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Statue of Justice, Old Bailey (licensed CC BY 2.0 on Flickr by Ronnie Macdonald).jpgJail for driver who made U-turn, rammed cyclist then sped off
A driver who made a U-turn and rammed a cyclist then drove off has been jailed for 30 months after admitting offences including causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Former police officer Duncan Castle sustained injuries including bleeding on the brain when Kieran Smith drove into him from the rear in Magdalen Laver near North Weald, Essex, on 5 November 2017, reports Essex Live.
Carolyn Gardiner, prosecuting, told Chelmsford Crown Court that Mr Castle was on a two-hour training ride, cycling at between 18 and 19 mph when the incident happened.
“Mr Castle said that he saw a group of cyclists about 75 metres ahead travelling in the opposite direction,” she said.
“Almost at the same time he saw a Volkswagen vehicle in the process of overtaking the cyclists.
“Mr Castle described that section of road as being straight but narrow and his initial thought on seeing the car approach was ‘s**t what a stupid place to overtake’.”
The cyclist estimated the speed of the car to be around 30 mph and decided to take evasive action, moving towards the side of the road, saying after the incident that the car would have hit him head-on had he not done so.
He gestured at the driver with his right hand, as if to say ‘what are you doing?’ and in making the motion his hand was said to have made contact with Smith’s wing mirror, the court was told.
Ms Gardiner said: “Mr Castle put his hand straight back on the handlebar and continued his journey.
“He continued on for about five or six seconds and then the next thing he remembers is waking up with the ambulance crew talking to him.”
Witnesses described how Smith immediately turned his vehicle around and drove after Mr Castle, with the driver of a car that had been behind the motorist shouting a warning to the cyclist to “Watch out, he’s coming back for you.”
Meanwhile, three cyclists in the group Smith had overtaking earlier saw him heading back towards them, “revving hard and driving aggressively,” according to Ms Gardiner. The other driver estimated his speed at in excess of 50 mph.
The collision left Mr Castle unconscious and with injuries to his shoulder and hip as well as a serious cut on his temple, bruises and grazing, and continues to suffer the effects of the incident a year on.
In victim impact statements he also said that nowadays he is most likely to cycle on a static bike in his garage and if he does venture out, he informs his family of his route and uses a tracking app on his phone so they will know if anything is amiss.
Smith, who was also charged with driving with no licence, driving with no insurance, failure to stop and failure to report an accident, had a number of previous driving-related convictions.
The most recent came two months earlier when he was convicted of failure to stop and careless driving.
Speaking in mitigation, Clare Leslie said Smith had endured “a troubled and unsettled childhood and now as an adult has continued to have issues with alcohol and drugs, namely cocaine.
“At the time of the incident he was clean,” she said, adding that although he had relapsed following the incident, he was now attending a programme to help him overcome his addictions, and that “He appears in court today, clean and full of remorse."
Sentencing Smith, Judge Christopher Morgan said: “I have read about your difficult background, but this in no way explains what you did to Mr Castle.
“Your record for driving is quite appalling. A number of offences driving without insurance and of course a conviction which resulted in a community order in September last year.
“This incident occurred in November within a matter of months of you appearing in court for incident of careless driving, you failed to stop.
“Any cyclist is a vulnerable road user, they have little protection. When you turned your car around and the red mist descended you intended to take your frustration out on this cyclist.
“He had done nothing wrong. You know that you had no justification for this response. You decided in your anger to turn your car around.
“You say you lost control, but the point you drove towards him, you drove in such a manner a collision was inevitable.
“You fled the scene, for all you knew you had left him at the side of the road to die.”
Besides the 30-month jail sentence, Smith was banned from driving for three years and three months and will need to take an extended test to obtain a licence.
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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30 comments
I would hope that the victim's ex police colleagues will make the gits life a misery from the moment he gets out.
Meantime, I'm converting to Islam. Makes any affront to me a religiously motivated hate crime and you certainly don't Pass Go for that.
Blasphemy! You know very well that your religion is the bicycle. But we do need to persuade the authorities that it is a real religion, which would then make all the DM, Telegraph and other gammon-dominated media guilty of hate crime.
You sir, are a genius, or perhaps we are between us; if you can't make hate against cycling a crime, make cycling a religion and then the hate is by definition a crime. Mille chapeau. If you're ever in Bristol, I'll buy you a pint in the Drapers Arms.
not if he converts to Islam you won't.
I'm starting. Keep checking road.cc for latest developments. I foresee a glorious future for the Church of Cycling; not a cult, definitely not, no. https://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Religion
Fast progress. I've already selected our first saint.
And our motto "Two wheels good, four wheels bad."
I propose a split from your new religion as I strongly believe that we must worship the "cycling" rather than the number of wheels. You would cast out the tricycle users, whereas we would welcome them with outstretched arms (wearing cycling gloves of course).
Also, you are aware that someone has to be dead before being canonised?
I hereby declare the People's Judean Cycling Front to be open for
businessworship.4-Wheel-Bike.jpg
This is a new religion. It's our choice if we want living Saints as well as dead Saints.
I feel that tricycles including recumbent tricycles should also be allowed.
However, 4 wheeled vehicles may be the work of Stan because they cannot distribute the load over 4 or more contact points on an uneven surface without adding suspension.
I think we should view suspension with suspicion as it adds weight and complexity to the purest of vehicles. We should issue free Suspension Indulgences for people with disabilities.
This religion should promote "velodrome quality" surfaces for all cycle routes, including banked turns.
On Saints' Days, all Autostradas/Motorways/Freeways/etc will be for the exclusive use of Human Powered Vehicles.
I propose that we immediately canonise Kirkpatrick Macmillan, Annie Londonderry, Frank Rowland Whitt, Dame Sarah Storey, David Gordon Wilson, Marianne Martin, Mike Burrows, Beryl Burton, Fausto Coppi, Jenny Graham, Mark Beaumont , Billie Fleming, Monty Young, Alice B Toeclips and thousands more.
I propose Herne Hill Velodrome , Milan-San Remo and the Land's End to John O'Groats route as sacred relics.
This is a religion that is inspired by science, engineering, human performance and fellowship.
Some fabulous ideas there; I knew the collective talent of road.cc would come up trumps (small t). We need to form a committee, or whatever the religious equivalent is. What is the collective noun for a group of cyclists?
I'm starting. Keep checking road.cc for latest developments. I foresee a glorious future for the Church of Cycling; not a cult, definitely not, no. https://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Religion
[/quote]
Fast progress. I've already selected our first saint.
[/quote]
And our motto "Two wheels good, four wheels bad."
[/quote]
I propose a split from your new religion as I strongly believe that we must worship the "cycling" rather than the number of wheels. You would cast out the tricycle users, whereas we would welcome them with outstretched arms (wearing cycling gloves of course).
Also, you are aware that someone has to be dead before being canonised?
I hereby declare the People's Judean Cycling Front to be open for
businessworship.[/quote]
Splitter.
What did the Romans ever do for us?
Broadly, I agree with you, but one thing grates: the criminal is not "Mr Smith", he's just "Smith". The "Mr" prefix is a mark of respect for a sound member of society. A criminal does not merit that respect.
This is tragic. Whilst I don't doubt that Mr Smith has all sorts of problems, that may or may not be of his own doing, he clearly is a danger to the public at large and should never be allowed to hold a driving license. I hear all the arguments about how it is pointless banning him from driving for life as he doesn't care whether or not he has a license (and I agree that for Mr Smith it would made no difference), but the point is that holding a driving license should be a priviledge that can and should be withdrawn if you demonstrate that you are prepared to abuse that priviledge by deliberately putting other people's lives in danger whilst driving. It's about the message that is communicated by the powers that be.
,
Bastard freeloader! Isn't there some way that we can make these people pay to use the roads andf have licences? That would deter them from driving like absolute twats!
Surely this is a s18 offence (Offences Against the Person Act 1861) GBH with intent which carries a 25 year max sentence. 30 months is a pathetic sentence, as soon as it's premeditated then it can no longer be a motoring offence. He clearly intended serious harm and used his weapon against a vulnerable person from behind and then left the scene it's no different to being stabbed or battered with a blunt instrument with force from behind.
WEAK CPS YET AGAIN!
Actually I would say driving at 50 mph to hit a cyclist is attempted murder because at that speed what outcome would anyone reasonably expect ?
Mens Rea and reasonable doubt, attempted murder would not stick, even using a weapon as you've described. 25 years max for gbh-intent gives some meat on the bone, but it's this downgrading of seriousness to ponder to a weak, discriminatory & ineffective system that needs change and fast.
You get harsher charges and sentences for saying a few nasty words than you can for killing/maiming someone with a weapon, that is perverse!
Perhaps I'm too simplistic, but in making a U-turn to hit someone was a conscious decision which would have a catastrophic outcome.
Even at 40mph it's a 90% death rate for pedestrians and at 50, from an inspection of graphs, it well above 95%.
Still, we all know if you want to kill someone, do it in your car.
Two and a half years for what is essentially attempted murder seems rather lenient. But it was only a cyclist so I suppose it's about right.
I've said this a number of times already, but I think its particularly relevant here...
The motor vehicle is not going anywhere and neither is the legislation that is unashamably biased towards the motorist.
However one thing that could and in my opinion defintiely should change is that any priviledge enjoyed by the motorist in our courts system should be revoked as soon as someone is caught driving without a valid driving licence. Have a licence, you are a motorist, continue straight to lenient punishment / pardon.... don't have a licence, you are illegally in control of a lethal weapon and should be treated as such.
Anything that happens whilst in 'control' of that lethal weapon would be treated in the same way as if you ran amok with a gun / machete.
Get these feckers off our streets by treating them like the serious criminal that the are, not like unfortunate motorists that had a moment of madness / misfortune.
I can only agree with everyone else - dangerous driving is not the appopriate charge. It's difficult to imagine many cases which would be more obviously pre-meditated.
That sounds like something that may actually get traction. There is already causing death by driving, an offence I wasn't aware of until the recent article on here. That offence doesn't require any "fault" in the standard of driving - the mere fact that you are driving uninsured/unlicensed/disqualified means the law holds you responsible for the death. From memory, only a maximum sentence of 2 years though.
So yes, apply that more widely, certainly to serious injuries but actually make it a zero tolerance offence. If enforcement of driving bans is genuinely impractical, and technology can't assist and/or no-one wants to spend the time and money to develop something to assist enforcement, then proper deterrence is the only option left.
The sentence here, given the pre-meditation and the previous convictions and the driving ban and the failure to stop is laughable. (And that is with the victim being an ex-copper!)
UK death cage culture strikes again. Motorists feel like they're kings of the road and anyone else is an intruder, this is an inevitable result when we're forced to mingle with them.
A ban is pointless. He didn’t have a license as it was, so banning him isn’t going to stop him. You can’t. Short of cutting his legs off you can’t “stop” him driving.
Although... if you could streamline the process straight into some ASBO style “No license, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect £200” that could work.
I think you are all missing the point with this driver. He doesn't give a fuck about the rules so however many you make up for the rest of us.....he won't be following them. Just more rules for the law abiding.
The guy is clearly no stranger to the old 'no licence, no insurance' so banning him for life when he's not got a licence anyway is pointless.
As for the tabard
a)it's not a police state
b)so many holes in it's implementation and various facets already covered by existing technology that's it pointless.
c)No, just no.
Banning for life would definitely have an effect as it means that any time he gets stopped/caught driving, he then should get an immediate prison sentence.
Well, the community service and ban for the previous incident had little deterrent. Another case of a dangerous driver being treated leniently then going on to cause serious injury.
What more should be needed for a lengthier ban ?
This thug should never be allowed to be in control of a motor vehicle ever again.
So, despite deliberately and aggressively ramming a vulnerable road user,driving with no licence, driving with no insurance, failing to stop and failing to report an accident, ON TOP of a string of previous convictions, he only gets a three year three month driving ban?
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO LOSE YOUR LICENSE FOR LIFE?
For goodness sake, the fact that this cretin will potentially be back driving on the roads - legally - in three and a bit years' time is an absolute abomination.
Just like Frank McAvennie, I am not an expert on road safety, but here's an idea:
Every driver should wear a tabard with a picture of their face and their licence number printed on the front. It would be handy to have a RFID in the tabard too.
We need to do something to stop people without driving licences from driving. Roadside equipment could compare the face with the photograph, check the licence and record the vehicle type and registration number. I hope that there are sufficient police left to arrest the suspects.
So when they close pass we can scan the chip from our phones?