Driver who killed cyclist freed from jail

[CopperBrompton]

Deliberate vs accidental should certainly be taken into account, but following another vehicle through an overtake when you have no view of the road is stupidly dangerous and the penalty needs to reflect this.

 

[wafflycat]

Deliberate vs accidental should certainly be taken into account, but following another vehicle through an overtake when you have no view of the road is stupidly dangerous and the penalty needs to reflect this.

Exactly. It's *basic* driving skill not to assume that just because one vehicle is overtaking that it's safe for more than one.

 

[Davidc]

People on here don't seem to undertand reality in Britain (England anyway).

You all need to understand these invariable and axiomatic facts of life:

1. The motor vehicle rules. It is more important than life or wellbeing.
2. Property is more valuable than life or wellbeing. Damaging property with a car is much more serious than killing someone with it.
3. Being able to drive is a fundamental right. Courts shouldn't stop anyone from doing it however incompetent or dangerous they are as a driver.
4. If a pedestrian or cyclist is involved in an accident it is their own fault for walking or cycling instead of driving.
5. Pedestrians and cyclists should expect to get hurt. They're dangerous (and unnatural) activities. People should travel by car.
6. Bicycles are worse ridden than cars are driven (See Daily Mail)
7. Bikes kill more pedestrians than cars do (See Daily Mail)

ETC.

 

[Crankarm]

And this was the CoA where the law lords over turned the judgement of the judge of first instance who failed to take into account in sentencing the recommendations given by a probation officer who stated that in his opinion Mr Rice should be given a suspended sentence.......ie no prison............. And the probation service have such an exemplary record in managing offenders..........

A-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y

u-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e.

I feel desperately sad for the family of Mr Robinson and all the other families where cyclists have been knocked down and killed by dangerous drivers who have simply pleaded sorry I didn't see you. And the police or CPS don't take it any further.

If you want to kill some one in this country do it in a car. Even if intent were proved which the CPS often don't often go for as it is so hard to establish for the assault offences, manslaughter and murder, rather than the easier offences to prove based upon the std of the accused's driving in relation to the normal prudent driver in the death by careless, reckless or dangerous, etc driving specific offences. Either way the punishments are always sickeningly lenient.

Even the earlier link to the Scottish case of the biker killed by an unlicensed and uninsured woman turning her car across his path only resulted in a 7 month prison sentence of which she will probably serve 3 months. She had been banned before apparently.

Something is very wrong where such dangerous driving manoeuvres that kill other road users particularly cyclists only result in a slap on the wrists.

On the occasions I've had maniacs steaming toward me overtaking cars at well over the speed limit as happens a lot on the long flat roads round here I have either waved my arms in the air to make sure they have seen me or as has happened in several occasions cycled onto a verge or into a ditch to avoid being hit and killed as they rarely slow to pull back in and certainly would have driven right over me often at 80-100mph had I not taken evasive action to survive. The drivers coming head on usually have time to stick a middle finger up at you as well. B@st@rds.

Hopefully if and when Mr Rice does get back behind the wheel of a car he stuffs it and himself into a tree, a brick wall or a deep Fen drain.

 

[J4CKO]

If he is so remorseful and sorry, why doesnt he just finish his sentence, now I wouldnt want to go to prison but I think if I had killed somebody and was sorry I would quietly do the time and not try to get out and get back to work as if nothing had happened, it isnt going to bring the victim back, but as it is it looks like he is worming his way out, to go and teach people Golf.

 

[hackbike 666]

Didn't quite get the bit: "The driver of the Punto then spotted Mr Robinson's cycle coming towards her and pulled in, leaving Rice confronted with a cycle heading directly for him and no opportunity to avoid a collision."

Sounds like a bit of boy racing.

Both overtook at the same time?

 

[PBancroft]

20 weeks was a bit pathetic anyway, it might as well be 0.

 

[magnatom]

I agree it is just crazy the way the law treats people who do this kind of thing, of drink or drug drive, but at least here in Scotland things are moving in the right direction.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8259142.stm

Granted it has not been well publicised yet but hopefully this will make drivers think a bit more carefully.

I must admit I didn't know about this new law. Does anyone know where I can get more detailed information about it? It certainly seems to be a step in the right direction.

As for the case mentioned by the OP... it just shows that in the laws (not Scotland apparently) eyes a cyclists life isn't worth very much.

 

[Dayvo]

From Cambridge News 25 September 2009:

But, in Rice's favour, he was described during his sentencing hearing as a man of "exemplary good character" who had never been in trouble with the police and who had shown "deep" remorse.

Ah, well that's all right then, isn't it! FFS

I also have never been in trouble with the police and (so I say myself) am a man of exemplary good character, which presumably gives me the legal right to make one mistake and be exonerrated! FFS!

 

[Alien8]

If you've ever wondered why sentencing is so pathetic for such heinous crimes you might want to read the Sentencing Guidelines Council Definitive Guideline on Causing Death by Driving: http://www.sentencing-guidelines.gov.uk/docs/causing_death_by_driving_definitive_guideline.pdf

 

[SoulOnIce]

People on here don't seem to undertand reality in Britain (England anyway).

You all need to understand these invariable and axiomatic facts of life:

1. The motor vehicle rules. It is more important than life or wellbeing.
2. Property is more valuable than life or wellbeing. Damaging property with a car is much more serious than killing someone with it.
3. Being able to drive is a fundamental right. Courts shouldn't stop anyone from doing it however incompetent or dangerous they are as a driver.
4. If a pedestrian or cyclist is involved in an accident it is their own fault for walking or cycling instead of driving.
5. Pedestrians and cyclists should expect to get hurt. They're dangerous (and unnatural) activities. People should travel by car.
6. Bicycles are worse ridden than cars are driven (See Daily Mail)
7. Bikes kill more pedestrians than cars do (See Daily Mail)

ETC.

I think the above pretty much sums it up, especially point 3.

When you have a society that values individual rights (right to drive, right to choose your child's school, right to take huge financial risks that coudl impact upon the economy) over collective responsibility (such as driving safely, managing financial institutions for the common good and not for individual profit) then you get a screwed up society.

 

[Black Sheep]

From Cambridge News 25 September 2009:



Didn't quite get the bit: "The driver of the Punto then spotted Mr Robinson's cycle coming towards her and pulled in, leaving Rice confronted with a cycle heading directly for him and no opportunity to avoid a collision."

There was an opportunity to avoid the collision, ie by only overtaking when safe to do so.

The whole just thing turns my stomach.

It sounds like the driver pulled out to overtake and the driver infront of him decieded that because the driver in question had pulled out to overtake that she could too

this left the driver with a choice, continue to overtake following the punto (which he did) or tuck back in.

due to the punto infront of him the driver could not see the cyclist and was left with no where to go when the cyclist was in view.

it does sound like a stupid and tragic mistake.


what we haven't been told is if the driver tried to stop, if there was room to stop and we don't know if the cyclist braked or had time to.

 

[Alien8]

From Cambridge News 25 September 2009:
Didn't quite get the bit: "The driver of the Punto then spotted Mr Robinson's cycle coming towards her and pulled in, leaving Rice confronted with a cycle heading directly for him and no opportunity to avoid a collision."

There was an opportunity to avoid the collision, ie by only overtaking when safe to do so.

I do actually get it - that was my attempt at irony about the poor reporting, ie "no opportunity to avoid a collision".

I was yet another example of writing-off a fatal accident as one of those things that just happens.

 

[MacB]

Although to be fair, pre-meditation is always regarded as more reprehensible than a moment of rage/lack of attention.

agreed but there is nothing in the setup that forces drivers to give proper consideration before a manouever. A bit of pre-meditation around how they're about to drive would solve a lot of problems. As a kid I used to hate it when a telling off included the immortal 'you should have thought of that before you did it'. I now use the same line with my own children and recognise that it's all about getting them to understand actions and consequences. Serious thought doesn't happen if the consequences are trivial. If the consequences for careless/reckless driving were far more severe it could only help. If, as the great majority claim, there's nothing wrong with their driving then a change in the law shouldn't matter to them.

 

[semislickstick]

St.Ives News and Crier link

There has been an update to this in the local paper.

Killer driver is sued by father of victim
Reporter: Julian Makey


The father of a cyclist who was killed in a head-on smash has launched a High Court bid for £300,000 in compensation.

Mark Robinson, 32, of Somersham, died from multiple injuries after the collision in Low Road, Fenstanton, in November 2008, when he was hit by a car overtaking another vehicle.
The driver, professional golf coach Matthew Rice, 26, of Peartree Close, Fenstanton, was jailed for 20 weeks and banned from driving for two years after admitting causing death by careless driving.
He appealed against the sentence and was released from custody after the prison term was suspended. The driving ban was halved.
Now Mr Robinson’s father John, from Somersham, has launched a High Court claim for damages from Rice on behalf of his son’s partner Eliza Stoneham and as his son’s administrator.
His writ accuses Rice of negligence by failing to keep a proper lookout, trying to overtake without ensuring it was safe and failing to have any regard for other road users.
It says Mr Robinson, a graphic designer, was a happy, healthy man who was highly thought of at work. He supported Miss Stoneham and they shared housekeeping jobs.
He was an experienced cyclist, riding around 13,000 miles a year, and the collision happened at a closing speed of 70mph, the writ adds. Mr Robinson was declared dead at hospital shortly afterwards.
When Rice appeared in court he was said to have been travelling in a line of traffic when he pulled out to overtake, but another car moved out ahead of him and he followed it.
The driver ahead of him pulled in again when she saw the cyclist but Rice was confronted by the rider coming at him and had no opportunity to avoid a collision, the court was told.
Judges at Rice’s appeal said a probation officer who assessed him had recommended that a prison sentence should be suspended.
Rice was described as a man of “exemplary good character” who had shown deep remorse.
The court was told that had Mr Robinson survived, even with life-changing injuries, the maximum penalty Rice would have faced would have been a fine.