Seven years in jail and lifetime ban for lorry driver who killed Catriona Patel

It would seem that lorry drivers have moved away from murdering prostitutes and are branching out into murdering cyclists too. Stven years is that all her life was worth, what an insult. Do they not reilise that the vehicle they are in charge of is a lethal weapon, it is high time a psycological assessment is taken of anyone who wants to drive ANY motorised vehicle let alone something that big.
Profetional driver my ass. The drunk should never be allowed out.

THames Materials sound like "scum" ! THat they had another vehicle involved in a RTA death smacks of them "paying off" some officials so as to stay in business !
Police need encouragement to investigate cycle accidents instead of treating them as a nuisance factor in the daily routine !
Parliament and Boris need to stop worrying about pollution and concentrate on saving lives !

Boris remember your problem in the east end a few years back ? Time you had a good look at the rights of Vunerable Road Users !

THE LIFE YOU SAVE COULD BE YOURS !

THames Materials sound like "scum" ! THat they had another vehicle involved in a RTA death smacks of them "paying off" some officials so as to stay in business !
Police need encouragement to investigate cycle accidents instead of treating them as a nuisance factor in the daily routine !
Parliament and Boris need to stop worrying about pollution and concentrate on saving lives !

Boris remember your problem in the east end a few years back ? Time you had a good look at the rights of Vunerable Road Users !

THE LIFE YOU SAVE COULD BE YOURS !

Wow that's really good justice that lorry driver has got.
He must be sentence for 10 years & good that he had been banned to drive...
trailers for sale

And what about Putz's employers,Thames Materials? Shortly after Putz killed Catriona Patel, in December 2010, another of their drivers ploughed his loaded truck across the central reservation on the A4 in Chiswick and killed a Japanese businessman travelling in a taxi. Should they be allowed to trade at all? http://bit.ly/i4qMO2

I'm glad about the result, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. I do agree that his employers should also be prosecuted, and I really do hope this man never gets his licence back. But it doesn't bring back the lady that was killed in such an awful way.

LCC website has more of the litany of concerning the operator Thames Materials of Hanwell (SW London). The options for bringing them to book include HSAW Act Section 3 - the employer's duty of care to non employees. Penalties include heavy fines and imprisonment of directors and managers. Currently a Section 3 action is being pursued against Railtrack and Jarvis for their managerial failings at Potters Bar.

Much is being made of fitting detectors to sense cyclists and pedestrians, but from this and the death of Eilidh Cairns, it would seem far more important to detect the drivers who are unfit to take the trucks out in the first instance. Large operators well cosncious of their corporate responsibilities have routine drug testing, and other monitoring of their drivers. Sadly the construction industry buys in haulage from small sub contractors, and pricing is seriously competitive. That said the £300,000 helicopter listed as an asset of Thames Materials (G-DIGG) suggests that they make a moderate amount of money from their activities, despite having these curtailed by the Traffic Commissioner for various offences.

I recall that one of the hauliers working at St Pancras, had their contract terminated on the spot for an atrocious piece of driving along Goodsway, witnessed by a site manager. But that firm appears to still be getting work on other contracts.

We learn from the trial reports that Putz had been arrested at least 16 times for driving while disqualified, which of course means driving without insurance. He had three convictions for drink driving and three for careless driving, and served two previous prison sentences for driving offences.

Someone masquerading as "Julie", his "Partner", posted some misinformation in a comment on a journalist's blog around the time of the incident, presumably with the intention of attempting to pervert the course of justice - any partner of Putz would surely know that the claims that he really hadn't been drunk, or talking on his mobile, and that Mrs Patel had been out of sight too close in front of his cab were implausible to say the least. Will the police now hunt her (or perhaps it is him) down and prosecute this offence?

Can we expect a charge of corporate manslaughter against Putz' employer, Thames Materials Ltd? Can they possibly not have known of his appalling record? Did they do any due diligence before they hired him? Might they have committed a fraud on their insurers who I would imagine woudl be unwilling to cover a driver with a record like this? How were they able to wriggle out of a revocation of their licence some years ago on what appears, from a skim read of the appeal judgement to have been a technicality relating to documentation of the first-instance judgement or the defence against the appeal? Certainly the appelate court didn't seem to find their decision any too palatable.

No problem Simon - I like to be on the ball and beat you to it!

7 lousy years is not a long enough sentence (no it isn't londonplayer) for basically murder, lifetime driving ban will probably be lifted when it's seen that he can't do his driving job without a licence.

When the judicial system in this country realise that vehicles should be treated as murder weapons will things change. Until then, innocent cyclists will carry on getting killed on our roads.

Pathetic!

This is interesting - worth a thread of its own Tony:

According to analysis of police road casualty data for 1992 to 2006 by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) were responsible for 103, or 43%, of the 242 cycling deaths in London during that period, despite only accounting for 4% of traffic. The research found that 53% of the deaths were caused by lorry drivers turning left across cyclists, due to the poor visibility from the driver's cab, which is often too high up to see cyclists next to the vehicle. The research team said that high-cab trucks were designed for motorways and should not be permitted to drive within city limits.

Seven years is a long sentence and well done to the Met and the CPS for pursuing this one. At last, us London cyclists have a verdict which acts as a deterrent.

One surely has to ask, if he didn't receive the maximum sentence for his crime, what would you actually have to do to get 14 years? do it deliberately?

reports said it was a concrete truck, in fact it was a tipper truck carrying concrete

If the accident was with a tipper truck, why is there an image of a mixer truck at the top of this story?

I thought that, at last, someone was getting an appropriate sentence for taking a life with a vehicle, just as would for killing using any other means... until I read the bit about him having been disqualified many times previously. How many times would you be allowed run around with a loaded shotgun - drunk or sober - before they locked you up and told you you'll never get a gun licence again? I suspect his lifetime driving ban is more about his recidivism, and contempt for the rule of law, than anything else.

Over the limit and on the phone. Scum.

> I hope this gets put in some red tab papers tomorrow so other drivers take note.

Good point.

Got to agree - lifetime ban is the best piece of news here

If only there weren't so many banned, uninsured drivers already on the roads anyway *sigh*

My comment on the 10th November:

But what should really happen is that he should lose his licence for the rest of his life. Instead he will no doubt lose his licence for a period probably less than his jail term.

Result - I'm proved wrong!

I think 7 years is a decent stint. Other killers (ie, not in vehicles) have got less. It's the lifetime ban that is so good.

No doubt he will appeal.

For me with circumstances he should have got the full maximum sentence available.

I hope this gets put in some red tab papers tomorrow so other drivers take note.

It sounds like the driver received a suitable sentence, for once. My sympathies are with Ms Patel's family.

I wonder though if the CPS will re-investigate some of the other cyclist fatalities caused by large trucks in London in the last few years? There have been a few others that have been publicised in which the driver has escaped serious charge when there have been questions over the incident to say the least.

half the maximum sentence but still a hefty stint - movement in the right direction compared to what we have seen.