Mother devastated after texting driver whose truck crushed 13-year-old girl to death sentenced to 6 months jail

What I really don't understand is this "blindspot".
We have a 13 year old girl riding a bicycle. How high is that? How on earth can a blindspot be so huge that she couldn't be seen when directly in front of the lorry? There is something seriously wrong here.

We had a collection to defend a cyclist riding outside cycle lanes, which is his right.
Why not one to fund an action against the driver and company for operating an unsafe vehicle.
It would do so much good if it were to act as jurisprudence, as a legal precedent.

This is being covered in greater detail here http://www.birminghamcyclist.com/forum/topics/lorry-driver-pleads-guilty... There is so much wrong with the design of the street, and its use and yet no one is doing anything about it.

The option is available for the Traffic Commissioner to revoke the HGV licence on the grounds that the driver has shown himself not to be a fit person to hold an HGV licence. The key problem I suspect is getting the backing for the Commissioners through the Courts if they do start to get tougher with the powers they rightly have as regulators. When they try to revoke or reduce the licences of operators, or impose penalties for operating outwith the terms of an operator's licence, their position is weakened by the ability of a determined rogue to keep operating whilst a whole trail of appeals and stalling keeps them operating with impunity.

It wasn't his fault 'as he didn't see her'?

So if any of us ever cause a collision resulting in death we just avoid liability by stating our eyes were closed. It gets worse doesn't it?

I would hope, at least, he'll no longer be eligible to drive an HGV ever again! What a pathetic, toothless justice system we have at times.

They say everything happens for a reason, so I wonder if it was established in court why this man deleted text messages from his phone?
Are these the actions of an innocent man? Are they the actions of someone with compassion for a child on a bike that has just been killed?
I for one would be numb if I had just done such a thing regardless if I was to blame or not.
Put yourself in that guys shoes, imagine what just happened, then imagine thinking I hope I don't get into trouble for this, let me just delete these text messages just in case...

So, what are the lessons learned or the recommendations that will prevent this from happening to others in the future?

If it was that texting whilst driving was the cause, then the sentence should reflect that.
If it was unavoidable because of the type of vehicle, then they should be banned from busy high streets such as this one.
If the law does not take any of these into consideration, then if is obviously not meant to be a deterrent or to protect people, rather just to record what has happened for statistical purposes!

So remember, it's not justice, it's the law!

Much sympathies to the family. As if the loss of their daughter was not enough, insult was added to injury by that verdict.
As a friend working in CID once told me: "the CPS is a bunch of pussies".

Wtf? could have been my daughter or anyone's daughter for that sake

Can't someone get a petition up to increase this murderer's sentence for christ's sake?

Given the woeful state of our legal system, It won't be long before we see a significant rise in vigilante justice.

I want to pick up on one aspect of this, the fact that the judge agreed that the blind spot was good reason for Foster not to have seen Fennell.

Quite clearly, the law has in this case determined that the vehicle itself was at fault: the reason she died is that the vehicle does not permit the driver to see people whom he can then - legitimately, in the purest sense of the word - kill.

Now, I don't agree with that and you probably don't either, but it is what it is. The law's opinion is more influential than yours and mine.

But it brings into sharp focus the response of the Freight Transport Association to calls for HGVs to be imrpoved in terms of safety to others:

http://beyondthekerb.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/cyclists-go-truck-yourselves/

The law says the vehicle is fatally flawed; someone has died because of the vehicle. Yet the body that represents half of the HGV fleet appears to be opposed to addressing this legally recognised feature, and others.

And as a further point regarding HGV blind spots, here's a post on the CTC forum, from an HGV driver:

http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=701401#p701401

But, the FTA and the HGV industry aside, this is a truly appalling case with unbelievable sentencing, for a man that acted fully and clearly illegally rather than "merely" negligently and who actively sought to pervert the cause of justice, including a pitiful driving ban. It's the clearest illustration of the UK's appalling legal handling of a road collision that I've seen in a while, and that's really saying something.

If the truck has a blind spot right in front of it then when pulling up at a pedestrian crossing why does the driver not stop far enough short of it that he can see the crossing? Green does not mean go.

Location... http://goo.gl/maps/ohvJJ That little ghost bike is so tragic. My condolences to all affected.

I'd like to see a nationwide collective effort to refer all such travesties of justice to the Crown Prosecution Service, complaining about what they term "unduly lenient sentences" - check out http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/unduly_lenient_sentences/

Its true we don't have all the facts. The facts we have been given however.
He was texting multiple times while driving a lorry.
He KILLED a young girl.
His first reaction on seeing her dying under his lorry is to get back in and delete all sent messages.

I'm sorry, but yet again we have a justice system that perpetually blames the vulnerable. If all road deaths caused by "professional drivers" were treated as a death at a place of work, I'm sure the HSE would yield better results than the incompetent CPS. Holding the business owners personally responsible would get some changes pushed through very quickly.

I hope this so called professional driver does the only honourable thing. Gives up driving as he clearly is incapable of driving safely, and dedicates his life to trying to make amends. But that would only happen if he was truly sorry.

I am utterly gobsmacked...utterly

Doesn't green mean go if safe to do so ????
In which case where was he looking ???

Banned from driving for just one year?

Why bother with the CTC comments? They're so irrelevant it's a waste of anyone's time reading them... Who cares if they gave him a short sentence for the crime committed when the crime is wrong in the first place. It should have been death by dangerous driving...

He should have a bicycle as his only means of transport for the rest of his life.

The life of a child should be worth more than we apparently value it.

“He will feel that responsibility for the rest of his days.”

Yeah, right.

It just gets worse. We have:

A teenage girl using a crossing, and the lights turned green while she was on it.

A driver sending a boatload of texts while driving, which he knew was wrong. In some respects, this could be a smokescreen, since we don't know what was happening at the exact time.

It is known (see reporting elsewhere if you wish to clarify) that the court accepted she was in the blindspot and that he couldn't see her.

Unless the implication is that a child should be familiar with the blindspots of an HGV, surely the only conclusions can be that either:
- The driver DID cause death by dangerous driving
- The HGV design is simply unsafe to be on the road

So it's 'just one of those things' again is it?!