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news
Peter McCombie head and shoulders shot via Metropolitan Police.PNGCyclist who killed London pedestrian jailed for two years
A cyclist who rode through a red light in east London and crashed into a pedestrian, causing fatal injuries, has been jailed for two years.
Peter McCombie, who had been on his way home from work as an administrator at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, died from his injuries a week after the crash on Bow Road 3 July last year. He was aged 72.
The cyclist, Ermir Loka, aged 23, fled the scene of the crash in Bow but handed himself into police, who had made extensive appeals including releasing CCTV images, more than three weeks later on 28 July.
The Albanian national, who had entered the UK illegally, said he did not stop after the crash because he was worried about his immigration status coming to light.
He pleaded not guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court to manslaughter and causing bodily harm through wanton and furious driving, being acquitted on the first charge but convicted on the second one.
CCTV footage shown at the trial revealed that he would have had 8 seconds to see the red traffic light and stop there, but he carried on riding through it, colliding with Mr McCombie.
At his trial in March, Loka, who had been getting by on around three hours’ sleep a night as he worked two jobs, denied that he had ridden through the red light on purpose, and said he had been unable to brake ahead of the crash.
In a statement released after Loka was sentenced, Mr McCombie’s family said: “Peter’s loss has been immeasurable and has left a gap in our lives that we will never be able to fill.
“He was a man who loved his family, who had time for his circle of valued friends, and worked hard for his colleagues. He was a complete gentleman and everyone that knew him has been united in grief at the manner in which he was taken from us.
“The shock of losing him so abruptly, so suddenly, so unnecessarily, is something that will haunt us for a very long time to come. Peter still had so much left to do and enjoy with us and we have been robbed of that by the actions of this selfish man, who cycled into him and then immediately got up and fled.
“He left Peter laying in a busy road, seriously injured, and thought only of himself at that time. That kind of cowardice is beyond contempt,” they continued. “The anger we feel towards him is beyond words. We cannot even bear to say his name.
“He denied his actions and put us through the trauma of a trial, where we saw exactly what happened and lived our grief again and again. His actions are unforgiveable. We are glad that the jury saw through his lies and that he has been convicted.”
Detective Sergeant Eddie Coleman of the Metropolitan Police Service said: “Peter McCombie was a fit and active man who had had continued to work well past his retirement age. He was much loved by his family and friends and well-liked by his colleagues.
“My sympathies remain with Peter’s family, who have been through so much and supported us so steadfastly throughout our investigation and this trial. I would like to thank them for their courage and bravery and hope they know we have done the best we could for them, and for Peter.
“It can only be said that Loka’s actions were reckless and dangerous and entirely avoidable. If Loka had only just slowed and stopped at the red traffic light, we would not be here today,” he added.
Loka was jailed for two years on Monday, the maximum sentence for the offence of which he was convicted, with the time he will spend in prison taking into account the period he has already spent on remand.
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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68 comments
A sad story to read. The sad bit is, no jail sentence is going to bring back Mr McCombie is it. The message is simple when out on the roads or cycle paths/paths we all have a duty of care for other people out there, and we all need to take responsibility for our prefered method of transport and follow the rules of the road. I cycle every single day in all weathers and see people who drive vehicles, ride cycles and even pedestrians who do not pay proper attention to their surrounds or to other users when out and about. I have had my share of near misses from vehicles, being car doored is common, and pedestrians walking out in front of me without looking Etc. We all make mistakes but I believe we must all be responsible and careful to other people, and learn from our mistakes in the hope to avoid devistating consequences. As someone else has commented on here, my thoughts are with the family and freinds of Mr McCrombie.
Because he fled the scene knowing he had hit a person and they were obviously injured, a jail sentence is appropriate. If that were my relative lying in the road I'd want the perpetrator locked up for good. Now this should be a precedent for all hit and runs, if the perpetrator flees the scene they go to jail for a minimum of 2yrs. There has been many reports in road.cc where drivers have claimed they thought they hit an animal/bin bag/nothing and returned to the scene much later full of remorse (or rather their friends/partners persuaded them). No excuses - hit something, you stop, check what you've hit, wait for emergency services if its a living thing or an object that could be a danger to others. How many people have been left for dead in the road that would otherwise have lived if the c#nt that hit them had stopped to check.
My deepest sympathies and thoughts are withthe family and friends of Peter McCombie.
So sad and wrong. Well, London, we have the same problem here in the USA with illegals killing citizens. Ours is many times worse.
No. Just stop.
I think your problem in the USA is more to do with the police killing people. And people killing people. And everyone and their gran being armed to the teeth...
(edited, now I've calmed down)
If we gloss over my own earlier comment, MLE: where does it say that Mr Loka killed Mr McCombie (in the sense of actually intending to kill him, which is how I think you've interpreted it)? Mr Loka broke traffic laws, by running a red light, and Mr McCombie did indeed die as a consequence of being hit by him. Not the same as an assault. Not even the same as 'shooting someone who hasn't gotten off your property darned quick enough'.
Mr Loka wasn't found guilty of manslaughter, so there's probably not a provable link between the collision and Mr McCombie's later death (though it would be reasonable to assume that it played some part).
Fair enough, peter - it just seemed like a reasonable conclusion. Somebody at least thought that injury/death was connected to being hit by Albanian.
It might well be reasonable, but it's a matter of fact that Loka was found not guilty of manslaughter (reminds me of the Alliston case with regards to that verdict).
More likely because the jury do not accept manslaughter as appropriate for road traffic offences. Charlie Alliston was also found not guilty of manslaughter, there was no suggestion that Kim Briggs death was not directly caused by the collision.
Drivers are never charged with manslaughter when they kill people. Had Ermir Loka been driving when this happened he would likely have been convicted on causing death by careless driving, rather than death by dangerous driving. And in all likelyhood have recieved a lower sentance.
There is no justification for going through a red light and hitting a pedestrian, I think the sentance is quite appropriate, I just wish we would see the same for killer drivers.
I appreciate that defining the actual 'cause' of death is very much a judgement call by those involved, but I recall that Kim Briggs unfortunate death was mainly attributed to her fall (i.e. hitting her head on the road or street furniture) as opposed to the collision itself. As her fall was obviously a result of the collision, it's then necessary to figure out whether that type of head injury would be expected in a collision of that nature or whether it was a particularly unlucky fall.
As these aren't easy questions to answer, I think we have to abide by the jury's decision with the manslaughter charge and as such, I think it's unfair to state that someone "killed" a person even though they very likely contributed to their death. It's unlikely that a cyclist/pedestrian collision ends in a fatality (c.f. driver/pedestrian or driver/cyclist collisions that often result in fatalities), so I can understand why the jury found not guilty for the manslaughter charge.
But this are two very different questions
1) was there intent, or was it reasonably foreseable death would be the outcome (very unlikely for a cyclist/pedestrian collison to result in death)
2) was the incident directly responsible for the death
Your line about there not being a provable link between the collision and the death (although it played some part) suggests the the collision was almost coincidental when it was the primary cause.
I entirely agree with the juries decision on the manslaughter charge, I think it's shocking the justice system will use this against cyclists in road collisions. The charge is entriely inappropriate. Other than in instances where vulnerable road users are deliberately hit.
Neither of us have seen the medical evidence so it would be rash for us to state that the collision was the primary cause (though that is what I would conclude with limited information). The jury were presented with (hopefully) professional medical opinions about the cause of death and concluded that it was not manslaughter (i.e. that he did not 'kill' him).
It is a weird situation though. Manslaughter charges have been upheld and also cleared over someone being scared because someone had a heart attack during a robbery and someone being punched once and hitting their head and dying. So a crime led to an incident that led to the death. That does tally with what happened here where knowingly going through a red light, caused a collision which caused injuries that led to a death. In all of the cases listed, intent to kill was not there.
Agreed - it's very much down to the specifics of the situation and presumably the jury. There's a distinction between "the accused killed the victim" and "the accused caused a collision which led to their death" (with this case being the latter).
F**K off with your rancid far right american talking points
Blimey, so much hatred going on. Cancel culture going full steam, with so much outrage to go around.
I love the way racists and racist-adjacents who get called out on their casual racism then scream cancel culture. Help I'm in the pale male and stale majority and my rights are being oppressed.
They don't like it up 'em,
(Let's do it more)
As a US citizen (UK import) who has never been killed by an illegal immigrant, you're full of sh!t. Here's some actual data, from Texas.
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/51/32340
Fack me, no one told me Socrapi had gone to the States....
Well he has just received a two week ban so will have time on his hands to travel.
A mate of mine is married to an American, it's taking at least 15 months to clear the first hurdle of getting citizenship
Socrapi no doubt gets a confirmed application on the basis of there being a shortage of loony right views......
It will all depend if his Mum lets him go.
I suspect she'll be only too pleased....
The report in the Standard mentions another cyclist narrowly missed Mr McCombie,before Loka hit him, also jumping the red light, infact the cctv the Met have shared also shows that, and it may even have been a contributing factor imo. But was the other cyclist ever found,handed themselves in ?
All I'd hope people take away from such a tragic case such as this is it demonstrates cyclists are not above the law and will be prosecuted & punished to the full extent of the law.
My condolences and sympathies to the friends and family of Mr McCombie who have been affected & impacted by this.
Yep both cyclists were A-Holes as shown by CCTV of the incident.
In no way is this a victim blame but the same CCTV seemed to show the pedestrian was crossing really far past the normal crossing area though? Just thought it was strange when watching it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-57086023
A teenage driver who killed a pedestrian as he walked across a road in Dundee has been jailed for 20 months.
He also admitted failing to stop after the incident, driving while not accompanied by a qualified driver, and without insurance.
Your agenda is utterly pathetic and transparent.
And the difference between stopping for a red light and stopping for a pedestrian already established in the road is what precisely?
Stating you have an agenda is a fact not abuse. Also, when you deliberately misrepresent people and repeat it when warned expect some grief. You also continue to misrepresent yourself. Why don't you change your name back to what it was rather than lie about the reason for changing it ?
Most other forums you would have been perma banned by now.
Exactly. Rule 0 for driving - do not kill anyone. It might be annoying if someone walks out in front of you, might even be dangerous, but it doesn't give you the right to just drive over them.
I don't think anyone has complained about the length of this sentence - there have been some comments about the fact that dangerous motorists generally get much lesser sentences.
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