Driver fined for driving into back of cyclist at junction

A Shropshire man has been found guilty of driving without due care and attention after driving into the back of a cyclist at a junction reports The Shropshire Star. He was cleared of failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident after magistrates concluded that he was unaware of the collision.

Telford Magistrates Court heard that the BMW driven by 72-year-old Anthony Berry ‘almost clipped’ one of a group of cyclists as he overtook them while approaching the brow of a hill on the A495 on November 30, 2014. Two of the cyclists then went on ahead and caught up to Berry at the junction with the A528.

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Thomas Brazier, appearing as a prosecution witness, said that he pulled in front of the car and was about to dismount when he was hit from behind. “It hit the rear wheel of the bike. The rear wheel was entirely broken and I was thrown up into the air and landed to the left of the vehicle at the junction in the middle of the road.”

John Dove, prosecuting, read statements by three other cyclists who said that Berry then drove off. Brazier was left with scratches and bruising and said the bike’s repair bill had come to £900.

Berry, who was not represented, said the cyclists should not have been riding two abreast as the road was narrow. He said a cyclist had come up each side of his car at the junction and that he had spoken to the one on the driver’s side.

Asked where he thought Brazier had gone, he said: “I don’t know. There’s a little car park. I assumed he’d turned left and gone down there.”

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Berry described the junction as “difficult”, saying that drivers were forced to repeatedly look left and right before pulling out. “If Mr Brazier was there, I would have seen him,” he said.

Berry denied the charges, but magistrates found him guilty of driving without due care and attention, fining him £250 and ordering him to pay £235 court costs. He also received four points on his driving licence. The bench accepted that an accident had occurred, but felt that Berry had not been aware of it and so cleared him of failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident.