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news
A701, Romannobridge (Google Maps)“Panicked” motorist who mounted grass verge to undertake cyclist banned from driving for 12 months
A motorist who mounted a grass verge on a narrow road to undertake a cyclist – in what the driver claimed was a moment of “panic” which saw them attempt to avoid crashing into another overtaking motorist ahead – has been banned from driving for 12 months.
Steven Turner pleaded guilty at Jedburgh Sheriff Court this week to dangerous driving following the incident on the A701 near Romannobridge in the Scottish Borders on 9 May 2023, the Border Telegraph reports.
According to prosecutor Drew Long, the female cyclist was heading north at around 5.40pm when she was “undercut” by 25-year-old Turner, the driver of a Mitsubishi pick-up, who mounted the grass verge on the left-hand side while passing the cyclist.
Long told the court that the manoeuvre occurred just as the driver in front of Turner began to overtake the cyclist “in the normal way”, and was captured on that vehicle’s dashcam.
Police later managed to trace Turner, who apologised to officers and admitted that he was the driver of the vehicle.
The 25-year-old, who has recently moved to Devon after joining the British Army, claimed that he had “panicked” by mounting the verge, arguing that he did so because he did not want to collide with the vehicle in front of him.
Turner also claimed that he had wanted to stop and apologise to the cyclist for the dangerous pass, but chose to carry on instead.
Sherrif Peter Paterson disqualified Turner from driving for 12 months, after which the 25-year-old will be required to re-sit an extended test. He was also fined £320, along with an added £20 victim surcharge.
Turner’s 12-month driving ban and £340 fine – for what was a clearly dangerous manoeuvre but one which fortunately did not lead to any injuries – can be compared to the similar punishment handed out to a Glasgow motorist who left a cyclist with “life-changing” injuries after ploughing into them at speed while drunk, just three days before Turner’s risky undertake in the Scottish Borders.
Cyclist Ian Gillies was enjoying a leisurely ride in the outskirts of Glasgow on 6 May last year when he was hit by motorist Mark Hugh Shields, throwing him 30 feet away onto the pavement and causing him to suffer various severe injuries – including an internal degloving injury to his back, broken ribs, a broken elbow, damage to his hip, and several cuts and bruises – which have left Gillies unable to work and battling with anxiety.
“The guy came out of nowhere, I had just looked behind myself about 20 seconds before he hit me from behind. Someone who witnessed it said he swerved into my lane trying to undertake a car and that’s when he hit me,” the 54-year-old said last month.
However, despite the severity of Ian’s injuries and the motorist’s intoxication at the time of the crash, 44-year-old motorist Shields – who admitted driving without due care and attention and driving while over the limit – was given a £540 fine and 12-month driving ban at Airdrie Sheriff Court, a punishment the cyclist describes as a mere “slap on the wrist”.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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36 comments
A 12 month ban for this but (almost) nothing for all the dangerous close passes we see on this site? Seems bizarre to me.
Without any footage, not sure how you reach that conclusion.
Topically, these 2 consecutive clips popped up last night on exposed uk dash cams
https://youtu.be/ndOePIQAiKY?t=426
The bin man just carrying on is priceless, but I'm sure he's seen plenty of drivers drive on the pavement to "get past"
I was surprised by this lot:
https://youtu.be/_qO2FIe5poE
It's odd how bikes need 1'5mts when a car passes but only a few mil when a bike passes a car
Only if you think bumping into a car is the same as being bumped into by one.
The words bridge and troll come to mind... Because no one can actually be that stupid to not see the difference.
Best to completely ignore. They only come here to get a reaction.
Only if you're a stupid twat who doesn't understand physics. As you were.
The account is incomprehensible gibberish.
Why would he collide with a vehicle in front of him? Does he not have brakes and an accelerator in his wanker-tanker?
Yeah, it's like when a driver passes too close, and then claims they gave you as much space as they could, (because not overtaking at that moment is not even a consideration.)
Except here the pickup driver wanted to overtake the cyclist and the other driver AT THE SAME TIME
Because, I suspect, it never ever crossed his mind to simply abandon the overtake and wait for a more appropriate time to make the manoeuvre.
It's like those dash cam series where you read the comments on the clips:
"accelerated into trouble", "just ease off", "carried on into the hazard making it worse".
Nice for his buddies to know that the soldier alongside them is so easily panicked. If that's the best excuse he can come up with, I can only presume that he is very hairy and drags his knuckles on the ground.
I thought it was just me not understanding it properly.
I've encountered plenty drivers who seem to forget they aren't being propelled along in autonomous vehicles and can use the brake pedal to slow down or even stop, it still doesnt explain why they thought an undertake up a bank was the best option or excuse.
sometimes they don't even need to brake pedal, they only need to stop pushing the loud pedal.
It should be incomprehensible gibberish, until you add in the fact that the driver is a complete and ummitigated arsehole who pulled the most ridiculous manouevre imaginable. I'm bloody glad I didn't encounter this idiot on the two occasions I've ridden this road.
I was the cyclist in question. He undertook a minibus before undertaking me, and maybe more. Clearly judge did not watch the dashcam supplied as it is shows undertake of me and the minibus that captured the footage.
Separate article now with the dashcam video.
https://road.cc/content/news/cyclist-slams-claim-driver-mounted-verge-av...
Police Scotland out to prove they don't really care about road crime.
The nation can rest well knowing that the best of the best are taking care of our security.
Perfect example of why overtaking two vehicles is a terrible idea
Almost all drivers think that they are above average at driving: sadly, most of them are worse than what they think is average.
Should have pleaded not guilty and said he was unable to remember the incident.
edit just in case
https://road.cc/content/news/driver-escapes-punishment-alleged-hit-and-r...
He's a very naive young man. If he'd used the remorse defence he'd have got away with it.
His biggest mistake was claiming he 'panicked' because of a cyclist.
There is no sin more grievious than showing fear in the face of the class enemy.
UK sentencing is utterly bizarre.
12 months ban + £320 fine = dangerous undertake no injuries
12 months ban + £540 fine = drink driver, smashed into a cyclist
How can you say that? The seriousness of the second (very lucky not to kill by driving right into them) is fully reflected by the extra 220 pounds of fine. /sarcasm.
12 months ban for injuring a cyclist equivalent to 12 month ban for endangering another driver. Because we all know the courts have decided cyclists have decided to assume that risk by cycling ont eh roads.
£1200 fine = cycling in a pedestrian zone.
#brokenbritain run by donkeys and clowns.
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