Suspended sentence for driver as cyclist left unable to speak or walk

[GrumpyGregry]

I drive and ride assuming every other idiot on the road is trying to kill me, and will pull some outrageous manoeuvre at any point.

And sometimes his is exactly what they do.

Somehow I get to my destination in good time.

Perhaps you should start doing the same?

Didn't it used to be called roadcraft or defensive driving?

Like when stopped at a t junction to join a main road waiting for the oncoming driver of the car coming from the right, with the left hand indicator on, to actually start turning the steering wheel before you pull out rather than assuming they will turn left? (Sunday evening, Crawley, as it happens)

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Poppycock - he did not intentionally run into the cyclist nor did he intend for the cyclist to run into him. I think before each of us pass judgement we should ask ourselves if we've ever made a mistake driving, each one of us without doubt have, we are fortunate enough it did not lead to a tragic incident.

• Shouldn't that be 'tragic accident' by your lights.

 

[DaveReading]

Right turning cyclists aren't the hardest things in the world to avoid hitting.

Maybe not top of the list, but pretty high up it.

At a light-controlled crossing, when you have a green do you expect an oncoming cyclist to turn right across your path regardless?

 

[Profpointy]

Have to say, if you don't notice your lights aren't on then it must be pretty light and you can presumably see where you are going. Hard to beleive you yourself are not also pretty visible too.

 

[classic33]

You're right. I don't know why they mentioned she was in the left hand lane.

OK, even more so then, if he was coming towards her. I've often signalled drivers coming towards me, both in a car and on the bike, that they didn't have headlights on. They are always extremely visible.

She was in the Left-hand lane because that was where she should have been. The Left-hand lane being a mandatory cycle lane.

She'd have crossed four lanes, assuming the car was in the correct lane, when making the turn before being hit.

 

[classic33]

'I have nothing against driver who left my wife in a wheelchair for life'

The husband of a Dublin woman left with catastrophic injuries after she was knocked off her bicycle by a driver who had not turned on his headlights has said he bears no ill will towards the man.
Robert Faherty (63) had driven for just 200 metres before crashing into cyclist Grainne Duncan (45), who was attempting to turn right but did not see him, in Coolock on February 4, 2015.

Despair
The momentary lapse of concentration has left two families in despair - one coping with life-changing injuries and the other facing lifelong remorse over the incident.

Grainne, who is also known as Dorian, has been left wheelchair-bound, deaf, unable to speak, and with short- and medium-term memory loss.

She needs constant care and is currently living in a nursing home.

Faherty, of Elton Walk, Ard na Greine, Dublin, was given a nine-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to careless driving causing serious harm.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard this week from a psychiatric report describing his "real, palpable and significant" distress and remorse at the results of his driving.

Speaking from his Coolock home, Grainne's husband, Patrick Maher, said there were "no winners" from the incident.

"It was an accident. Everybody makes mistakes. I can see it for what it is, so I have nothing against Mr Faherty," said Patrick.

"I never wanted a prison sentence for him, not from the day it happened. Maybe a driving ban for a specified period was warranted, but I was never looking for prison for him.

"He had just got off a bus, got into his car, which was parked, and started his journey when it happened.

"Grainne used to get the bus to work in Malahide, but she traded in her tax-saver bus ticket for the bike-to-work scheme and hadn't been back cycling for long when the accident happened.

"She had a helmet on, lights on her bike, and a hi-viz jacket.

"She is now in St Doolagh's Park in Clongriffin in long-term care, and I go and see her every day, but we hope someday to move to a house suitable for her needs, or build one for her.

"Our house here is not adaptable, so we will need to move in the future," he added.

Patrick said their lives changed utterly the day of the accident.

"Grainne has memory problems. She retains everything from before the crash, but anything afterwards she can't retain," he said.

Complex
"If people from the past visit her she will remember them without difficulty, but an hour after they have gone she won't remember they visited. It's complex.

"Being deaf and unable to speak properly means we communicate with a white board, which has its drawbacks. But Grainne is my wife.

"What has happened has happened, and caring for her without going to pieces is what I look upon as my greatest achievement in life," he added.

Patrick and Grainne met 23 years ago at a gaming convention.

"It was a Dungeons & Dragons convention organised by Gaelcon," Patrick told the Herald.

"I still go, and relate back to Grainne on them afterwards. But that's where we met. We got married 10 years ago."

During the court case, Judge Pauline Codd said this was not a typical case of careless driving and there was a difference between a person engaged in patently dangerous behaviour and a momentary lapse of attention by a driver.

She did not impose a ban on Faherty's driving after hearing that he uses his car on a daily basis and that his own father, who lives in Galway, is in ill health.

Grainne was in a coma for two months after the accident and only became aware of her situation recently, which has resulted in her requiring treatment for depression.

http://www.herald.ie/news/i-have-no...y-wife-in-a-wheelchair-for-life-35698604.html

 

[classic33]

"A man who admitted careless driving causing harm to a cyclist left unable to walk, talk or hear has escaped jailed or a driving ban.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told the driver, 63-year-old Robert Faherty, had forgotten to turn on his car’s headlights as he began a journey two years ago.

And about 200 metres after his journey began, in north Dublin, his car hit cyclist Grainne Duncan.

She was turning right at a junction when Mr Faherty’s car was driving straight, on the evening of February 4th, 2015.

The court was told because the car lights were not on, Ms Duncan could not see it in the dark.

Garda Keith Murphy said while Ms Duncan appeared to see the car at the last moment, it was too late.

Ms Duncan (45), the court was told, was wearing hi-vis clothing and a helmet. She also had lights on her bike."

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/no-driving-ban-jail-crash-left-cyclist-unable-walk-talk/