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news
Red Hill roundabout, Leicester (Google Maps)Motorist avoids jail for deliberately ramming cyclist who questioned close pass
A driver who deliberately rammed a cyclist following an argument about a close pass has been given a suspended sentence for dangerous driving and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, the incident seeing the victim flung into the air and left with whiplash after complaining to the motorist about an earlier overtake, telling her he had it on camera and later striking her wing mirror after she again drove too close to him.
Sarah Torgerson was sentenced on Friday at Leicester Crown Court, Leicestershire Live reports, and was told by recorder Justin Wigoder that she had "effectively ruined" the cyclist's life and the "very serious offence" would carry the "right sentence [... of] three to four years in prison", but due to mitigating factors she instead received a two-year sentence suspended for two years.
The victim thought he had broken his spine, such was the collision force, and described the incident as "like a hate attack" against cyclists, explaining that his bike worth £8,000 is unusable due to the damage and he "almost had a panic attack" when he tried to ride again post-recovery.
The incident happened on 2 February 2022, the man cycling south on Loughborough Road in Birstall when he was overtaken by two vehicles, the second being driven by 40-year-old Torgerson who close passed him.
As the traffic stopped he caught up with the driver and objected to the close overtake, telling her that he had a camera running and had filmed the incident.
In response, the driver stuck a finger up at the cyclist and both parties continued on their way. Moments later, at the Red Hill Roundabout, the driver stopped her Ford Focus very close to the cyclist who "reached out and banged down on her wing mirror".
Torgerson then rammed into the cyclist, launching him into the air and causing a heavy impact to his spine as he landed on the kerb and hit his head on the road. The driver, who it is reported has a previous conviction for dangerous driving from 2007, admitted ramming the cyclist when she phoned Leicestershire Police from the scene.
The man suffered whiplash and bruising, his bike written off and a watch worth more than £700 smashed. He also reported having to cancel a cycling trip to Mallorca.
In a statement heard in court, read out by prosecutor Eunice Gedzah, the cyclist said the incident had ruined his life and felt like a "hate attack" on him for being a cyclist.
"This incident felt like a hate attack on me. I feel hate towards cyclists is getting worse. We are people too," he said. "Since this incident, when I last went out on my bike I almost had a panic attack. I'm even a lot more nervous in a car, even when my wife's driving me. I'm not normally a nervous person. It's the fact she deliberately drove into me."
Torgerson's legal representation, Michelle Harding, said the cyclist had hit the vehicle's wing mirror "with some force because he felt she was too close to him" and argued the subsequent attack was partly explained by her client's mental health struggles.
"She turned her wheel into him and knocked him off his bike," Ms Harding admitted. "Her condition is not an excuse but goes some way to explaining why she may have behaved as she did."
Having heard the evidence, Mr Wigoder concluded "it's that serious" that under normal circumstances a motorist who acted as Torgerson did should expect to be sent to prison for three to four years as "cyclists are vulnerable and it's the court's first duty to protect them".
However, he decided Torgerson should not be sent "straight to prison" due to mitigating factors, including her mental health history, the fact she has two young children, and a doctor's opinion that she suffers with post-traumatic stress disorder that might cause "outbursts".
"I'm not going to send you straight to prison," Mr Wigoder said. "But what you did was to drive your car deliberately at a vulnerable cyclist. He thought he had a broken spine and, as you heard, you have effectively ruined his life. The one thing he really enjoyed was cycling, both to work and socially, and he can't do that now.
"This was a very serious offence indeed. I think the right sentence is three to four years in prison — it's that serious. Cyclists are vulnerable and it's the court's first duty to protect them."
Torgerson's two-year sentence is suspended for two years and she will be required to spend 30 days working with probation services. She was also banned from driving for two years and must take an extended retest in order to reclaim her licence.
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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75 comments
I used to use a canal path on my commute. Too narrow for anything other than pootling and as you said, too much standing water after rain.
I am left to using the road due to the speed I cycle being unsuitable for shared use or canal paths. I do everything I can to keep myself safe which does nothing to prevent the dangerous passes from drivists who dgas about my life.
I often shout something in surprise at nobody in particular. The soft soul of some of the drivists can't seem to take it though, almost as if they know what they did was wrong and assume I am shouting at them.
How about cycling a bit slower?
I bet you are happy to see cars driving more slowly. How about the same for cyclists?
It's not stated in this article, but in the Leicester Mercury coverage it states "Torgerson admitted dangerous driving and assault occasioning actual bodily harm".
I'm pissed at the CPS on the victims behalf, I understand the increased threshold to prove attempted murder, but the prejudice of the CPS to ignore psychological injuries has diminished the conviction to actual bodily harm, down from grevious harm.
Whatever a doctor will testify to her situation, she's inflicted a textbook example of PTSD on him
That should be a good argument for treating road violence more seriously as the victims will have to be dealing with roads and traffic for the rest of their life.
The real news is that this matter was successfully prosecuted without the case going before a jury which suggests a prosecution that was skilfully put together leaving the defendant with no where to turn. But don't let that get in the way of your prejudices. The sentence may well be lenient but of course can be appealed. If you want to make a difference rather than moan behind your keyboard you can take the matter up with the Attorney General's Office as an appeal against an unduly lenient sentence.
The sentence cant be appealed unless the Judge made an error of procedure which is rare and unlikey.
Check your facts. (Undue leniency scheme only applies to deaths)
Judges make mistakes every day, the appeals courts are busy for that evey reason. For unduly lenient cases 'anyone can ask for a sentence to be reviewed'. Sadly all the cases I dealt with involved death. Following this could help https://www.gov.uk/ask-crown-court-sentence-review. Road.cc has even covered a case albeit one involving a fatality https://road.cc/content/news/jail-term-doubled-driver-who-killed-cyclist.... Just don't blame the Prosecutors for Judicial errors, prejudices or poor decisions. None of us are perfect, especially on the Internet.
Looks like we all need to declare that cycling is a religion!
Wait - it isn't?
Not officially - yet.
No need for religious BS. Following the murder of Sophie Lancaster, cyclists exhibit the criteria to fall under the definition of alternative subculture, and therefore to be a target of crime based solely on your existence as a cyclist can be treated as a hate crime.
Definition of Alternative Subculture
“Alternative Subculture means a discernible group that is characterized by a strong sense of collective identity and a set of group-specific values and tastes that typically centre on distinctive style/clothing, make- up, body art and music preferences.
Those involved usually stand out in the sense their distinctiveness is discernible both to fellow participants and to those outside the group. Groups that typically place themselves under the umbrella of “alternative” include Goths, emos, punks, metalllers and some variants of hippie and dance culture (although this list is not exhaustive).”
Sylvia Lancaster OBE
Professor Jon Garland
Dr Paul Hodkinson
March 2013
There's no unifying genre of music or eyeliner, but you certainly can't deny "a strong sense of collective identity and a set of group-specific values"
Ha! Based on the variety of attitudes, beliefs and behaviours exhibited even in this tiny bit of "the cycling sub-culture" I'll deny any such collective identity.
I feel the same about attempts to shove me into some "cyclist" category as I do about attempts to shove me into some singular national category. I'm British only by geography and passport, not by sharing beliefs and behaviours with millions of folk who seem as daft as brushes or mad as belfry bats high on fermented moth juice.
Of course, there is a large pressure from (as usual) the floggers of stuff to create a certain cyclist category, with the shared belief that they can only be a troo cyclist if they buy a £12,000 bicycle and dress like a TdeFer. These are a tiny minority of those who are ocassionally cyclists.
Oh, the wearing of lycra is completely ancillary to this, the core identity being "Have bike, will ride" and the specific group values are "I have the right to travel from A to B on my bike without fear or persecution"
I'm annoyed because the CPS, like all public services, is bound by onerous budget and resource constraints, so are forced to operate in a minimum representation of justice mentality.
I don't know the details of the case, but it doesn't take a wild imagination to suspect that CPS know the true level of offense is GBH, so rather than pushing for attempted murder and settling on GBH, they've threatened GBH for the defendant to settle with ABH.
Get 2/3rds the result with minimal effort. It's an accountant's wet dream, but actual justice is eroded.
I know this is just how the game is played, but the sentencing still reflects the idealised threshold for offenses that are only found in the most clear-cut cases, or by the most draconian justices now relegated to the history books.
Appeals work both ways, so judges are scared to apply too harsh a sentence in case it's overturned
Another insulting sentence for using a car as a weapon.
Personally, I'm not too 'bothered' by her NOT going to prison, but a two years suspended sentance is too lenient, the thing that really bothers me about this is the two year driving ban.. FFS she's even got prior form.. she's proved TWICE that she should not be trusted to drive a motor vehicle. On what planet does someone think this ticking time bomb should ever be allowed to drive again?
This should have been a 'minimum' of a four year suspended sentance and a ten year ban.
Justice be damned.
Two years is the longest sentance that can be suspended. Currently the prisons are full and judges are under pressure not to jail criminals:
Criminals in England and Wales spared jail sentences because of overcrowding
England and Wales judges told not to jail criminals as prisons full – report
The prisons are full of 15,000 people on remand waiting for trial.
This has been known about for years, and not addressed by this Govt.
Put the blame where it belongs.
Labour.
Not just labour, Jeremy Corbin
To be fair it was the Cons which first outsourced a prison, but Labour were the ones who ran with it.. Boiling it back to the 'why' we're in this state you can go right back to the mid 70's when things started getting out of control and judges were sending more and more people to prison and costs were spirialling.. the clear issue is that prison doesn't reform anyone, e.g. it doesn't work. So if you've got a revolving door of reoffenders then you end up with more and more people in prison. Add in lower sentencing (less deterrant = even less reform), spiralling costs from private firms demanding profits for their shareholders and we end up in a bit of a pickle. While we call for tougher punishments and others are calling for less custodial sentencing. Just another area of the UK which is fubarred.
That's why driving bans should be used more often and ideally, the law should be changed to allow permanent revocation of a driving license for incidents involving someone's death or permanent disability.
Permanent driving bans should be standard practise for any driver who uses their car as a weapon regardless of their success in the attack, even if their victim escapes without injury any driver who uses their car as a weapon has proven beyond any doubt that they are not suitable to drive.
Permanent driving bans would never happen unfortunately. A ban followed by an extended re-test and a psychological evalutaion would be enough. I doubt any doctor would sign off on giving a license back to anybody unless there was really no risk.
In what world does a 'maximum suspended sentence' make any sense? 'Especially' with overloaded prisons the norm in the UK.
Genuinley curious.. maybe there's an obvious answer I've not thought of.
AIUI, the thinking is that a prison sentence of more than 2 years reflects a crime so serious that a suspended sentence would not be appropriate.
^ This. I think we live in a world where judges (and others) think that it is not possible to live a normal life without a car, and that to impose a driving ban would amount to unthinkable cruelty. I have four grown up children who have all left home and have independant lives in four different towns/cites in the UK. None of them hold a driving licence and they get around by bike, on foot and public transport. My wife and I got rid of our car four years ago and, to the amazment of many, have never looked back.
"Her condition is not an excuse but goes some way to explaining why she may have behaved as she did."
So, an excuse then?
If the driver has a health condition that causes her to repeatedly drive dangerously, then I'm not sure she can be classed as safe behind the wheel of a vehicle.
Does sound like one doesn't it. But its obviously not because he prefaced it with "not an excuse". Its like saying "no offence" just before you insult someone.
There is no "felt" about it - if the cyclist was able to hit her wing mirror, then by definition she was too close.
The only mitigating circumstance that has any bearing as far as I am concerned is that she has young children. But as others have said, she should be banned from driving for life.
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