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news
B6136 Ferrybridge Road, Knottingley (Google Street View)Driver handed suspended sentence for cutting across and killing cyclist claimed he was “blinded by the sun” before fatal crash – despite motorist behind saying she spotted victim
A motorist who claimed he was “blinded by the sun” when he cut across and struck a cyclist, who died that evening from his injuries – despite another driver who was following close behind telling officers that she saw the cyclist approaching – has been handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
According to Judge Simon Batiste, who also ordered motorist Trevor Moran to complete 15 rehabilitation days and 200 hours of unpaid work, cyclist Robin Newman “should have been visible” and “had no chance at all” when the driver moved across and hit him as he descended a hill in West Yorkshire.
58-year-old Moran admitted to causing the death of the cyclist and father-of-two in September 2021 by careless driving at Leeds Crown Court yesterday. He was initially charged with causing death by dangerous driving and was due to stand trial, but later admitted the lesser charge of careless driving, leading to his suspended sentence, the Yorkshire Evening Post reports.
According to prosecutor Heather Gilmore, Mr Newman was a “keen and experienced” cyclist who was enjoying a morning ride from his home in Doncaster as he rode along the B6136, between Ferrybridge and Knottingley in West Yorkshire, at around 10.20am on 22 September 2021.
As the cyclist descended the hill at 26mph, Moran – travelling in the opposite direction – turned across him into Vale Crescent, giving Mr Newman no time to brake or react. The father-of-two collided with the passenger side of Moran’s car, and was catapulted over his handlebars.
After being assisted by passers-by, including Moran, Mr Newman was taken to hospital with several internal injuries, including a haemorrhage caused by a laceration to his liver, and died later that evening.
During his interview with police officers, Moran claimed that he did not see Mr Newman approaching due to the “glare from the sun”. However, a driver who was following behind him told officers that she had spotted the cyclist before the fatal crash.
Mitigating, Allan Armbrister said Moran, who has 13 previous convictions for 30 offences, was remorseful for his actions and claimed that he was a hard-working man, who understood that immediate prison was a possibility.
In court this week, Judge Simon Batiste told the motorist: “He [Mr Newman] was an extremely experienced cyclist. I make it clear he did absolutely nothing wrong that day, whatsoever.
“He was dressed in a bright-pink cycling top and helmet. He was therefore appropriately dressed. He should have been visible. He had no chance at all. Somehow you clearly did not see Mr Newman cycling down towards you.”
The judge sentenced Moran to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered him to complete 15 rehabilitation days and 200 hours of unpaid work.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Newman’s wife said: “We were soulmates. We could never imagine life without each other.
“The children miss Rob every day. I feel like I died that day as well. I exist to merely look after the children and drag us out of the pit we are in. We are all absolutely devastated by the loss of Rob.”
In June, after a very similar collision which took place just 40 miles down the road in Sheffield, a motorist was handed a suspended prison sentence and a five-year driving ban when a judge ruled that “a few seconds of bad, bad driving” led her to hit and kill cyclist Adrian Lane at a notoriously dangerous junction where safe cycling campaigners later held a ‘die-in’ protest – only for a “raging” motorist to attempt to drive through the group of demonstrators.
58-year-old Adrian Lane was cycling downhill at around 30mph on Ringinglow Road, just outside Sheffield, when he was struck by driver Gillian Dungworth, who turned across the cyclist’s path at the junction with Common Lane, causing him to catapult into the car’s windscreen.
Dungworth was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, after she pleaded guilty to causing Mr Lane’s death by dangerous driving.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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42 comments
Previous convictions appear to be for fly-tipping.
Fly-tipping is much harder if you have to carry everything. Presumably his solicitor was able to argue a ban would cause him exceptional hardship.
Unless I've missed something, no driving ban imposed.
Another instance of our institutionally anti-cyclist 'justice' system.
Seems that way. And why does he get away with 'careless driving' when a woman who committed what appears to be an equivalent offence was charged with 'dangerous driving'?
I've got mixed views on whether custodial sentences are more or less effective than meaningful community service and rehabilitation, but I am confident that substantial driving bans are required. Driving whilst banned should result in a custodial sentence.
Is the suggestion that any of the previous offences weren't driving related? Regardless, it seems very lenient for someone who has demonstrated a continued cavalier approach to the law.
That looks like the CPS taking the certainty of a guilty plea to 'careless' over the gamble of a trial for 'dangerous'.
Not that I want to defend the woman who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, but it seems she was penalised (relative to him) for being a less experienced criminal.
Probably less able to play the system due to lack of exposure to it...
No, the sun should NEVER be used as an excuse. That is just a pile of cack.
The sun is in the same position every day – okay, pedants, it's not in the same place, but it follows a predictable arc in the sky. Yep, unbelievable is low in the morning and evening. Every single flipping day.
It's not a tree falling on your car, which would be an unpredictable occurrence.
IT'S PHYSICS!
If the sun is low in the sky I'll drive at 10mph or lower if necessary. He was driving dangerously BECAUSE HE WASN'T TAKING THE SUN INTO ACCOUNT.
Shameful, shameful, shameful.
Sorry for the shouting but I am so angry about this.
The judge should hang his head in shame, and I know the defence brief has to say it, but 'remorse'. With 13 convictions to his name I'm not sure that's a big part of his nature.
10am in September? No sun glare at that time even if the road was wet
What do you mean? We can't expect drivers to slow to less than 60 on country roads when taking hairpin bends can we? We can't expect people to pull out cautiously from driveways when they can't see very well can we? Expecting people to do what the highway code and common sense tells you to do and drive to the conditions is obviously wholly unreasonable.
In all seriousness though, driving is so entirely pervasive in this country that no doubt every judge can think of times they nearly crashed for whatever excuse the defendent is using and they can relate. I slow down to an absolute crawl if I can't see because of the sun but plenty don't. This sort of ruling is just validation of their position. Firstly it shouldn't be an excuse. If you cannot see, you don't make a manouvre. If you can't overtake safely with 100% certainty you don't do it. When you make intentional decisions not to consider the conditions you are operating in when driving a car then you should lose that priviledge for a long time.
Adhere to the minimum speed limits, innit?
It even goes further than the "fallible humans, becoming complacent because nothing bad happened, or everyone else does it".
There's lots of legacy infra which is pretty much incompatible with both "modern ideas of safe driving" and "making progress". And in fact though we've a much better understanding of e.g. "human factors" we a) don't always meet our "own high standards" in new designs and b) could go quite a bit further IMHO.
Good save!
Doh!
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