£55 fine and three points for driver who left cyclist with broken leg, elbow & weeks in hospital

Assault on the cyclist causing grievous bodily harm with a heavy weapon? If the driver didn't happen to be driving a car, but instead pounced on the cyclist with a simliar sized weapon, would the CPS treat it differently?

It costs around £260 per day to keep someone in hospital (I am sure there will be other figures quoted, just using what seems to be quoted regularly on the web) So the "number of weeks" lets say 2 on the conservative side, would have cost the taxpayer £3640, why not fine the driver at least the cost of the hospital stay?

Where does the money for the fine go? Is this into the governments coffers? If so, I don't really care about the size of the fine. The damages the cyclist will get from suing him in the civil case should be sizeable....there is some doubling up on the court costs, but the evidence in the criminal case should make it cut and dried, and the dummy gets lumbered with the court costs.

I think the issue of the sentence/what the charge is in cases is more pressing where there is a death as a result of dangerous, or careless driving because the civil case should provide compensation. This of course hits us all in the pockets if the insurance company has to pay out though.

It would be useful, for the benefit of balance to hear back what the cyclist received as a result of his civil case and whether he pursues this option (if not, why not).

Oh no poor old Thomas has to pay a total of £118 that’s terrible shall we have a whip round or get the bug eyed twonk Bongo to write a charity song for him? To save all of this in future why not just let them off and that way they don’t have to go to court and waste the taxpayers money.

It's the age of austerity and I think it's time for some money saving tips.

£55 for this, and £35 for the taxi driver who killed a teenager a few months back.

If people would just stop hogging the middle lane, they'd save the £100 fine for that and be able to spend the money on killing one person and maiming another - and still have £10 left to put towards a parking fine.

Think before you piss your hard-earned money away on pointless things like using the wrong lane - spend it on doing some proper damage instead.

It's expensive being a motorist, you know. As soon as you buy a car you're pretty much destitute and have to live on crusts and wear horsehair shirts. With only a little bit of thought you can make the few quid you've got left to pay your motoring fines go that bit further.

So remember, when you're looking into your empty wallet wondering how you'll be able to afford to drive another mile without the hassle of thinking about what's going on around you, you can get far better value for money by running down cyclists than you can by irritating motorists.

As the government campaign itself says: "Think!" Think what you can do with what you spend on fines. They're a tax, after all. And if you're going to get taxed, get your money's worth!

Judges shouldn't be allowed to smoke crack before handing out sentances

Until the government sort this out and ensure drivers are held accountable they can bang on about getting people to take up riding bikes all they want, it's just politicians bullshit!

Makes me mad as hell, if you want to murder someone wait till they're riding a bike then run 'em over with your car. You can claim you need your licence to keep your job.
A much better punishment would a 5 - 10 year driving ban, tell the motorist to get a bike and see they like being threatened every day by loonatic drivers, so called professional drivers are the worst of the lot; closely followed by BMW drivers. .............Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

i refer you to the other article where a cyclist assaulted a driver.

If the CPS doesn't get this sorted i dread to think what the outcome might be.

The legal system does not protect vulnerable road users!!!

"CTC has long been concerned that the law, and the CPS’s prosecution policies, fail to distinguish clearly between “dangerous” and “careless” driving."

Isnt dangerous driving doing so in a way as to be clearly endangering other road users, i.e. excessive speed in built up areas. vs careless driving, not quite looking properly.

Both can 'be' dangerous but one is done so with wanton disregard for others (and i suppose this is where the argument is).

The problem is, plenty of people in life are careless and society (as a whole) wont stand for normal people being put in prison for being a bit dim and useless.

what a surprise ... NOT