Suspended sentence for tanker driver who killed cyclist when he pulled in too early

Judge claim's he is an ex-cyclist, doesn't he know it's an offence to lie in court?

"Judge Jeremy Donne QC, passed on his condolences to Mr Adlam’s family, and revealed that he had given up riding his road bike following a number of crashes."

And yet, when given the opportunity to do something about the dangerous drivers who threaten both him and all cyclists, he does almost nothing.

David is gone but not forgotten.

So this is what a life is worth in the UK? £1,000. a 15-month driving ban and a three-month curfew? 

Joke sentence, joke ban and joke fine. It couldn't be more obvious that the legal apparatus views the odd cyclist death as an acceptable price for the valuable benefit of allowing drivers to drive how they like.

Judge Jeremy Donne QC, passed on his condolences to Mr Adlam’s family, and revealed that he had given up riding his road bike following a number of crashes.

“I hope it's clear that I am sorry for your loss,” he said. “I can assure you that I am terrified when I am out on my bike..."

...because the roads are full of maniacs driving dangerously secure in the knowledge that if they kill they'll come up in front of arseholes like me who will give them a tap on the wrist.

I don't disagree that the sentence seems lenient, especially the lack of jail time, for killing a person through calculated negligence.

But I do wonder how it compares with similar cases not involving cyclists. So here is a case resulting in death and (multiple) injury through careless ... cooking.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/02/one-killed-31-left-ill-u...

> the wing mirror had been pushed out of alignment when Gray hit a hedge, meaning he drove for a mile and a half without a clear view of the nearside of the vehicle.

Surely you mean:

"the wing mirror had been pushed out of alignment when Gray carelessly hit a hedge, he then chose to continue without a clear view of the nearside of the vehicle, until he killed Mr Adlam."

Continuing to drive when your vehicles mirrors are out of alignment is not a mitigating factor - it as an aggrevating factor. If there was ever any doubt that he should have been prosecuted for causing death by dangerous driving, this surely tips the balance.

Where is the Health and Safety at Work prosecution for this for corporate manslaughter?  If they'd dropped a pallet of bricks on someone from a crane tey would be in the dock.  Why should this be any different, especially as the other deficiencies on the vehicle point to a disregard for the safety of others.  It's not clear if the tanker was fuel or something else, but fuel tanker drivers are supposedly more rigorously trained.  Doesn't mean they actually conduct themselves any better.

""“I hope it's clear that I am sorry for your loss,” he said. “I can assure you that I am terrified when I am out on my bike. And after my last accident I have stopped riding my road bike,” he added.""

Of ffs lets just all give up then, and buy Range Rovers shall we?

How can a supposedly professional driver not notice or fail to correct his mirrors' postion for a mile and a half? That's a few minutes on a B road.

If this is from a cycling judge who should have some understanding of the risk, what hope is there?

I am absolutely sick of this idea that people can be killed through "careless" driving. Careless is leaving the house and forgetting your keys. Driving in such a way that somebody is killed is the very definition of dangerous.
Dangerous: likely to injure or harm somebody, or to damage or destroy something

He'd already hit a hedge that damaged the safety equipment on his vehicle. Continuing to drive with this damage surely pushes this from careless to dangerous.

I won't even go there with the two year driving ban.

This is appalling.  It's bad enough that magistrates show leniency towards 'ordinary' drivers who kill (apparently because of a 'there but the grace of gods go I' type of sympathy with the driver) but to not demand higher standards from professional drivers is unacceptable.  It was not a momentary lapse of judgment - he chose to drive without vital safety equipment.

Quote:

“At a point where the defendant believed he had passed the bicycle he pulled in. However, he had misjudged where the bicycle was.

Considering he had no means of looking for the cyclist, there is no judgment here. More accurate to say the driver incorrectly guessed the cyclists position.

Hmm... so we've a company which is totally uninterested in safety - on the road at at least - from top to bottom. A driver who is fatally "careless" but who doesn't serve a prison sentence for that (let's hope he's careful if he's driving while banned). Who can be back driving again in under two years. And probably will given current demand.

Oh - and a general driving culture that means that "forgetting" about people you've passed is actually seen as quite understandable, if not normal.

Is there a better way? Would this be improved by making these vehicles electric, adding a few "should" guidelines in the highway code, encouraging empathy, building more roads, raising the speed limit, or putting number plates on cyclists?

Is this "just one of those things"? Sad but inevitable?

How is it not a life ban from driving?