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news
Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)"…An accident waiting to happen " - Diabetic who fell unconscious while driving jailed for seriously injuring cyclist
A diabetic driver who lost consciousness at the wheel and struck a cyclist, seriously injuring him, has been jailed for 18 months.
The sentence was handed down to 42-year-old Penny Mair at Preston Crown Court after she admitted causing serious injury through dangerous driving to cyclist Robert Chick, aged 52, reports The Mirror.
Judge Heather Lloyd told Mair: “It is fortunate the cyclist was not killed. This was an accident waiting to happen.”
The court heard that Mair had a history of such episodes, including a hypoglycaemic seizure in 2011 while in her car when she could not be brought round afterwards.
On the day she fell unconscious and struck Mr Chick in Blackpool in April 2013, she had failed to test her blood glucose levels before driving.
Mr Chick told police, “I remember flying through the air.” His injuries included a punctured lung and broken ribs. He also broke both his legs, which needed to have screws and plates inserted, and he had to learn how to walk again.
“The decision to drive was dangerous,” the judge told Mair, who was also banned from driving for five years and will have to take an extended retest. “You know you are liable to have hypoglycaemic episodes and yet you drove with your mother and daughter as passengers.
“This matter is so serious that only immediate custody is appropriate, not just as a punishment, but a deterrent to others who may risk lives when driving while wholly unfit to do so,” the judge added.
“There are five such fatal crashes a year and forty five serious ones. Many go unreported.”
One such incident in which sentencing took place last month saw Charles Maxted, aged 53, jailed for 15 months and banned from driving for 20 years for causing the death by dangerous driving in August 2012 of cyclist Graham Epps.
Maxted, a Type 1 diabetic who had failed to check his blood glucose levels on the day in question, also entered a guilty plea.
The offence he was convicted of at Maidstone Crown Court carries a maximum punishment of 14 years’ imprisonment, while the maximum jail term for the one Mair admitted is five years.
The difference in the sentences handed down to them – and the huge discrepancies in the respective lengths of their bans – are likely to give rise to concerns over the consistency of the courts when sentencing in such cases.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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10 comments
I have diabetes, and take insulin. These cases are not a surprise to me, but what is a surprise is how they have been allowed to continue driving if they have shown episodes of 'hypo' before. As a diabetic I have to re-apply for mt driving licence, fill out forms, and have my GP contacted as to my health and ability re my diabetic control.
What does worry me is that I HAVE to be judged every three years, but have to visit my GP for tests etc. The real worry is that the majority of road users never require testing for the majority of their life once they have got a driving licence.
I have some sympathy for this woman. Not because of the sentence but because of the inconsistency of sentencing.
She failed to adequately medicate a known medical condition and so endangered others and caused serious injury.
How does this differ from a driver who drives at speed into low winter sun and runs into a pedestrian or cyclist?
How does this differ from a driver who breaks his glasses (without which his eyesight is way below the minimum standard required), doesn't replace them and a year later ploughs into a pedestrian on a zebra crossing and kills him?
I could go on and on giving examples of people who should never be allowed behind the wheel ever again and should have received a custodial sentence who have been either let off or given a slap on the wrist.
Until there is consistency in sentencing there can be no justice whether they be victim or perpetrator.
Because most drivers see no issue with speeding, most do it, many drivers need glasses, and i have met a few over the years who reuse to wear them, or contacts, through vanity.
I have no sympathy for her; she'd done it before! 'The court heard that Mair had a history of such episodes, including a hypoglycaemic seizure in 2011 while in her car'.
She should have got the 20 year or lifetime driving ban too. There needs to be consistent properly proportionate sentancing.
Exactly my point if you'd bothered to read the whole of my post instead of just the opening few lines.
(I've taken the liberty of correcting your spelling in the quote.)
I did read your rambling post.
Thanks, it's important to have spelling police on every forum
Is arrogant stupidity a medical condition? Could we ban people with that from driving?
There does seam to be a difference in how they deal with people who are reckless with a medical condition, rather than just reckless in general.
Yep, most of the court aren't diabetics, they don't get hypos, harder to think there by the grace of god go i.
"The difference in the sentences handed down to them – and the huge discrepancies in the respective lengths of their bans – are likely to give rise to concerns over the consistency of the courts when sentencing in such cases"
It's a start though, eh?