for an argument

Luckily we don’t need to – we have the witness statements, the word of the driver and that of the judge, all of whom agreed that the driver was at fault

People of this age are often treated differently for sentencing so I’m not surprised.

Shows the needs for proper system of retests. Suspect I would struggle to pass a proper modern test, as would a few of the driving gods on here.

it could have as easily been you driving, never had a accident?

Yes, of course I have had accidents and a collision that was entirely my fault. I’m not pretending to be a STW driving god.
But I haven’t ploughed straight through someone without even braking or swerving.

There is no shortage of roads like that around here and the possibility of cyclists, wildlife, fallen trees, crashed cars and other hazards is something that every driver should consider. Personally I’m particularly sensitive to the possibility of cyclists, for obvious reasons.

To be found guilty of death by careless driving the old bloke was driving “without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road or place” and specifically in a manner that “falls below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver” (Road Traffic Act wording)

If you do that then the result isn’t an “accident”.

It always seems these days that if an old person ploughs through someone they get off with not much more than a slap on the wrist.

Devils Advocate – Britain has a terrible infrastructure that massively favours the car and leaves little room for bikes, be them pedal or motorised. From that google map link, that looks like a properly fast road. I’ve seen plenty of cyclists heading towards the Forth Road bridge where the road becomes 4 lanes and I am always amazed someone has not been pasted all over the road. I know bikes a form of transport for a lot of people, but I refer to stay off road if I can.

if the cyclist was in the drops he would possibly be obscured from view,

Where? There are 4 people in the drop, all clearly visible, where would a bike have been hiding?

I’ve seen plenty of cyclists heading towards the Forth Road bridge where the road becomes 4 lanes

The bridge itself has a shared use bike/pedestrian walkway on both sides. I’ve ridden across it a few times myself. (I’m not sure if you are actually allowed to pedal across on the road bit. I wouldn’t: motorway speeds and no escape route if it goes bad.)

chubbybloke – he meant holding the dropped bits of his handlebar, so “lower” (I assume)

Makes no more sense either way though

it could have as easily been you driving, never had a accident?

I hope you are just typing things for a reaction

I have never been convicted of any driving offence and I have never killed anyone by not bothering to respond to their presence on the road and if I do I would expect to go down for it no matter how sorry or bad I felt.

Welcome to the “United Kingdom of The Car” … and everyone else can just the Fu*k out of the way. Makes me so angry.

dirtyrider – Member

just sounds like a tragic accident,

its not like the driver hasn’t shown remorse,

its not a straight road, its not a flat road

the driver may have been distracted

highway code: Rule 126

Stopping Distances. Drive at a speed that will allow you to stop well within the distance you can see to be clear.

Your comments are retarded as a justification for the drivers total failure to conduct himself either legally of safely.

At the very least he should have been sentanced to provide some sort of community service maybe by going around and explaining to people like you that there is no excuse for driving without a licence, insurance and driving dangerously.

accidents happen, but they can be avoided, they should never be accepted