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news
The bike hit by Alexander Coombes (Sussex Police).jpgSpeeding motorist who hit cyclist and left him at the side of the road sentenced
A speeding driver who hit a cyclist and failed to stop has been banned from driving and handed a suspended three month prison sentence at Chichester Crown Court. Alexander Coombes, 32, hit the 45-year-old man on the A29 near Bognor Regis at around 5.45am on February 5, 2014.
Coombes pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, careless driving, failing to stop after an accident and having no insurance. He admitted speeding while listening to loud music and claimed that he had been unaware that he had struck someone. During a special court hearing last November, the judge refused to accept this.
Was cyclist right to take motorist to task? Sussex Police think not
Sergeant Rob Baldwin of Sussex Police's roads policing unit said:
"It would have been obvious to Coombes he had been involved in a serious collision. But he failed to stop, leaving the cyclist seriously injured at the side of the road and in need of urgent medical attention.
"Fortunately, we were able to quickly identify the vehicle and driver involved and officers found the Megane abandoned some five miles away in Barnham with serious damage. It was clear that Coombes had driven his vehicle in a dangerous condition over this distance with an obliterated tyre, damaged wing mirror and missing bodywork."
According to police, the victim was left lying at the roadside having suffered "serious injuries". He was taken to Southampton General Hospital, undergoing several operations prior to months of rehabilitation.
Coombes was sentenced to three months in jail, suspended for 12 months. He was ordered to complete 140 hours unpaid work in the community and banned from driving for 15 months, after which he must take an extended re-test. He was also ordered to pay the victim £6,382 compensation and court costs amounting to £3,500.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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19 comments
oh dear lord, there's a loophole...
http://www.keep-your-licence.co.uk/motoring-offences/failing-to-stop-rep...
Scum...
I agree. I hadn't realised that what they do was an actual legal speciality. That site appears to be a firm of solicitors who specialise in motoring offences (including making sure that their clients don't get disqualified from driving. Ever.). The motoring equivalent of being an ambulance chaser, IMO. Terrible.
I can see a rear light or certainly looks like a rear light. We would assume that the court and report would of highlighted the rider wasn't using lights. They could of been knocked off by the impact/crash.
It's the not so trivial matter that the driver left the scene and abandoned his vehicle - denying he had hit someone or something. This makes the sentencing rather minor.
Its easy to jump to conclusions without being possesion of all the facts, and I think this can often explain the disparity between the actual sentance and the public expectation based on the information from the media. At the reported time of the incident it would have been dark, sun rise wasn't until 07:30. There are no signs of lights, or brackets for lights on the bike, and although difficult to see no sign of a rear reflector.
Careless driving is a tough enough conviction in and of itself, but dangerous driving is an almost farcically high standard. There's no way he pleads guilty unless he's dead to rights.
There's a rear light on the seatpost, BTW.
I'd presumed that the squashed MTB picture was from the stock library, and wasn't the actual one in the case at hand.
Yea, and who can be bothered with all that tedious Highway Code shit about being able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear. That's see to be clear by the way, not hope is clear, imagine is clear, think ought to be clear, cannot see is not clear . Car drivers should be ashamed of themselves associating with people like this driver and trying to excuse him.
A trivial driving ban. He's clearly a menace to all law-abiding road-users. If he ignored the rules about insurance, speed and failing to stop, he's obviously going to driving whilst disqualified and uninsured, isn't he?
Absolutely pointless sentence (it's no punishment). It has to be prison-time.
He didn't notice an impact that caused this damage because he was listening to loud music?
Lying bastard!
so ginger extremist may be held indefinately for planning to harm someone, man who seriously harms someone and then leaves them to die, gets a 3 months suspended sentance. The law is an arse.
Taking a can of coke during the UK riots a few years ago = Guy gets one year custodial as government needed to calm the storm rapidly.
Damn near kill someone, leave them like roadkill with no respect for life using the worlds most recognised killing implement all whilst having no authority to even be driving = naughty step.
...and the police want to know why vigilantilism is an ever increasing event?
Perhaps its time people started 'carelessly' and 'accidentally' dropping paving slabs from motorway bridges each and every time a motorist takes yet another life to highlight the level of 'issed off with the judiciary we've reached?
Can hear it now when the smashed car pulls over and you excuse yourself with...Yeah sorry about that, sun was in my eyes...besides, why haven't you fitted an armoured windscreen to your car, just asking for it pal.
Would that wash in court?
Seriously, just what needs to happen to make government realise enough is enough?
you will never see any future in cycling in a nation manufacturing cars and fuel... everything is planned and designed for them, to consume fuel and to want a new car. the only thing to do is be cautious all the time!! all the time...
So you hit someone hard enough to cause them serious injury, then go on your way and ignore them. If I did this with a steel bar I'd expect a significant punishment. Do it with a car you essentially get let off, with a trivial ban, that you will probably ignore. And drivers wonder why normal people hate them.
I know that awareness is a lofty goal, but these stories are just making me sad. I wish a full and speedy recovery to the vitim.
Dangerous driving, careless driving, failing to stop after an accident and having no insurance. Ditched the car. Pleaded guilty. And seemingly, according to no less than the judge himself, perjured himself.
Again, a suspended sentence. No jail time. Not a minute.
How is this not utterly bonkers?
*On a completely unrelated note, while I'm nominally against censorship, I'm starting to wonder whether the UK should consider banning "Strangers on a Train" and derivative storylines.
With his behaviour showing no remorse he should of spent several years behind bars. A genuine driver who stopped at the scene to call for help and assistance should of received that sentence
The sentence is insufficient.
A 15 month driving ban? I for one would be happier with a lifetime driving ban - he's not the kind of person that I want in control of a tonne of metal on the public roads. Driving should be a privilege not a right.
Unfortunately that's not the way it's seen amongst the general public or amongst the police/courts.
As far as I can tell, we have created a country where driving is seen as an essential right, like utter freedom of speech (except if it's something the speaker doesn't agree with), internet access, mobile phone signal, etc.
Decades of town planning and the out-of-town migration of retail centres have left us with a country where driving a private car is seen as the only way of getting around, and where "But how will I get to work?" is seen as a mitigating plea every single time someone is threatened with an actual ban.
In this case, given that the motorist was already driving without insurance, what exactly is the point of a driving ban anyway...?
Lifetime driving bans will not work. For instance we have approx 15 cars in our Northern area (the sq mileage size of Luxembourg) equipped with ANPR and in that area a population of over 800,000 so what chance has someone got of being caught whilst dizzy driving in the car they were originally arrested ?
They drive a car thats insured for another person (so wont flag up on ANPR) and if they drive sensibly they have virtually no chance of being stopped.