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news
Keith Ancona hits cyclists at Essex bike race (Essex Police).jpgEssex motorist jailed for deliberately driving into racing cyclists (+ video)
A man has been jailed for 14 months after deliberately driving into five cyclists taking part in a bike race in Steeple in October. Keith Ancona had already gone past a road block when he hit the cyclists and drove off at speed afterwards.
The Maldham and Burnham Standard reports that Ancona had been driving his partner and two daughters to a children’s birthday party in his Audi A5.
While travelling along Batts Road, he was asked to wait for a bike race. He drove past a road block and was then stopped by a race marshal.
A heated exchange is said to have drawn the attention of a number of riders who had already finished. The winner stood in front of the car to block him and banged on the bonnet.
Richard Partridge, prosecuting, said: “The driver got back into his car and drove through a group of five cyclists. They were thrown into the air and onto the bonnet of the car, causing property damage in the region of £10,000. The defendant then drove off at high speed past the cyclists.”
Footage of the incident was released by Essex Police.
Man jailed for 14 months at Chelmsford Crown Court, on Thursday, June 15, for dangerous driving following a collision in October 2016. pic.twitter.com/h6XEHIGElh
— Essex Police (@EssexPoliceUK) June 30, 2017
Ancona failed to stop at the scene but handed himself in at Chelmsford police station five days later.
He admitted dangerous driving and causing actual bodily harm and was sentenced to six months in prison for dangerous driving, and an additional eight months for causing actual bodily harm, as well as being disqualified from driving for 22 months.
Judge David Turner said: “I’m not sure what you were thinking. You were in a powerful car with your partner and two children heading to a birthday party.
“You completely lost control. What happened was chilling behaviour. You tore off, knocking down cyclists and damaging a number of bikes.
“There can be no doubt in this case that as you drove off at some speed with no care to marshals or the public, including your young family, you were driving dangerously.”
Investigating officer PC Alan Lamb said: “We had CCTV footage of this incident, which was provided to us by a member of the public – this proved to be an invaluable asset to our investigations and is something we would encourage everyone to send across to us if they have video evidence of an incident.
"If you want to send in video or dash cam footage of a road incident, please email it to driving.complaints [at] essex.pnn.police.uk."
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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- Rendel Harris 13 hours 7 min ago
Thank goodness for that. I don't suppose anyone would want you to. You certainly behave like one though.
- Eton Rifle 13 hours 15 min ago
You do see some utterly ridiculous examples of car use....
- Eton Rifle 13 hours 37 min ago
Exactly. Every road death is a tragedy but this is at the "twat deserved it" end of the spectrum, looking at the state of that car.
- Rendel Harris 13 hours 45 min ago
I'm not the editor of this article, nor indeed of anything on this website. One would have thought that didn't require explaining.
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49 comments
This is right along one of the routes I ride regularly, most of the time when there's a race on drivers seem pretty relaxed about it (I accidentally ended up involved in a race there once without realising). However, I've got to agree with some of the posts above, there definitely appears a greater majority of bad drivers in Essex than a lot of places I've cycled, unfortunately there was a cyclist airlifted to hospital on fathers day in Maldon due to a taxi attempting an overtake up a hill in Maldon.
Not sure why the judge had to specify that he was driving a powerful car, surely any car in the context of an accident with a cyclist/pedestrian is powerful enough to do significant damage, and if he's a repeat offender, this does seem like a fairly light sentence for what was clearly an attempt to injure.
There's an awful lot of stereotyping going on in here. I think I can feel something coming... how about we start a group, we can call it the UK Audi Independance Party, maybe we can campaign for a referendum on whether or not we may or may not want White German cars coming over here using our roads and taking our lives.... Oh wait... no, it was just a poo.
I also notice poor behavior amonf Audi and BMW drivers but not that much from Mercedes deivers even if all cars have similar prices and specifications. I would really like to know why this happens
Audi are the most PPP'd (and most stolen) cars in the nation. Therefore driven by people who's income and status doesn't stretch to buying them propely, there are merely aspirational baubles. Mercs tend to be driven by older buyers.
Except it isn't that straightforward: Mercedes is singled-out in this article about car finance (80%+ of new sales).
So we've got to throw some other things into the mix, in this really fucking stupid thread:
- Our favourite bias (confirmation!!!) here, on the part of the observer (bloody Audi, not indicating etc etc)
- and very likely, the 'Essexness' of the brand, and, bizarrely, that attractiveness of that virtue.
- and loads of other bias and stupid shit.
My own bias is that many Mercs are driven by half-blind, sloth-reactioned coffin dodgers, who, deep down, want a car that drives itself, but, being boomer control freaks, will be the last in the queue to actually own one.
I currently drive a truck and a Golf, so I'm probably a rednecked mullet-sporting metrosexual, at least until I replace one of them.
Can we kill this one now? Hitler, Nazis etc.
Nope. Audi's are in vast quantities, merely chavved up WV's/Skodas. Especially the white ones. Mercedes are, on a median basis, far more expensive, and until the recent disgrace of the new A Class, generally not boy racer wagons (c.f. new Jags; simply embarassing). Put simply, Merce are generally full of wood and leather, Audi's suede, plastic and carbon fibre.
No, we're not, are we?
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2015/12/26/audis-in-houses/amp/
Those old enough will remember an ad Audi ran in the 80's with a typical chav type testing one of their cars but handing the keys back say it wasnt for him. The inference being Audi were more sophisticated than your average BMW driver would care for.
Now a white Audi does seem to be the car of choice for go getting types.
If it wasnt an Audi it would be something else- advertising cars as penis enlarging should be restricted as should the speed they are capable of, if anything else caused such harm it would be banned outright.
No prizes for guessing the make of car the driver chose to cause this tragic maymen.
The thing that's troubling me here, and I may have missed something, but why did it take five days for the driver to hand himself in. Why weren't the police knocking on his door?
It's a fair question, but one to which I think we all know the answer.
If you make a politically incorrect post on social media however, you'll soon have your collar felt.
I have a rather nice jacket with a felt collar.
I'm tempted to buy an Audi just to prove you
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Right!
Much as I do admire don simon's Audi addiction, I do wonder what Audi are doing in their new advert, asking what Audi drivers might do "If they only had a brain?"
If he had done this down the pavement of a central London bridge, I wonder if the sentence would have been the same.
Yes please, no trial just shoot them.
Prison time?
Blimey.
Was one of the cyclists related to the Chief Constable?
No.
Some of you people have obviously never been late for children's party (and driven an Audi). Cyclists be damned.
Not saying this guy didn't get what he deserved but it also highlights sentencing problems when killers are getting away with less than this one.
The knock on consequences for him will be their for ever. Points on licence for 12 years criminal record forever, loss of job and house potentially. Good!
Least he deserves though really.
Bidon through the windscreen, its the only way to be sure
Should have crushed his bloody Audi.
From the Maldon and Burnham Standard:
"Ciara McElvogue, mitigating, said: “It is with great regret that he finds himself back in front of the court after such a long period of no offending. He has turned his life around and has a young family.""
I was thinking the punishment was a touch lenient until I saw that. It doesn't say what his previous court appearances were for but that sentence appears to be extremely lenient for a serial offender.
Driving ban should be permanent pending psychological evaluation at the very least.
This is not someone who took a chance and it went wrong this is a deliberate attack.
Not sure why it is less serious than deliberately driving into a load of pedestrians, because the driver is not Muslim perhaps?
...and because the victims are cyclists unfortunately.
Why does the driving ban not start after release?
It does. The old system, where a ban could be finished before the prisoner was released, was scrapped a couple of years ago.
Why does the driving ban finish after 22 months. It should never finish
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