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news
Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)Woman involved in fatal collision with cyclist on Camden Road cleared of careless driving
A van driver has been cleared of causing the death of cyclist Ardian Zagani by careless driving after new material led the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to conclude it was “unable to continue with the prosecution.”
Camden New Journal reports that at around 6am on August 29 2017, 61-year-old Rebecca Quartey was on her way back from serving food at Notting Hill Carnival when she was involved in a collision with Zagani on Camden Road near the junction with Hilldrop Crescent.
Prosecutors claimed she mounted the kerb before hitting Zagani’s back wheel. After hitting the windscreen and bonnet of the hired Ford Transit Van, he landed on the pavement and was run over.
Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu said: “Miss Quartey had been working at the Notting Hill Carnival. She had had a food stall at it. Once the carnival was over, she needed to move that equipment from Notting Hill, but could not do that until the early hours of Tuesday, August 29.”
He continued: “Shortly after the collision, Ms Quartey told police that she was tired and had been working at Notting Hill Carnival all of the weekend. She told the same police officer that she wasn’t feeling very well and that she was tired as she had been up all night and that she was diabetic.”
Sandhu said Zagani could be seen for 125 metres before the crash. CCTV from an office furniture store showed Zagani, with a red light on the back of his bike, riding ahead of the van up Camden Road.
Quartey said in a statement to police that she believed Zagani had come from a side road and “whacked” into the side of the van.
There was no footage of the collision.
At Harrow Crown Court this week, Judge Ian Bourne QC directed the jury with a not guilty verdict at the request of the prosecution.
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: “New material was recently brought to our attention and this meant that the case no longer met the evidential test. As a result of this we were unable to continue with the prosecution and therefore we offered no evidence in this case.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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17 comments
So pre existing medical condition plus the deliberately driving while knowingly tired, thank goodness she didn't kill anyone important, a non cyclist, someone with an english sounding name or god fobid, a member of her majesty's constabulary.
Apologies, double post.
Pure speculation, but I’m going for a medical report to do with the driver’s medical condition i.e. being diabetic.
Something like the symptoms matched a diabetic coma, which CPS cannot (or will not) refute.
There was a driver local to me who IIRC, was found not guilty of death by dangerous driving (a head on with another car), when a medical report found a previously undiagnosed medical condition. They had to surrender their driving licence.
If the driver is claiming a medical incident then I’m not sure who enforces the informing of DVLA (presumably for an assessment) or their insurance company.
I’d like to see the premiums for ‘Any accidents in the last five years? - Yes, I went into a diabetic coma, mounted the kerb and killed an innocent cyclist’.
There defence was that they are diabetic, so that won't wash.
As to the comment above about control, there is a simple kit that gives an instant reading of blood sugar indicating what action needs to be taken, so no excuse there either.
So much ignorance...
The blood glucose machine will give you a number, advised to be between 5 and 9, if it is 5 you are allowed to drive. A small list of things that may affect the movement of this number (downwards in this case); the temperature, your weight, where you last injected (stomach, arms, backside), what you last injected, absorbtion rate of insulin, stress, other medication, tiredness, energy reserves, amount of carbs in last meal, amount of sugar in last meal, hydration, exercise, other illnesses... and probably dozens more I've forgotten.
Not defending her, or the stupid law that allows drivers to murder. If diabetes is partly the reason for the incident then there should be reprecussions and she should have been more aware.
As an aside, to show you how it can impact you, I suffered a low during a ride yesterday probably caught it as my blood sugar was between 3 and 4mmol. Averaged >17mph for 40 miles and got home at 50 miles with average below 14mph. Some symptoms are sweatiness, increased heart rate, feeling hot, a little tired, dizzy; strangely common to how you feel after a hard ride. I had a protein bar and some sugar and had to press on for homeas my body would continue burning energy so staying still wasn't an option. Hardest 10 miles I've done for a long time!
A friend of mine was driving their vehicle along a residential road and saw a car coming towards him. He pulled further left, (well on his own side of the road), slowed down - the oncoming vehicle kept coming. He pulled even further left, sounded his horn...and the oncoming vehicle ran into him.
He believed that the driver had been texting but she claimed she had no memory of the incident and it must have been a minor undefined medical incident. No prosecution, no investigation, just something for the insurance to sort.
Thankfully there were several witnesses, all of whom said it was her fault so he didn't suffer financially but it just goes to show how much you can get away with as a driver and how little the police care about it.
As usual, the law is ridiculously lenient on the side of drivers when it comes to cases like this.
Shouldn't be surprised at the outcome, but it continues to sadden.
Most worrying part for me is that he fell onto THE PAVEMENT AND WAS THEN RUN OVER???!?! Surely he should have been safe but obviously not.
New evidence has come to light meaning the previous CCTV footage that showed the cyclist was clearly visible long before she hit him, is no longer evidence enough of her neglegence behind the wheel ? Unless they found a new CCTV feed (unlikely after 2 years as the systems overwrite themselves after a few days, maybe 2 weeks at most, not 2 years) that showed the cyclist was periodically becoming invisible ?
I know it sometimes feels like we become invisible, generally when we are following all the importanct parts of the road traffic act and not doing something heinous like filtering legally, or being one of the "all cyclist jump read lights" but I believe that is selective blindnesss on the part of drivers rather than the cyclist becoming physically invisible.
Did a Google search for the original article and this popped up - https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/council-worker-faked-ids-and-docum...
Any connection?
If Type 1 diabetes it could have been a low blood sugar episode and if she has had bad control recently then it's likely she's missed the warning signals given off by her body. Hopefully the DVLA will be informed and seek medical reports and the driver will need 6 months without incident before she can drive again.
Type 1 or type 2 diabetes ?
If type 2, then it's smoke and mirrors, if type 1 then it is criminally negligent.
wtf was the new evidence ?
At a guess ( and it is just a guess ) the bike was illegal for use on a road, and it was ascertained that this could have been a key contributor to the collision. Or it may have been that the pathologist ascertained that there were high levels of alcohol and / or drugs in the cyclist’s system, and that screwed up the case. Again, this has to be supposition, as I don’t have access to the evidence.
Was the new evidence that it was a cyclist and the guilty party were driving a vehicle and it just took the stupid bastards two years to work out it wasn't a pedestrian on the pavement that was run over? This joke of judicial process is starting to wear thin.
“Shortly after the collision, Ms Quartey told police that she was tired and had been working at Notting Hill Carnival all of the weekend. She told the same police officer that she wasn’t feeling very well and that she was tired as she had been up all night ..."
"Compared with cruising around while tipsy, sleep deprivation caused Tory to drive 10 times worse; sleepy Kari’s driving was three times more erratic.
https://www.alertdrops.com/2017/08/31/mythbusters-test-drowsy-vs-drunk-d...
"New research shows how deadly it can be to drive when you’re tired. The AAA study found drivers who miss two to three hours of sleep a day more than quadruple their risk of getting in a crash, compared to drivers who sleep for seven hours.
According to federal regulators, the accident risk from drowsy driving is comparable to driving drunk..."
https://www.alertdrops.com/2017/08/31/cbs-investigates-impaired-driving/
"Driving when you are tired greatly increases your risk of collision. To minimise this risk
make sure you are fit to drive. Do not begin a journey if you are tired. Get a good night’s sleep before embarking on a long journey..."
UK Highway Code 91
2 years.
2 years, and they don't even allow a magestrate or jury to make a decision.
We need to be told what the new evidence is. It would have to be pretty conclusive, given the existing evidence, to drop the case, something like the cyclist throwing themselves at the van perhaps?
Ho Hum, the lawyer, is there any way to force CPS to divulge this evidence?