Driver who killed Deloitte Ride Across Britain cyclist admits series of mistakes

That article is very confusing - firstly it's talking aout two completely different crashes in different areas, the only connection being that both were LEJOG riders.

I was on the same ride as Sally, in fact I was on the scene about 5 minutes after it happened although by that point there was a cordon of riders around her, both event safety bikes were on the scene and the event paramedic had just arrived so there was nothing we could do. About 10 minutes after we got through, the police arrived and closed the road.

That one idiot, trying to save himself a few seconds, deprived a family of a daughter, a wife and mother. He caused the A85 to be closed for 6hrs resulting in untold disruption for thousands of people. It meant that the remaining 400 or so riders on the event who were further back had to be turned around, corralled at various pubs etc on the route and picked up by coaches and lorries and transported the remaining distance to Fort William basecamp - the organisers did an incredible job in sourcing every coach and truck from miles around to come and pick people up. They arrived in basecamp at 11pm still in their lycra, having had little food and with another 2 days of 100+ miles to go. Everyone was devastated by the news.

Her husband spoke to the organisers about 3 months later and he was still in pieces - not at them, they'd done everything possible including flying him up from his home so he could be with Sally in hospital - he was just utterly bereft at his loss.

The next day the police were out in force along the route we took and they weren't putting up with any shit from drivers, I saw several cars pulled over.

I hope I'm wrong but I get the feeling from the article that the fact he's 77, was previously "of good character", has pleaded guilty, has shown remorse etc may well mean that the sentence is extremely lenient.

I surveyed and worked on the cycle routes up from Callander to Killin, and have driven and cycled most of the major runk routes around the North of Scotland. One key observation on the A82, A84, A85 and A87 especually has been that when the road is 'improved' over a section writh the local character of the route destroyed by a blitz of earthmoving to create a wide road with sweeping bends... the crashes migrate to the point at which the drivers have to re-engage their brains and think about what is around the next bend, or over the next brow of a hill. 

It gets worse at night, when the reliance on every object on the road having lights causes further death, injury and damage - the CTC in the past was right to fight the call for cyclists having to use rear lights, and other nonsense such as rear fog lights simply encourages driving behaviour which fails to take proper account of the poor visibility, by requireing the vehicle in front to remove that responsibility from the driver coming up behind. 

Very little traffic comes up via Bettyhill, as this end to end route comes up the middle on the largely single track road, joining the main A836 from Strath Naver just before Bettyhill. A route - cutting over at Syre to Strath Donan is perhaps flatter and avoids a good chunk of that main road along the North coast . The driving of some of the trucks, especially those shipping seafood (ie heading South) does leave a bit to be desired there is no great reason to be moving large amounts East-West. That said with so little traffic you do tend to notice every vehicle on the road, so I'd be interested to learn more about how the second crash happened.          

What a c**t.

Wait for a pathetic joke sentence

Also, it doesn't make him a murderer.

It makes him a bad, and dangerous driver, a man who made a mistake, and a killer.

Not a murderer.    Unless intent to kill someone can be proved from his action of overtaking another car, which is unlikely.

Yep, death is death, just that if you use a car to steal the most precious thing someone has it remains unique in the sense that the default position is it being 'an accident', ergo, no harm was intended so what a shame.

Court waffles usual bile about there being no amount of sentancing that can restore the balance so might as well pop through the motions of being interested in justice and deterrant to others by passing an offensively inadequate punishment.

You pick up any object you can think of and stand in the street, wait for someone to come by and then violently hit them with it. In court you try stating it was an accident and watch that defense get ripped apart by prosecution and the judge.

It amounts to the greatest hypocrisy and remains a mockery of the most basic human rights principles.

Am I alone in wondering why a lot of these HGV cyclist-killers are quite a way North of 65? Ageist or not - people need to earn a living - but sight, perception and reaction time all take their toll at that age, so why the hell are they still on the road piloting lethal weapons instead being evaluated for fitness to drive?!

yepp, driving into a cylist is still the most reliable way to murder someone and yet get away with it.  Now we have "failed to maintain proper observations" to add to the 'get out of jail free' options that currently include "low sun", "didn't see him/her" and "there was an R in the month".  

Feck me, the endless stories renders one to become immune to the shock and yet, at the heart of everyone of these, there is some innocent human being who has been killed for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, with their poor families left to pick up the pieces whilst some careless (and never to be carless) shit wonders what all the fuss is about.

In all fairness, doesn't "...entered into the opposing carriageway..." just mean that he was overtaking?  Unless his vehicle was like that bus in Harry Potter, he'd have to go into the other carriageway to overtake another vehicle.

That said, "...failed to maintain proper observations, overtook when it was not safe to do so..." is pretty rubbish.  If you are a driver - professional or not - then you really should be paying attention, and checking that it is actually safe to overtake. It's kind of a fundamental thing you get taught, isn't it?

"Failed to maintain proper observations" A.K.A "Was fucking about and distracted"

"Overtook when it was not safe to do so" A.K.A "Didn't give a shit about other people's life"

"Entered into the opposing carriageway" A.K.A "Was on the wrong side of the road"

I can't see any reason to let this person in the driver seat ever again. Can't wait to read all about his suspended 1 year prison sentence and two year driving ban.