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Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)Tractor driver who killed cyclist due to "error of judgement" when overtaking avoids jail
A tractor driver who misjudged an overtaking manoeuvre while towing a trailer and killed a cyclist has been spared jail. The judge described his attempt to pass when approaching a right hand bend, surrounded by high hedges and with limited forward visibility as, “an error of judgement; an error other motorists would have made in the same circumstances.”
The Leicester Mercury reports that on July 30 last year, at around 12.15pm, Phillip Thompson was cycling along the B6047 between Billesdon and Market Harborough.
David Huntley-Walker, a student at Cirencester’s Royal Agricultural University who was on a work experience placement with Picks of Tugby, was driving a tractor and trailer in the same direction. He made an attempt to overtake as they approached a right hand bend at about 30mph, only to pull in prematurely due to an oncoming vehicle.
The trailer hit Thompson’s shoulder and he fell sustaining head and chest injuries. He was airlifted to Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry, where he died the following day.
Huntley-Walker was unaware of the collision until another motorist caught up with him, at which point he returned to the scene.
He admitted causing death by careless driving and was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work and banned from driving for a year.
Judge Nicholas Dean QC said that the road “requires care and thought when overtaking.”
He added: “Mr Thompson was riding his bicycle quite properly, close to the nearside kerb. The defendant made some efforts to overtake before choosing to do so at a location approaching a right hand bend, high hedges and limited forward visibility.
"It was an error of judgement; an error other motorists would have made in the same circumstances.
“This wasn’t a moment’s inattention, it was an error of judgement.
“What’s present here is a lack of driving experience. I’ve no doubt his remorse is genuine. The punishment is the knowledge he will carry for many years – that he’s responsible for the death of Mr Thompson. That’s far worse than any sentence of imprisonment.”
Cycling UK were singularly unimpressed with the judge’s take on the incident. Duncan Dollimore, the charity’s head of campaigns said: “It’s because of cases like this that Cycling UK is imploring people to take action and support our ‘Cycle safety: make it simple campaign.
“Overtaking a cyclist on a country road as you approach a right hand bend, when your visibility is restricted due to high hedges, isn’t simply an error of judgement: it demonstrates either a total lack of understanding of the Highway Code and overtaking rules, or complete ambivalence towards compliance.
“Explaining this away as a mistake other drivers would have made demonstrates the confusion even amongst the judiciary about the standards for careless and dangerous driving, because this was far below the standard of driving we should expect.
“In this case we appear to have a driver who doesn’t understand or won’t comply with the Highway Code, a judge who seems to think cyclists are expected to ride close to the kerb and is relaxed about obviously dangerous driving, and a sentence which permits someone who presents a risk to the public back on the road within a year, without proving he’s safe to do so.
“If any of this concerns you, then your one must do thing today is support Cycling UK’s campaign.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
- brooksby 3 sec ago
I'd be less concerned about this if I was sure that police were also stopping all those motorists whose cars have a missing headlight or only one...
- mdavidford 4 min 1 sec ago
I think you're missing an opportunity to pack even more tech into it - add accelerometers that can detect whether they're pedalling or stepping....
- OldRidgeback 4 min 9 sec ago
Lime Bikes are useful. I've used them a few times, though they aren't cheap. But it does annoy me when people abandon them carelessly after riding...
- mdavidford 16 min 13 sec ago
Maybe one and the same thing though. They're not exactly short of populists over there, any more than we are. I'm sure if those people thought they...
- chrisonabike 28 min 42 sec ago
Thanks. I guess the question is "need". If the road is busy, it sounds like it is a desired route between places? In which case (given this an...
- mdavidford 36 min 39 sec ago
Don't know what you mean. I thought my suggestion was entirely practical.
- hawkinspeter 36 min 59 sec ago
So, it looks like she can choose a 45 minute drive or a 26 minute walk. It's almost as if the scheme is encouraging people to walk short distances...
- mdavidford 39 min 9 sec ago
...and a square of faux sheepskin for the back of your saddle.
- Rapha Nadal 1 hour 11 min ago
I'd buy a motorbike fo rthat kind of money!
- ktache 12 hours 4 min ago
There are people out there who will make you the belt out of your old tyre.
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36 comments
I'm guessing this judge doesn't personally know many, or any, regular road cyclists (yet alone be a cyclist himself). If he did he might not be so quick to sympathise with the perpetrator. I'd have to conclude from his comments that he's not only a driver himself, but an incompetent one.
Just another case of judges being drawn from too narrow a demographic and having insufficient experience of the world to be fit for the job. There needs to be some sort of oversight of judges to consider these issues. If you see the world from a small bubble, you aren't qualified for the role.
I think I posted this before but here's a contrast of driver on driver:
"David Wilson, prosecuting, told the court the collision was caused by Williams, who had driven his Range Rover on the wrong side of the road when overtaking a car and a school minibus on a left hand bend on the B1115. "
http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/16055928.Pensioner_driver_jailed_for_...
Strangely, the concept of "It was an error of judgement; an error other motorists would have made in the same circumstances" was not implemented here, and the driver was jailed for ten months, and "He will now spend a number of months in prison to reflect on his actions".
The more I read the judge's comments, the more I think that this was death by dangerous driving. The judge virtually says so, but then comes out with that "It was an error of judgement; an error other motorists would have made in the same circumstances" line. Well no, other motorists wouldn't or there would be a deluge of accidents. Idiot!
As regards the link you provided, the investigating officer is a Detective Inspector on the Serious Collision Investigation Team for Suffolk Police. Maybe they put together a better case than the one here (no details of police investigation in Leicester Mercury article)
EDIT - Leicester Police have a Serious Collision Investigation Unit, headed by a D.I.
Perhaps Alex BOWDEN or Road.cc could ask them for their reaction to the sentencing?
Alliston got 18months for trying to avoid a pedestrian who stepped back into his path and had slowed down to little more than a slow jog, someone making an incredibly dangerous move who mows down someone whom they made a deliberate action to do so (as opposed to braking or not overtaking at a ridiculous time at all) gets let off.
Yet another example of how the law is applied differently and utterly discriminatory toward people on bikes.
How is this any different to the HGV driver who drove into the back of a car killing its occupents because he was on his phone/watching telly (or whatever it was). Both are dangerous and have serious outcomes including death, why are they treated so massively differently, oh wait children's lives are worth far more than any person on a bike.
Really hope someone presses to get this looked at again as this just sends out the message drive like a cunt killing someone is simply what everyone would do. The more I think about it the more incensed I am at the judges words.
what are we doing wrong? Are we (as someone has said) “asking for it?”
(in a sense, there is no “we” here - just people, people on bikes.)
i guess when you’re dead, you can’t speak for yourself, you’re not visible - the driver, with his irritating habit of being unscathed can hang his head in the dock (assuming it’s not Hampshire in which case ignore the reference to the dock or any court proceedings) convincingly in pseudo sorrow and get a non- custodial sentence.
I don’t believe in ghosts and hauntings, but at times like this, I really want to.
Disgusting.
As above if he had ended up in a head on that would have been OK then?
This sort of David Huntley-Walker:
https://www.facebook.com/david.huntleywalker
He's probably back home in Zimbabwe, driving the fook where he wants
I wonder how the college dealt with his involvement in the accident?
Looking at the Facebook profile, he seems to have been out enjoying himself with his mates after killing someone with the tractor trailer. He doesn't look that remorseful.
“I’ve no doubt his remorse is genuine. The punishment is the knowledge he will carry for many years – that he’s responsible for the death of Mr Thompson. That’s far worse than any sentence of imprisonment.”
It only seams to be killer motorists who get this kind of benefit of the doubt.
Whats done is done, lets not spoil Ruperts future.
Cyclist has 'error of judgement', kills pedestrain - prison, manslaughter prosecution, introduction of new offences
Driver has 'error of judgement', kills cyclist - 100 hours volunteering and a year's break from driving
There are no words.
Take the lane.
Its allmost legal to kill cyclists.Very worrying.
He admitted causing death by careless driving ...
"It was an error of judgement; an error other motorists would have made in the same circumstances."
FFS. Does the Judge not understand what careless driving means? It means that the standard of driving fell below that expected of a competent and careful driver. Drive like a competent and careful driver and you commit no offence. Drive like a twat, kill someone, and you're committing an offence and ought to be punished for it, regardless of the fact that lots of other drivers also drive like twats and are neither competent nor careful.
Hopefully the CPS have the bottle for an AG's Reference. Though as it was only a cyclist who died, I bet they bottle it.
I think it comes down to resources. The Crown Prosecution Service are skint, so are more likely to go for prosecution for a lesser crime on the basis they're more likely to get that conviction with the reources available.
The sentence in this case was in line with sentencing guidance. It's the tarrif and the crime being prosecuted which in my view are pitifully inadequate.
“an error of judgement; an error other motorists would have made in the same circumstances.”
I hope that judge doesn't drive.
Having lived in the area when growing up, it was well know that the Royal Agricultural College was where the aristocracy sent their offspring who were too dim to go into the City. And yes, that does mean the sort of Bullingdon Club antics going on in Cirencester pubs and restaurants.
The assumptions by some in the judiciary seem to be
Fucking fuming about pretty much all of this.
How do these killers keep getting away with it just being described as careless? Careless is when you drop a teacup and it breaks or you trip over a kerb and twist your ankle. If you do something that kills somebody, surely any reasonable person, you know, the man on the Clapham omnibus, would reckon that's dangerous.
How many people can you kill with a motor vehicle and still get away with it being careless? I've got eight (just to show that it's not just cyclists being killed "carelessly"). Any advance on eight? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-43520457
The problem is, as has been written here many times before, that the man on the Clapham omnibus, when he’s not riding said omnibus, is driving a car. The police, the judges, and, where it goes that far, the juries, almost all regularly drive or know someone who regularly drives; a very *very* small number of them will regularly ride a bike or know someone who regularly rides a bike. They can understand and sympathise with the actions of a “fellow motorist” and how sometimes these things “just happen” but cyclists are something alien, something old fashioned, childish, and just *wrong*, and that sympathy and understanding is therefore sorely lacking. And that’s why Charlie Alliston got so utterly shafted whilst people like Helen Measures or Gail Purcell are still happily free and driving around.
and dangerous.
Polls regularly list perception of danger as one of the main deterrents to people riding bikes.
That perception of engaging in a risky activity, and lack of familiarity with the activity itself, promotes the culture whereby cyclists are less easy to identify with, and more responsible for coming to a sticky end than those in their metal boxes or those just innocently walking about. In short, to some degree, victim blaming. It's this perception and bias that needs tearing down.
I don't know enough about the stats to know whether there's a systemic issue with this in the justice system, but the frequency and reporting of cases like this make it seem that way, and wherever they occur they must be challenged. Good luck, Cycling UK.
I hope the judge ends up under a bus, fucking disgraceful comments and sentencing.
Some great, hard hitting comments above. Chapeaus all round.
Disgraceful.
The summing up makes it sound like the tractor was struggling to pass on a narrow country lane. But it’s quite a wide main road with many straight sections and hardly any blind bends. To overtake in such a reckless manner defies belief.
To make matters worse, Picks of Tugby is opposite Cafe Ventoux, a popular cyclist cafe and on the national cycle network. I wonder what specific training Picks gives its tractor drivers regarding driving safely around cyclists, given the high chance cyclists will be encountered in their locality?
Shame on the Judge. Given he previously stated to a burglar if I could order someone to burgle you i would, I wish someone could order the Judge to sit and carefully imagine how he would view the standard of driving if it had been his son/brother/father that had been killed by overtaking in a tractor on a blind bend.... utterly contemtable decision. Knowledge of the crime is not sufficient punishment because the sentence fulfils two roles, one is to punish the perpetrator and the other is to act as deterrent to others in the future. The Judge may as well have said that he will give drivers a free pass if they decide to overtake on a blind bend and kill someone. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11731993/Judge-tel...
Can't see round a corner but overtook anyway, in a vehicle that is larger than most and had a trailer. That is not an error of judgement, that is a naive, stupid, dangerous manouvere that no sensible driver is going to make. It is insulting that the judge assumes it is an error many of us would make. A man died because another man was being an idiot. He probably shouldn't have been put in that position in the first place so you have to also look at who allowed an inexperienced worker in charge of such a potentially dangerous vehcile.
tractors these days are too big and too fast...
And driven by people messing about on phones. It's worse when it's harvesting time and hired help seems to be in them.
Fucking disgraceful!!! That judge is unfit for office. Is there an equivalent of an MOT for judges because this prick sould fail?
Shame on that Judge...
Clearly the error of judgment was that getting in front was more important than the cyclist's safety, or indeed, life. Quite simply, overtaking in a tractor with trailer on a blind bend, where you cannot see the road ahead to be clear is dangerous driving, far below the standard expected.
Had he not pulled in and hit the oncoming vehicle instead, killing the driver, that wouldn't have been his fault then? How does this compare with the sentencing of other killer drivers who crashed on a blind bend?
I don't agree that other drivers would attempt the same overtake, I know I wouldn't.
"The punishment is the knowledge he will carry for many years – that he’s responsible for the death of Mr Thompson. That’s far worse than any sentence of imprisonment." - Maybe, maybe not, the important point is the defendant is not the victim seeking justice. The two don't have to be mutually exclusive. We don't let off murderers because they will feel guilt and that's punishment enough!
Contrast with the heinous crime of using a radar jammer and flipping a finger at a speed camera, which gets you eight months prison.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/company-director-jailed-fitting-laser-jammer-r...
How is deciding to overtake on the approach to a corner with limited visibility anything other than dangerous driving?
Killing someone when it is your fault should carry a mandatory jail term, regardless of whether its careless or dangerous.
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