Lorry driver charged over incident that left Times reporter Mary Bowers in a coma

The Times has reported that the lorry driver whose vehicle struck journalist Mary Bowers as she rode to work at the newspaper’s headquarters in Wapping last November, leaving her seriously injured and in a coma, has been charged with dangerous driving.

Petre Beiu, aged 39 and a Romanian national living in Stanmore, will appear at Thames Magistrates’ Court on 10 April, reports the newspaper. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment, as well as an automatic 12-month ban from driving, and would be required to take an extended test before having his licence returned.

Bowers remains in hospital and has still not regained complete consciousness, although her colleague Kaya Burgess, who has led its Cities fit for Cycling campaign which The Times launched in reaction to the incident, told road.cc last week that she was making a very gradual recovery.

"She's making very, very slow progress," he said. "It is still progress, which is good to see, but there's really no way of telling how far she'll get. She's still not really aware of anything particularly, and she's still got a very long way to go."