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Driver jailed for careless driving that seriously injured two cyclists (Thames Valley Police)Careless driver jailed for 10 months and given two-year driving ban for seriously injuring two cyclists
Police have released footage of a careless driver smashing into two female cyclists at a roundabout, causing the victims "life-changing injuries". The motorist, Zahin Ali, has been jailed for 10 months and was also sentenced to a two-year driving ban at Reading Crown Court on Monday.
The incident happened on 2 June last year, the two female cyclists, one in their forties and another in her fifties, hit as they rode around a roundabout in Twyford on the A4 Bath Road towards Reading.
Ali, 20, was driving a Vauxhall Astra along the route when he failed to stop at the roundabout, smashing into the victims. Both women were seriously injured in the collision and sustained "life-changing injuries".
The motorist responsible was eventually charged by postal requisition on 28 September last year and in December pleaded guilty to two counts of causing serious injury by careless driving.
The incident was captured on the dash-cam in his vehicle and, at a hearing in court this week, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison and handed a driving ban for two years.
Thames Valley Police released the footage as a "reminder to people who choose to drive in such a manner that there are consequences".
Investigating officer Sergeant Matthew Cadmore, of the Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit, said: "The victims' lives and those of their families have been tipped upside down due to Zahin Ali deciding to drive so carelessly. Everyone has the right to travel on the road safely, whether by car, motorcycle, pedal cycle, horse or on foot.
"Drivers should take extra care to avoid collisions with vulnerable road users, because a pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist or horse rider will always come off worse. Whenever and wherever you drive: watch your speed, expect to encounter different road users, be patient, give others time and room, be ready for others to make mistakes, concentrate on your driving, never drive and use a mobile phone.
"I hope this sentence serves as a reminder to people who chose to drive in such a manner that there are consequences not only for them but for others too."
In September, the force successfully prosecuted a "dreadful" hit-and-run driver who killed a cyclist before "calmly" boarding train to London. Edward Hinchliffe, on licence from prison for sex offences at the time of the fatal crash, struck triathlete Simon Chesher before driving through a red light and repeatedly hitting the kerb with a smashed windscreen, and was jailed for five and a half years.
The judge told the defendant, "any humanity that you had evaporated and you calmly went on your way to London as if nothing had happened".
"Dreadful, dreadful behaviour. Any decent person would have immediately stopped and offered what assistance they could. You did not."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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78 comments
I'm all in favour of defensive cycling and using that attitude, but there's some circumstances where you just have to assume that drivers aren't murderous imbeciles or else you'd be stopping at every side road and junction. I think it would be more hazardous to stop at each junction on a roundabout as other traffic on the roundabout wouldn't be expecting you to stop for no reason other than "well maybe that driver is trying to kill me".
We must have had the same instructor!
I do regard every driver as an incompetent tw*t, and then rarely I'm surprised that they aren't.
I think his point is that all good cyclists take the as much of the danger of cycling into their own hands where possible. There is no blame when cyclists don't because they shouldn't be expected to compensate for shit driving but i'm sure all of us have avoided dozens of accidents because we have seen and compensated for a driver doing something really stupid. On roundabouts I always look at the drivers about to join to see what they are doing. It won't always save me but it certainly might save me one day.
Unfortunately, there's tons of blame shovelled onto cyclists from social media for any incident that they don't have the foresight to avoid.
My issue with this particular incident is that it's not a good example to learn from as there wasn't anything the cyclists could practically do to avoid the collision apart from completely avoiding roundabouts.
Total nonsense, if you drive on a roundabout you should be looking at the vehicles at each exit and anticipating their likely behaviour. If you drive blindly around roundabouts assuming that everyone will do as they are supposed to please never drive again.
So is this your recommendation to the two women who now face life-changing injuries?
Classy
No, it is my response to this total piece of garbage that you vomited all over the keyboard:
"What you're asking for is that cyclists have to anticipate every possible piece of bad driving by every driver that they come anywhere near, but in the meantime, drivers don't have to follow even the most basic of rules."
EVERYONE has to try to anticipate every piece of bad road use by everyone else. It doesn't matter if you are in a car or a bike, you should always be trying to anticipate what the vehicle in front of you is likely to do.
FTFY
Likely behaviour
Not their actual behaviour that you only find out about afterwards. That's the whole thrust of HPs posts; there was nothing likely about the driver's action.
It is the wrong way round, but that is the adaptation made by cyclists to stay alive in UK driver culture, reinforced by drivers' insurers and the insurance industry, most police, all judges, the CPS and 90%+ of a jury.
The ersosion of cycling in the UK is primarily down to this attitude, which also makes judgements on investment.
I made the same observation, but did not have the balls to stand up and say it. I think your choice of words is about right, It was about 5secs from first sighting to collision. The cyclists were partially obscured behind road signs for an instant. (This works both ways, if the driver cannot see the cyclst then the cyclist cannot see the driver) One cyclist wearing black and white rides in front of a black and white road sign. Motorist does not appear to slow down approaching the junction. Cyclists do not look towards the car. The bottom line is that the video says it all, the cyclists were there to be seen and the driver must be 100% responsible for the collision.
https://h2g2.com/entry/A387029
I knew what that link was to without even opening it - top marks.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. Taking reasonable measures to avoid injury caused by someone else's negligence is hardly victim blaming. This is what is taught in industry and has made many workplaces vastly safer and far fewer people fail to make it home because of it.
Stuff and nonsense. What has made the workplace safer is a strict hierarchy of hazard controls. Something that if applied to road traffic would all but eliminate motor cars from it, and therefore it cannot happen.
I like it, when can we start?
In 1992 - or again in 2005 - or even again in 2018?
Like with building infra, we'll have to settle for the second best time, which is "now".
your instinct is correct - you should regret it. whilst good practice, exactly what difference would it have made? should they have hard stopped - just in case the car entered the roundabout - been rear ended instead?
i'd thought i'd caught a motorist's eye at a roundabout before. they were fully stopped and, despite the totally clear visibility, waited until i was directly in front of before accelerating straight into me. luckily i only had a written off bike and cosmetic injuries - i can only wish the best to these two ladies.
bad driving is simply endemic in this and many other countries, and the only way to change this is to start enforcing road rules before people get killed and maimed, not posting videos afterwards.
. I use to live a couple of miles from there. You'd have to have a screw lose to cycle on that road at all, let alone without assuming that everyone was out to get you. Again, not victim blaming, just telling it like it is.
Yet you went ahead and made it, anyway...
Consider that regret is linked to things that have already happened, and you may realise that it was the wrong word...
https://g.co/kgs/r7dXHF2
...
Careless driving? Careless is leaving the milk out of the fridge or letting your coffee go cold. Dangerous is using something that has the capacity to kill, and frequently does, and not looking where you are pointing it. This was dangerous driving.
Can't wait for that comprehensive review of road laws announced all those years ago to report.
I suspect that the police accepted a guilty plea for careless driving to save themselves the seemingly impossible task of proving dangerous driving to a gullible judge and a jury full of drivers.
Agree, but why is it so difficult to prove that something blindingly obviously dangerous, because people were seriously injured, is dangerous? That's what the comprehensive review of road laws was supposed to address.
'Expect to encounter different road users'. This is what needs drumming in to the motoring population. If they can have adverts about how to drive considerately on motorways then they should be pushing the above statement too.
I believe that all drivers should have to undertake cycle training as part of the driving test. Those unable to ride a bike would be offered a tricycle or motor-assisted hand cycle. The percentage of disabled drivers unable to operate a motor-assisted hand cycle would be vanishingly small.
I'd make this compulsory for anyone renewing their driving licence also.
Anyone refusing to undergo the compulsory cycle training would not be allowed either to complete their driving test or to renew their licence.
Research shows us that regular cyclists (and motorcyclists) make safer car drivers. So if we ensure every driver cycles, then the roads will become safer.
It is careless driving, however comparitively with some of the offences we see, this is an extremely harsh sentence. Bear in mind the law punishes the offence and not the consequences of the offence. The approach to the roundabout is littered with road furniture, the grass is overgrown, he didn't appear to be speeding, but he should have spotted them.
I can't help but hold the view that he recieved the sentence he did because he was found guilty of being called Zahin Ali; if he'd have been found guilty of being called called Michael Smith or Pete Brown or any Home Counties woman deemed "a vision of "elegance, fragrance and radiance". It would have been a very different result!
What a load of bollocks, you can see them clearly across the other lane and above the grass, he's got lucky that its only carless driving.
I think you've posted the bollocks old son; clearly they didn't teach comprehension at the school you were thrown out of.
He wasn't found guilty, he pleaded guilty. Not surprising given the footage from his own dashcam.
This is a relatively new offence, historic penalties were woefully inadequate.
https://www.minsterlaw.co.uk/blog/2022/11/09/new-criminal-offence-of-cau...
It's within the sentencing guidelines and do bear in mind two people suffered life changing injuries. Despite what you seem to be saying, the law does consider the consequences of the offence in the sentencing (there are two categories for harm).
https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/cau...
If visibility is diminished, then you should drive more carefully. It's an often-used, deliberate, road design, in the run up to roundabouts, to obscure the view to the right - this obliges drivers to slow/stop, and properly check if it's safe to enter the roundabout.
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