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news
police-officers-3546836_1920-2Cyclist fined for riding along motorway to 'visit his gran in hospital'
A cyclist who rode along the M60 while drunk because he wanted to 'visit his gran in hospital' has been fined.
Aaron Quinn, 28, said 'I ain't going to be doing this again at all' after he was sentenced for the 'really unusual offence'.
Quinn was spotted by officers travelling down the slip road onto the motorway in February this year.
Other motorists reported him to the police, Manchester Magistrates Court heard.
Manchester Evening News report that officers travelled towards junction 17 before pulling up in front of Quinn, of Warrington, on the hard shoulder.
He was said to be wearing all black and no lights were illuminated on his bike.
After pulling him over, officers breathalysed him and he was found to have 60 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
The drink drive limit is 35 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath
Prosecuting, Stacey Morrow said police became aware of Quinn on the bike on February 25 of this year, when he was seen riding along the slip road.
She said: “Other road users reported the pedal cycle.
“He proceeded towards Junction 17 and when he arrived he saw the defendant on his pedal cycle along the hard shoulder of the motorway.
“He described him to be dressed all in black and said no lights were illuminated on the bike at all.
“The defendant stated he was riding along the motorway in order to get to Warrington because his gran had been admitted to hospital.
“He also admitted drinking two lagers, two ciders and a few other bits.
“He was cautioned and took part in a roadside breath test, and the lowest reading was 60 milligrams of alcohol.”
Mitigating, Suzanne Dooley said: “On the day in question, the defendant has received some terrible news in relation to his grandmother who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“He accepts he started drinking and the reason why he was on the motorway was he was making an attempt to cycle to see her.
“He accepts he was extremely upset and wasn’t thinking straight.”
Sentencing Quinn, Manchester JP Mrs Johnston said: “To be honest, this is a really unusual offence, I don’t think we’ve ever seen this before.
“You put your own life in danger here, that’s the thing we want you to take home.”
Speaking from the dock, he replied: “I ain’t gonna be doing this again at all.”
Quinn pleaded guilty to being drunk in charge of a pedal cycle, being excluded traffic on a special road and two offences of using a bicycle when the retro reflectors were not fitted.
He was fined £100, and ordered to pay £85 costs and £34 victim surcharge.
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19 comments
Seems strange to have a "victim's surcharge" when there is no victim (and yes, I know they are pooled rather than paid to the specific victim, but still).
I hadn't realised that there was an actual offence of "drunk in charge of a pedal cycle"... You learn something new every day.
Yup - it's also an offence to be drunk in charge of a carriage, horse, or cattle, so no knocking back a few vodkas and joyriding the local dairy herd.
That's my weekend plans changed...
oooer missus!
We had a fraud officer who was ex police. His story from many years ago was that he arrested a bloke for being drunk on his bike and his sarge told him he had 20 seconds to get rid of the bike !! He chucked over some hedge and when the bloke sobered up next morning they denied all knowledge of the bike !
The paperwork then for that offence was a nightmare, hence the desire to get rid of the bike !
Hmm - doesn't seem like a ringing endorsement of fitness to be a fraud officer.
Well, this was years and years ago. Standards were a bit different - you probably got a thick ear if you didn't follow your sarge's instructions !
as far as I understand it though, there is no requirement to take a breath test if you are not in charge of a motor vehicle, I would refuse to take a breath test if I was on a bike (particularly in Scotland where the limit is lower) It is then up to the fiscal (or CPS in England and wales) to prove you are drunk
I suspect if you turn up in front of a magistrate and the police officer says "he seemed drunk to me, but he refused to take a breath test", they'll (rightly or wrongly) take that as adequate proof.
possibly, but with the very low level for driving we have in scotland now, you would fail a breath test after 1pint, especially if you had just finished it, and some proof/corroboration is also required.
I believe the drink drive limit is 35 not 30 mg per 100ml.
From previous stories, the use of a breathiliser to quantify the drunkeness of a cyclist seems rare. I guess the police thought this one is going to court and we want some numbers.
You are out by a factor of 1000 (hence dead!):
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the alcohol limit for drivers is 80 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, 35 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath, or 107 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of urine.
https://www.gov.uk/drink-drive-limit
Interesting that the gvt website has two alternative spellings for grams/grammes, depending on the prefix.
I apologise and stand corrected.
I should of course used μ rather than m.
So that puts him at nearly 2000 times over the limit?
In other words "alcoholic retard saved from almost certain death".
Dickhead.
That's rather dramatic. The hard shoulder of a motorway IS a dangerous place but doesn't usually result in instant death. I've been there a few times and I'm here to tell the tales.
That's true though.
Can you please not use the R word - it is extremely offensive.
Yes, this seems to be a (quite unpleasant) Americanism, but in any case it comes from an actual medical term. It's equivalent (in my opinion granted, though I'm not alone in this view) to using words like cretin, mongol, spastic etc as perjoratives. It's not really very nice.