Speeding driver who accelerated to 71mph seconds before killing 14-year-old girl using cycle path jailed for four years and 10 months

A speeding driver who killed a 14-year-old girl cycling on a shared-use path when he overtook another vehicle and accelerated to 71mph, seconds before oversteering and mounting the raised kerb, has been jailed for four years and ten months.

Oliver Nicholls had three points on his driving licence for a previous speeding offence when he hit and killed Isla Cochrane near Girton in Cambridgeshire in September 2022, the BBC reports.

The 22-year-old had been driving southbound on Oakington Road, speeding to a nearby pub to play pool, Cambridge Crown Court hearing that he had been travelling "at speed" just moments before mounting the raised kerb and fatally injuring the teenager who was cycling northbound along the shared-use cycle path that runs next to the road.

Oakington Road, Cambridgeshire [Google Maps]

Nicholls pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, judge Mark Bishop telling the court at sentencing that Nicholls had been behind a car "driving slowly and signalling to turn left" when he "overtook that left-turning vehicle at speed".

He had been driving at 42mph at 500m before the collision site, the court hearing that he "accelerated very significantly" to 71mph three seconds prior to the crash. Judge Bishop said the speed at the point of impact was around 54mph — speed limit signs visible on Google Maps showing the road is a 40mph route — and has also banned him from driving for a period of seven years, six months and a week.

Nicholls mounted the raised kerb in his Mini Cooper, hitting the 14-year-old girl cycling along the cycling infrastructure. Isla was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge but died of her injuries. 

The speeding driver's legal representation, Lucy Organ, told the court her client is "genuinely remorseful" and had told a friend "he wish he'd died that night". She pointed out he had worked as a healthcare assistant at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge during the pandemic and received multiple commendations during his time at the hospital.

Isla's mother's victim impact statement was also heard in court and said "she should still be alive". "She was a 14-year-old who did nothing wrong [...] we will love and miss her every minute of every day," her mother said.

The judge said Nicholls was "not driving in excess of the speed limit for very long" and "it's quite clear you will have much to contribute to our society in the years ahead".