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news
Robert Whiting (TVP)Unlicensed HGV driver jailed for eight years for killing cyclist while under the influence of cocaine
The uninsured and unlicensed driver of a 32-tonne tipper truck, who was under the influence of cocaine when he hit and killed a mum-of-two cycling at a notoriously dangerous roundabout in Oxford, has been jailed for eight years.
Robert Whiting pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving over the collision which killed University of Oxford academic Dr Ling Felce at The Plain roundabout in the city on 1 March this year.
The 40-year-old was found to be unlicensed, uninsured and tested positive for cocaine at the roadside. Later blood tests found Whiting was eight times over the limit for benzoylecgonine, a compound formed in the liver when cocaine is broken down.
> "One month, two dead cyclists": Oxford's cycling city sign defaced after second death
Sentencing him to eight years, the Oxford Mail reports Judge Michael Gledhill QC said Whiting had "snuffed out" Dr Felce's life "in a matter of seconds".
Court documents showed that on the day of the fatal collision Whiting was due before city magistrates for a number of allegations, including driving a car without insurance. Shortly after 2.30pm on March 1 the driver followed Dr Felce, who was riding her bicycle "perfectly properly", slowed to 5km/h at the approach to the junction, before accelerating to 20km/h when he hit the cyclist.
Dr Felce was killed "instantly", with Whiting telling a police officer he had not seen her and making calls to his father and employer, J&A Driveways, before trying to use the truck's mechanical arm to raise it off the ground and free the victim.
A passing member of the public was praised by the judge for "public spiritedness" in trying to help and given £500 for her efforts from public funds.
Prosecuting, Christopher Hewertson said the defendant's provisional licence had expired in 2002, he was not insured to drive the vehicle and there was none of the required documentation in the vehicle.
Judge Gledhill also disqualified Whiting from driving for five years, with an extension period of four years to cover the minimum term he is expected to spend in jail, he must pass an extended retest if he wishes to drive again.
The judge said: "Dr Ling Felce was a young wife, mother of two young children, beloved daughter of her parents. Sister, profoundly affected by her death, as were many of her friends.
"She was also a remarkable scientist, a research scientist working in fields such as biomedicine, vaccinology, researching into Covid vaccines and also oncology.
"So impressed were her colleagues at Oxford University and at no doubt many other institutions, that they are setting up an award in her name to promote other young scientists with her abilities.
"You have heard her husband read out his victim impact statement. That can only have moved everybody that has heard it as to the effects upon the family, himself, her children not only then and now but in the years to come.
"And you snuffed out her life in a matter of seconds."
James Felce, the victim's husband told the court: "Nothing will ever be enough to atone for what was taken from her. She was the best of us."
Speaking to Oxford Mail reporter Tom Seaward outside court, and showing remarkable composure, Mr Felce said: "What he (Whiting) has done is set. Nothing can change that. There's no reason for me to pursue more negativity on this. I don't hate him, I don't want him to live the rest of his life meaninglessly.
"If he can learn from this and become a better person, there's at least some positivity. It doesn't mean, necessarily, I'll forgive what happened, but it doesn't mean I want to pursue some agenda against him for the rest of his life. There's literally no point."
Also speaking outside court, police sergeant Dominic Mahon said: "I feel it's an appropriate sentence. It will send out quite a strong message. Mr Whiting chose that day to drive a 32-tonne vehicle which he was not licenced to drive. He'd never been trained to drive and the tragic result of that was the death of Dr Felce, a completely avoidable death and it's right the court today has recognised that with a significant sentence of eight years' imprisonment.
"Employers have a very serious responsibility, which is enforceable in law, to ensure that those they employ are licensed and supervised to drive the vehicles that they're using. There is an ongoing investigation into that aspect of the case so I cannot comment any further."
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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41 comments
The culture problem around the tolerance of someone so dramatically breaking the law over such an extended period of time needs consideration. This can't all be laid at the feet of law enforcement.
In part, there are large section of society who simply don't see driving unlawfulness as a problem. Cyclists are more sensitive of it because we're made aware of it more regularly with life threatening incidents, but the likes of UK Dashcams are perhaps bringing home the generally low level of compliance with driving law.
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Why the employer not also charged?
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They have aided and abetted the murderer.
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Try reading to the end.
I see the someone has used the "notoriously dangerous roundabout in Oxford" as a mitigating factor. The victim did nothing wrong, the driver accelerated rather than wait at the white lines, according to the report. Describing the infrastructure to cover up bad driving always irritates me.
That could be taken both ways.
If a piece of road infrastraucture is "notoriously dangerous" that is a signal that everyone knows drivers should be taking more care when negotiating it, which actually reflects even more badly on drivers who behave the way the one in this case did.
And I hope the law comes down hard on the firm who will have "knowingly" allowed him to drive that vehicle WITHOUT checking he was fit and proper. I do hope the family receive (at the very least) significant financial restitution from the company and the insurer.
Disgraceful. My heart goes out to the family.
RIP
CYCLISTS are 3rd class citizens on UK roads. TRUSS and her cronies have got to stop this. Be harsher in their sentencing. Much more needs to be done to protect vulnerable road users.
If you drive. You have enormous responsibility. Cameras are everywhere. You will get found out.
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Good first para.
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' TRUSS and her cronies have got to stop this. '
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Silly, childish, ignorant third para.
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Oh
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Clucking
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Bells
Why not, they are the ones in power. The ones who've been promising a comprehensive review of road law since god knows when, but only succeeded in throwing the cat among the pigeons with ill-considered cyclist-baiting announcements, whipping up the minority who think cyclists have no place on the road.
Exactly. The Conservative Party came into power twelve years ago. They don't get to blame anyone else for anything, any more.
On recent performance. Grant Shatts has a lot to answer for. Political point scoring with vulnerable road users as bait. Indefensible.
The tories need to embrace change. Transport needs have changed. Cycling is the answer. Look at the rest of Europe. The UK is a poor relative. The UK villifies cyclists. Inconsistent law and order is pot luck for those of us who are injured or killed.
They have, they've adopted UKIP's policies and are now so far right, they're just a shade short of fascism.
Come off it. Before the leadership election was over, sections of the tory party were effectively pleading with her not to fill the cabinet with loyalists and yes (wo)men that didn't reflect the wider points of view in the party.
She ignored those pleadings and filled the cabinet with her cronies. Stating that is not childish.
Another extraordinarily sad and infuriating tragedy. Condolences to all affected by this loss.
One thing the Judge could reflect on though is that her life wasn't 'snuffed out in seconds'. It was the culmination of very likely twenty years of unlicensed and uninsured driving, aided and abetted most probably by his employers. Perhaps he should be paying to the courts every penny that he's illegally earned throughout his driving 'career'.
I wonder if your salary can be considered "proceeds of crime" if you are a professional, but unlicensed, driver. IIUC reclaiming money isn't pursued unless you are relatively wealthy so it may be just academic in this case.
Not far off the max tariff assuming he pled guilty, but even being possibly allowed to drive again still,seems insane.
Given his previous and detection rates (cf how long he was driving for) I'd say that the court has likely only banned him for 4 years.
I agree it seems an unusually long sentence as these things go, I'm only aware of a few at this mark. My main concern is how we try to avoid this kind of collision in the first place. Although with a driver (and his employer) so reckless this may be one where only *much* better detection and enforcement (or just *effective* enforcement given he had previous) would have changed things.
Condign punishment, no quarrel with the sentence, but yet again and as always, why on earth is someone who's done something like this given even a sniff of a chance of ever getting behind a wheel again? Why is driving regarded as such an inalienable right that it seems virtually impossible to ban someone for life?
Because if you ban people for life they just simply drive unlicenced anyway. If you give them a fixed term ban, there is a change they might reform and take the re-test and drive legally.
Hmm... but given he was already driving before this with no licence that seems to be his default.
The question is "why would someone drive when unlicenced?". I think that suggest the answers: a) because they are very likely to get away with it and b) if they didn't get away with it the penalties aren't sufficient deterrent for many people.
Why isn't there outcry over this lack of enforcement? Why doesn't society treat this kind of offense with the gravity due? Partly that other concerns trump thoughts about road danger. It's what we do, what our friends do etc. We build our lives around the ability to do this or for others to do so. After a century of improvements for drivers (and declining walking, wheeling, horsing and cycling) it is pretty safe in the UK. Driving has become a ubiquitous and habitual activity so we don't think about it - unless it seems it might become more difficult! So we don't see the issues, the dangers or the "have-nots".
Why isn't there outcry over this lack of enforcement?
For the same reason there is a complete lack of concern over vehicles regularly going through red lights, or over ANPR equipped police video cars daily passing vehicles with no insurance, MOT or VED for years (and even after the vehicle has been reported time after time) while the driver is so little worried about the possibility of any efforts at enforcement that he blatantly parks regularly on the main road outside The Old Garstang Police Station. People are so used to the police not bothering about any offences that they no longer expect enforcement, or are happy with a situation where you can offend how you like, when you like with your BMW or Audi
Unusual amount of legality on display here wtjs - this (parked) car doesn't also appear to be speeding, on double-yellows, close-passing a pedestrian or going through a red light! Lancs police can definitely ignore this one...
It is however untaxed and with an expired MOT so maybe Lancs police should take notice of this one.
Try your local council. They have a responsibility to remove abandoned vehicles from the road and one of the key criteria for deciding if a car is indeed abandoned is its VED (tax) status.
The police can investigate if the vehicle has not MOT and is being used on a public road.
https://www.gov.uk/report-no-mot
"Contact your local police to report a car, van, motorcycle or other vehicle that does not have an MOT.
You can only report a vehicle with no MOT to the police if it’s being used on a road."
Can being the operative word.
Good to hear that the company employing him is under investigation.
Especially as the company employing him was owned by his dad. That's a level of criminal negligence that ought to be considered joint enterprise.I think I read that wrong, I've looked into the company and it's a one-man-band owned by an individual of a different name in their 30's. So not related by the looks of it.
The company was dissolved a few weeks after the collision. I do hope that charges are brought against the director. This driver only had a provisional licence. Shouldn't have been driving any vehicle on their own, let alone an HGV.
They aren't black so joint enterprise doesn't apply.
Jesus fucking wept, I'd missed that bit. Shows the utter fucking joke when joint enterprise is applied.
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