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Statue of Justice, Old Bailey (licensed CC BY 2.0 on Flickr by Ronnie Macdonald).jpgJail for hit-and-run drunk driver who crashed into three cyclists, causing serious injuries
A hit-and-run drunk driver who crashed into three cyclists, two of whom needed surgery for their injuries, has been jailed for 25 months.
Sandra Graham had gone for a drink after she and a friend took their respective daughters ice-skating to mark the start of the school summer holidays in July 2019, reports Metro.
The 48 year old, who works as a school laboratory technician, was returning home with her daughter when she hit the three members of the Northumbria Cycling Club on North Tyneside’s A193 Links Road.
She then fled the scene and drove home, but another motorist who had witnessed the crash drove after her and took a picture of her car. Her husband then drove her back to where the crash happened.
Graham, from Blyth, failed a first breath test but when tested again at the police station, was found to be right on the legal limit.
However, she was estimated to have been one and a half times over the limit at the time of the crash.
One of the cyclists, David Tickner, was left with a fractured pelvic bone and hip socket and was hospitalised for two weeks.
Another, Terry Slater, sustained fractured ribs and also needed surgery to repair torn ligaments in his shoulder and neck.
The third, Craig Scope, needed specialist treatment after losing movement in his arm and shoulder.
Graham pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court to two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and to driving with excess alcohol and failing to stop.
In mitigation, Christopher Knox told the court that Graham was not a “hardened drinker” and that she had probably drunk “more alcohol than she realised” on the afternoon of the crash.
“Her car wasn’t even scratched,” he continued. “It was the wing mirror which collided with the cyclists and caused the serious accident and unfortunately caused the terrible, serious injuries to them, for which she is mortified.
“She has learned a savage lesson,” he added.
Sentencing Graham, Judge Edward Bindloss told her: “At the start of the summer holidays on July 12, 2019 you and a friend took your respective daughters skating in the Whitley Bay area.
“Afterwards you went to the Fox pub at about 4.30pm and there, before leaving at 6pm, you drank alcohol, your recollection is cider and wine. You had nothing to eat while you were drinking it.
“Visibility was good, road conditions were good but you were intoxicated and your driving before, during and after the collision was dangerous.
“You drove your car into and collided with all three of them.
“Afterwards, in panic and no doubt with judgement affected by drink and in my judgement to avoid detection you drove away at speed, including through a red light and on the wrong side of the road.”
Besides handing down the custodial sentence, the judge also banned Graham for driving for four years.
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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52 comments
You haven't paid attention then. Renault Scenics are fairly common, and in a number of models the mirror is mounted on the wing, not the door.
And yes, frequently seen at local tesco
Anything about the real content then or are you just very bored again ?
What do you call it when it was obviousy floating seperately as apparently it was independent to the vehicle when it collided with the cyclists.
Good job she isn't a maths teacher as I count three serious injuries there. Or which one doesn't count.
Also where is the child endangerment charge being as she was driving dangerously with a child (although they don't have an age noted so might have been older).
This does seem to be something that Social Services should be looking into when she gets out.
Depending on the age of the child, of course.
The Husband at least seems more of an upstanding person.
Or did he drive back because he had had less to drink, to maybe look like he was driving all along? It's not clear from the article.
Oops, didn't see that others had been discussing the same point below.
See it wasnt her fault, it wasn't even her cars fault, it was the wing* mirrors fault. I know Defence Lawyers are paid to defend, however surely they also need to be pulled up on the language they use as well.
*just for swixydixy.
Better sentence than usual, but still not a reasonable one considering the damage she caused, the fact she was driving illegally, and the fact that she fled the scene. Lucky for the victims that at least her husband has a moral compass.
Yeah, Im guessing they wont be married for very long after this....
Good on the guy for driving her back though.
Maybe I'm cynical but my immediate thought was that he drove her back to pretend he had been driving all along and then had second thoughts....
If you were really cynical you'd have thought the Husband noticed she'd been followed home and photographed and decided the game's up and she'd get a lesser sentence by going back to the scene of the crime than waiting for the police to tun up in a couple of days
That's what I thought - that he was trying to avoid a 'fail to stop' wouldn't say it was cynical though.
Still don't follow how you can take out 3 cyclists with a mirror.
After cyclist 1 is hit, the mirror is either folded back or broken off.
Did she hit one cyclist and the other 2 hit the prone cyclist ?
Perhaps there were so many scatches already, it was hard to see new ones.
First cyclist falls taking other cyclists down with them?
I did allude to that but the defence is reported as “It was the wing mirror which collided with the cyclists"
Bit of an assumption that the mirror would be folded or broken - a fair number of car mirrors take significantly more force to fold them than it would require to cause an unsuspecting cyclist to lose control.
Have you done various experiments then ?
Seems fairly easy to push a mirror back when a vehicle is parked.
Nothing that's been peer-reviewed and published, but if being a passenger in various different cars who's been assured to put the mirrors in when parking counts, then yes.
On some I've even had to use both hands to overcome the stiffness. And while that might not be common, they generally seem to at least require a quite deliberate push, rather than just a soft touch, that would be quite enough to destabilise a moving cyclist, particularly if they had no warning of it.
[Disclaimer: I haven't done any controlled trials of how much force it takes to push random cyclists off their bikes either.]
Disclaimer: I haven't done any controlled trials of how much force it takes to push random cyclists off their bikes either.
Phew ! Pleased to hear it !
My sample size is about 3, so may not be representative
The speculation is largely pointless though as he could have just as likely been thinking she's a disgusting human being and should face what she's done. Actions matter more than the speculation. He did the right thing.
The husband's actions led to her being breathalysed promptly. If they'd waited for the police to arrive, she probably wouldn't have been over the limit any more. Let's face it, it's only the alcohol that resulted in a jail sentence, otherwise she could simply have claimed she didn't see the cyclists and get off scot free, as always happens in these sorts of cases.
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