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news
Lambeth Walk (Google Maps)"Violent driver" avoids jail after deliberately ramming cyclist into parked HGV, causing spinal fractures
A "violent driver" who deliberately rammed a cyclist into a parked HGV — leaving his victim with spinal fractures that reduced him to "a hollow shell of a person, barely able to get out of bed" — has avoided jail.
Adam Ruszkowski was handed a two-year suspended sentence suspended for two years by a judge at London Crown Court, and will have to pay Thomas Purchase £3,000 in compensation, having pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving in relation to what the judge described as a "moment of madness".
The Daily Mail reported details of the case from court, Ruszkowski also required to complete 40 days of rehabilitation activity and 200 hours of unpaid work, the 37-year-old single father to twin boys banned from driving for two years.
"One inconsiderate, violent driver who wanted to show who was boss"
The court heard that at around 11.30am on 29 August 2023, Mr Purchase was riding his bike along Lambeth Walk in Kennington when he passed Ruszkowski's vehicle.
"You thought he had broken your wing mirror, which it appears caused you to lose your temper and to do what you did next," judge Darren Reed summarised.
The enraged driver accelerated and followed Mr Purchase, driving in "close proximity" and "coming alongside him". Judge Reed said the cyclist had been "sandwiched between the two vehicles and was not on his bike".
Eyewitness reports were clear that Ruszkowski had "deliberately swerved" into the cyclist, ramming him into a parked HGV and causing spinal fractures.
"Unsurprisingly your actions had a substantial impact on Mr Purchase," the judge continued. "His partner had to care for him. He suffered spinal fractures. This was a moment of madness. Mr Purchase could have been killed by your actions, which, I'm sure, is something you have reflected on."
Prosecutor George Jackson explained how the victim was taken to St Thomas' Hospital and has not been able to cycle again since due to "ongoing pain and discomfort".
In his victim impact statement Mr Purchase explained how he "became a hollow shell of a person, barely able to get out of bed" following the incident.
"The impact was so violent and so forceful that I was unable to move my legs. My arms were reduced to uncoordinated wet noodles," he recalled. "I will be forever grateful to the kind members of the public who came to my aid that day, called the emergency services and bought me ice packs for the pain.
> Hit-and run driver who killed London cyclist jailed for 11 years
"During the whole ordeal the individual who had run me down was nowhere to be seen. I became a hollow shell of a person, barely able to get out of bed."
Ruszkowski's legal representation Oliver Snodin suggested his client had "expressed empathy and remorse towards the complainant".
"This was a moment of madness that was a reaction to the complainant's actions," he said. "He is self-employed as a plumber. He has had to adapt to not being able to drive any more. It is frankly something he has had to get used to. He takes jobs in the local area. He doesn't have the means to carry around large tools."
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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59 comments
Deliberately hitting someone with a car needs to default to attempted murder. Everyone knows that a very likely potential outcome of hitting a person with a car is the death of that person so hitting someone deliberately shouldn't be seen as anything but trying to kill them.
If you didn't want to kill them, you wouldn't have hit them with your car on purpose.
Let the defending solicitors try and argue it down to assault with a deadly weapon or some kind of "attempting to cause death by dangerous driving" or some other lesser charge which still carries a prison term instead of having the default be these psychopaths driving freely among us.
I understand cargo bikes are quite good for carrying tools etc for these jobs. I'm sure this could be quite 'educational' for him.
Too dangerous innit...
No ULEZ, MOT, fuel, parking charges, VED....
Yes, they are good for carrying tools - but shouldn't be ridden by one...
This can't be right
https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/cau...
How is it not custodial? Must be category A 1
With "other aggravating factors" too - victim was a vulnerable road user, driving for commercial purposes.
I wonder if the family of the victim, or the victim himself, can have a "moment of madness" and make this lowlife scum pay properly for what he did, and then get away with it if they cry a bit in the witness box. Probably not!
We need an overhaul
Why are you "sure" about that, Your Honour? From this report at least there doesn't seem to be any indication of reflection or remorse, simply a self-pitying whinge about how he can't take as many plumbing jobs as he did before because he can't drive.
I wonder what sentence I might get if I were to swing my bike into someone and cause similar injuries.
Assuming, of course, that I do it in a moment of madness and that I'm extremely remorseful and emphatic afterwards. Notwithstanding my own hardship; without the bike I'd have to make adjustments to my lifestyle.
What you should get, as I said on here the other day, you can calculate from the fact that, all other things being equal, a car is at least 110 times more dangerous than a bike. But then, compare to the eighteen months Charlie Allison got.
"Adam Ruszkowski ... will have to pay Thomas Purchase £3,000 in compensation"
I assume his insurance will also pay out a significantly larger sum in compensation?
Somebody drove into the back of my car a few years ago, his insurer paid me £4500 in compensation. No bones were damaged, just a whiplash injury.
It's now very clear that as with wider society, there is now a substantial cohort of "public servants" that lack even the most rudimentary level of common sense.
Case after case shows the Judiciary to be a soft touch - giving trivial sentences for extremely serious and often violent attacks on cyclists.
Woke thinking is also flourishing - in which the actual victims of violence now see sentences for the perpetators watered down as if they were the victims - usually for extenuating circumstances / risk of hardship etc etc.
People who are violent to others - whether using a hammer or a car equally deserve long custodial sentences. Preferably on some hell hole island many thousands of miles from the rest of us.
Thats because of the idea that society is at fault for anyones bad behaviour so how can you punish someone when its societies fault.
More from the frontline of the War on Motorists...
Basically you can ruin someone's life but as long as you ''express remorse'' you can get away with it. It's a sick joke.
I note that he also apparently expressed "empathy"....
Just not at the time whilst behind the wheel when it counted anyway
Cruel and unusual punishment again for a poor driver. Even worse, threatening his livelihood - and what about his two kids? How's a plumber to get to work, operating in a large, dense urban area - use public transport? I mean, you have to drive to carry around "large tools" right?
Pop quiz.
I damage someone's spine with a hammer for looking at me funny. Do I :
a) Get same or less?
b) Get an actual jail sentence?
Are you willing to be a very apologetic criminal when presented with indisputable evidence of your crime and plead guilty?
Have you ever been caught doing this before? We don't really care if you are a scumbag, we just need to know if you have been caught being a scumbag.
Have you reflected on your actions and are willing to say you are sorry?
Was he riding a bike when you gave that spine a good whack?
6 years for the first 3, 6 months if you tick that final box.
Didn't the angry pedestrian who pushed a cyclist off the pavement and under a car go to prison? Yet that was 'just' a shove, not an attack with a weapon. Why is this less serious?
Because cyclists are wrong.
Didn't the cyclist die in that instance. It doesn't change the intent behind the act but it changes the range of charges and sentences.
I shouldn't change it this much though.
Mr Purchase could have been killed by your actions, which, I'm sure, is something you have reflected on
Some judges are apt to be sure about lots of things in favour of violent drivers
"having pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving in relation to what the judge described as a "moment of madness"
So do you think serial killers/rapists etc are inherantly decent people who have numerous 'moments of madness'?
this judge seems to know a lot about the perps character.
It is rarely a moment of madness. That behaviour has almost always been seen on a regular basis before, just without the criminal consequences. And so what if it is a moment of madness - it should not be mitigation and punishment the same (still responsible for those actions).
Why on earth wasn't this a GBH charge? Or assault/battery? Wounding with intent? It beggars belief that if you attack someone with a lump of metal, the charge is vastly different if that lump of metal has wheels (like a car) or not (e.g. hammer).
Police/CPS are institutionally anti-cyclist.
What a f-ing joke
Because:
The only viable approach is avoidance.
I provide a visual aid to spacially challenged road users showing the minimum 1.5m lateral separation required. Costs a couple of quid so way less than video cameras.
1.5m white plastic tube fitted to the seatpost perpendicular to the top tube on the offside.
So far it works well at the expense of close manoeuvres but then that's the plan - no close passes.
Feedback from the Police has been positive.
Ride safe....
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