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Emma Way tweetEmma Way found guilty on 2 of 3 counts in #bloodycyclists case
Emma Way, the motorist who tweeted about having knocked a cyclist from his bike, has been found guilty of failing to stop after an accident and failure to report an accident. However, she has been cleared of a third count relating to careless driving.
Way was fined £300, will have her driving licence endorsed with 7 penalty points and also has to pay £337 in costs.
The BBC reported that earlier today, she had told Norwich Magistrates' Court: "The tweet was spur of the moment. It was ridiculous and stupid and I apologise to all cyclists."
She added that posting that message on Twitter is “the biggest regret of my life so far.”
Shortly after the incident in Rockland, Norfolk on Sunday 19 May which left cyclist Toby Hockley with minor injuries, Way posted a tweet on the social network that read: “Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier – I have right of way he doesn't even pay road tax!" together with the hashtag, #bloodycyclists.
The 21-year-old was charged with careless driving, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident.
Way told Norwich Magistrates’ Court tday that as a result of her tweet, and the media storm that followed, she had lost her job as a trainee accountant.
ITV reports that her solicitor asked her to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, how stupid it was to tweet about the incident. She replied, “11.”
Way, who denied the charges, claimed that the handlebars of Mr Hockley’s bike had clipped her vehicle and that she saw him wobble slightly as she looked into her rear-view mirror, leading her to assume he was okay. She added that she was unable to stop due to a blind corner.
The cyclist, riding a sportive with a friend, told the court that although he did not come off his bike, he did end up in a hedge.
"A car came around the corner, narrowly missing Jay," he recalled.
"The car was heading over to my side of the road.
"I was hit on the leg by the wing and on the arm by the wing mirror and tried to slam on my brakes to regain control."
That infamous #bloodycyclists hashtag was reappropriated by cyclists in the wake of May's incident, with Mr Hockley himself helping set up the bloodycyclist.com website which aims to "raise some awareness and money for some of the dangers that face cyclists on a daily occurrence."
Merchandise including a #bloodycyclist jersey can be bought through the site.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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103 comments
well if we all keep posting her name, Emma Way, then it will keep showing up on searches and as employers more and more use the web to research people whos CV's they receive then its going to be bloody hard for her to get a job
Emma Way
oh did i mention
Emma Way
Outrageous
Handlebars clipped her vehicle as she drove around a "blind bend"? That's a ludicrous viewpoint and I'm sorry but I fail to see how she got away with the driving without due care and attention charge.
It's a shame the law could not make her cycle a minimum mlage over the next year.
It would have really taught her what the roads are like for non-drivers
So what does constitute careless driving ?
At best she is not capable of giving driving full care and attention but she is still permitted to drive. The law is an ass.
"A person is to be regarded as driving without due care and attention if (and only if) the way he drives falls below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver."
More proof if any was needed that knocking cyclists off their bikes is seen as acceptable behavior by the courts
Not at all. Just that proving that she was any more careless than him is not easy. It is more a point of proof and law, rather than it being acceptable 'to knock cyclists off their bikes'.
People seem to think that it 'us versus them'. But really it is the burden of proof which is the thing which makes most traffic incidences hard to prove fault on.
Once you remove the two main protagonists evidence (that will be a matter of 'he said, she said') you need reliable witnesses who can provide impartial evidence. In this case only the cyclist's friend was privvy to it, and his friend may never have seen the point of impact. The fact that they tried to prosecute means that they took the collision seriously, they just couldn't prove it to a sufficient level required (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_burden_of_proof#Beyond_reasonable_doubt).
What a load of crap. She should have at least been given a ban.
I reversed out of a parking space in 2003, I managed to scrape a plastic bumper of another car. Left all my details, but because I didn't contact the police, I got failing to stop and failing to report. 18 month ban and £450 fine....
She gets away with still being on the road after an incident with a human, who to my mind is my fragile than a plastic bumper....
That seems unbelievably harsh. Surely it isn't in the public interest to prosecute something like that?
Yes, that does seem harsh. I was given 8 points (to bring me to an attention grabbing 11) and £660 fine for an "accident" (no damage, no injury) with a car on the motorway that I failed to report. I was convicted of driving without due care. So, how does someone who doesn't take due care and actually hurts a human being not get convicted of that?
BTW, I'm not defending or complaining about my conviction, I was driving badly!
Actually, like a twat!
So it's still the tweet she regrets rather than hitting the guy on the bike
Indeed ... and worse than than - she only regrets getting pulled up in public about the tweet - not about the tweet itself.
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