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Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)Uninsured lorry driver pleads guilty to causing death of cyclist Alan Neve
The lorry driver who killed cyclist Alan Neve in July 2013 has admitted causing death by careless driving and driving while uninsured and unlicensed.
Barry Meyer was driving a tipper truck through the complex junction at High Holborn, London on July 15 when he hit Alan Neve, dragging him along the road. Meyer admitted jumping a red light before hitting Mr Neve.
Alan Neve sustained "massive head injuries" and died instantly at the scene on 15 July 2013, Blackfriars Crown Court heard.
Meyer was charged with “causing death by driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence,” meaning that he did not have a valid licence for the class of lorry he was driving at the time, and with causing death while driving with no insurance.
The court heard that Meyer was trying to keep up with a colleague in another truck when he hit Alan Neve.
The Evening Standard reports that prosecutor Allison Hunter said: “Had Meyer reacted as a dynamic driver would have been expected to do, he could not fail to have seen Mr Neve.
“It appears clear from what Meyer said in an interview that his focus was upon keeping up with his partner in the vehicle in front.
“Not only had Meyer not turned his head or used his mirrors but he then failed to stop, as his front and rear wheels crushed Mr Neve beneath and dragged him along the road, to shrieks of pedestrians and other road users.”
She said his previous convictions, included two bans for drink-driving, showed a “cavalier lack of respect for driving law and regulations”.
Judge Worsley said Meyer had a “shocking driving history” and would inevitably be jailed on return to court on May 14.
Alan Neve worked for PRS for Music, the organisation that protects musician’s copyrights and collects performance fees, and was on his way the organisation’s office in Berners Street, near Goodge Street when he was killed.
In the weeks before Alan Neve's death, police were enforcing a ban on cyclists using the bus lane on nearby Theobalds Road. As a result cyclists had to use the Holborn junction, described by cycling journalist Andy Waterman as "hellish".
"Motorbikes buzz you, taxis rush red lights to get through and huge trucks obliterate the view," Waterman said.
Meyer's guilty plea came after his crminal history was allowed to be revealed to the court. That record includes:
December 1997: Convicted of drink-driving and disqualified for 18 months.
July 1998: Convicted of driving while disqualified.
December 2004: Convicted of driving a lorry with a dangerous load, and other charges.
May 2007: Convicted of drink-driving and disqualified for 36 months.
July 2007: Convicted of driving a van while disqualified. Given a further 12-month disqualification.
September 2008: Stopped driving a 7.5 tonne lorry while disqualified. Gave a false name. Banned for further 14 months.
Meyer also has previous convictions for assault, criminal damage and drug possession.
Cycling advocates expressed amazement that Meyer was charged with causing death by careless driving rather than the more serious offence of causing death by dangerous driving.
How can jumping a red light in an HGV in central London, while disqualified and uninsured, be merely "careless"? pic.twitter.com/qIhHEtmwN4
— Mark Treasure (@AsEasyAsRiding) April 8, 2015
Causing death by dangerous driving carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment; the maximum sentence for causing death by careless driving is five years.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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44 comments
Ok so anyone could get banned from driving once, twice may seem like careless attitude but for crying out loud after that its a lifetime ban and a years jail if your caught after that, then the jail sentence doubles every time after that. If hes incapable of abiding by the courts of the land its best hes kept out of harms way at the countries expense, its the safest option.
The guy that assaulted Alan Barnes(disabled OAP from Newcastle) got a 4 year jail sentence for assault. Now im not condoning what happened there, but lets sit back and watch what this guy gets for having absolutely no regard for the law, having been disqualified on no less than 5 different occasions and killing a person who was going about his daily business. My guess will be a 18 months jail, a 10 year driving ban. Which he will be allowed to re apply for after 6, because we live in a nammby pammby do-gooders land.
He will be let back on the road because the jury, the judges are drivers and there by the grace of god go I. Nothing else is relevant.
Surely there is a case against his employers for corporate manslaughter? They have an obligation to ensure his license is up to scratch
Absolutely. If this had happened on-site, the employer would have been for it.
So will this 6th driving offence finally stop him killing people?
The justice system is an absolute joke
Wouldn't that be against his human rights though?
Wouldn't that be against his human rights though
Notwithstanding the copious propaganda from the gutter press and rightwing nutters, there's absolutely nothing in the human rights act or the ECHR(European Convention on Human Rights, one of Churchills better ideas) that would prevent people incapable of driving safely from being banned from driving, or being imprisoned for flouting an existing driving ban.
Human rights exist - whether you like it or not - but it's worth recalling that they are *your*/*everyones* protection against an overbearing state.
The problem isn't "human rights", it's with the the police and the cps, to a large extent, and also with the courts.
Police for not taking road crime seriously enough, not prioritising enforcement and not prosecuting;
CPS for plea bargaining open and shut cases("You were driving a tipper truck in the most densely populated part of Britain WHILE DISQUALIFIED FROM DRIVING and drove over a cyclist THAT YOU WOULD HAVE SEEN IF ONLY YOU LOOKED"). IMHO, driving while disqualified should, by statute, give you a lifetime ban and a year in the slammer. Doubled on every subsequent offence.
Courts for applying ludicrously low standards to he behaviour of drivers. You might think, e.g., that driving straight into the back of a law abiding, fully it up, complying with every legal requirement, road user in front of you would be considered "dangerous driving". It isn't. The legal standard for driving in the UK is so low that you it can be proven that you were on the phone, proven that you should have seen the cyclist, and you still get off.
That's the problem. Not "human rights".
Very "careless" whats that then, 12 month in clink a 12 month ban, re test and carry on as before?
Five driving bans. Would someone please explain why he hasn't been banned from driving for life?
It would appear that driving bans are an ineffective at stopping bad drivers from working as a driver.
His company should be up for corporate manslaughter as well for allowing this to happen.
He's already got convictions for driving while banned, so I can't imagine a lifetime ban would be any more of a deterrent to him.
No licence for the vehicle, no insurance, and ran a light... after being banned 5 times.
The law needs to be changed for freight operators so that if there's no insurance (including company liability insurance) the company retaining the freight operator is then liable for civil damages arising from their hire's actions.
That would bring up the standard very quickly.
May this f-er rot away in prison, truly well deserved.
Agree.
Well, he's admitted guilt, so no doubt his sentence will be cut to 5 minutes on the naughty step and no hot drink at bedtime.
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