Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Driver blacked out for 15 seconds before killing cyclist, court told

South Wales crash victim Jack Berry’s family are building a school in his memory in his wife’s native Fiji

A motorist who ploughed into three cyclists, killing one of them, has pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving. The family of the victim, Jack Berry, are now building a school in his memory in his wife’s native Fiji.

Mr Berry, aged 26, lost his life when motorist Craig Gough, 36, crashed into him and his friends as they rode near Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan in October 2017, reports BBC News.

Appearing yesterday at Cardiff Crown Court, Gough, a farmworker, pleaded guilty to causing Mr Berry’s death by dangerous driving.

John Warren, prosecuting, said that Gough had experienced an “absence of consciousness” that lasted 15 seconds, during which time his vehicle travelled 350 metres.

"The defendant has offered a number of explanations but none have satisfied the Crown as to why he didn't see the three cyclists," he said.

Defence counsel James Evans said that Gough accepted that he was "not aware of what was going on.”

He added: "There is no suggestion of a telephone being involved or anything like that."

Gough will be sentenced next month and in the meantime has been handed an interim disqualification from driving.

Mr Berry, a former soldier in the Royal Welsh Regiment who served in Afghanistan, worked as a chef and lived in Cardiff.

He had planned to open his own restaurant, and the money he had been saving is now being used, together with money raised through a charity established by his family, the Jack Berry Fijian Foundation, to build a school in his wife Luisa’s native Fiji.

The couple visited her family there in 2013, the year before they got married, and Mr Berry was said to have “absolutely loved” the country.

The charity plans to open a “desperately needed pre-school” to be called the Jack Berry Memorial Kindergarten in the village of Naqia, and to upgrade an existing primary school through building a new dining hall and computer lab.

His father John said of the plans to open the school for 30 children: "Initially it was one of those things where it was a distraction and it has certainly given us something to focus on.

"Now, although it does not make things right, it does offer us a sense of some comfort.

"As time goes on it's about continuing all the good work that Jack was trying to do in his life.

Speaking of their trip to her home country, Mrs Berry said: “It was the perfect opportunity for my family to meet the man I am going to marry.

"I took him out to one of the villages where you are living on generators and have head torches.

"He absolutely loved it. He would go and build rafts with the blokes, go out on the farm, cut bamboo – he just loved it."

Seru Sarusaru, an elder of the village where the school will be built, expressed his thanks to Mr Berry’s family for "making our dream come true" and said that "the legacy of Jack will forever live on in this village."

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.

Add new comment

8 comments

Avatar
Crankman | 5 years ago
0 likes

If there was no camber on the road, the car would probably have continued in more or less the same line, as long as he had no contact with the steering wheel.

The lady who had no recollection of driving home was probably suffering a recognised condition called "Transient Global Amnesia" which is very common.  The length of time an episode lasts varies but, other than not being able to remember anything that you did during an episode, you function completely normally, so you can still drive a car safely.  The condition is most common in older people but the medical profession does not know what causes it.  People can seem confused during an episode but it is not a reportable condition for the DVLA.

Avatar
vonhelmet | 5 years ago
0 likes

It depends on what it means to black out. I worked with a lady who was diabetic. She sometimes found herself in the car on the drive having driven home from somewhere with no recollection of doing it because she was in some sort of quasi-coma. He could have been aware enough to stay on the road but not enough to notice the cyclists.

Avatar
jaysa | 5 years ago
4 likes

This makes almost no sense.

How does a car stay on the road with a blacked out driver for that long?

350 metres in 15 seconds, so average 52mph.

If I closed my eyes that long at that speed, I'd be part of the scenery long before 15 seconds.

Feels much more like distracted / messing with radio / reaching in glovebox / behind passenger seat etc.

 

Avatar
Canyon48 | 5 years ago
1 like

^ He's right.

My grandfather managed to write off two cars due to blackouts (the first time he didn't even realise he had blacked out), after the second time he stopped driving, it took several months before the doctors identified sleep apnoea as a possible cause - though they never got to the bottom of it.

When I was at uni, one of my mates randomly fell over, unconscious, whilst we were waiting for a lecture. He came around pretty quickly, he just randomly blacked out (young, fit, athletic), went to the doctors and they had no idea why.

What I don't understand is why the driver has pleaded guilty to death by dangerous driving (if he genuinely did blackout). In many cases reported on this site, motorists hit cyclists when not giving enough room and, at worst, get found guilty of death by careless driving.

It just doesn't make sense to me - unless we aren't being told about something.

Avatar
Crankman | 5 years ago
2 likes

Vonhelmet is right, why plead guilty if the accident was due to him blacking out......unless all the facts have not been released!

Having crashed on a motorway after blacking out, I know that this happens and it is more common than you think.  I was just lucky that all the traffic was virtually at a standstill and moving in the same direction.  Apparently, I accelerated from the middle lane onto the hard shoulder where I hit a crash barrier and then a broken down car.  My 8 month old car was written off and I spent 4 days in hospital.

After months of extensive medical tests, no cause was found.  Dehydration might have been the cause, as dehydration can cause a drop of blood pressure which is one of the many causes of blackouts.  I was unable to drive or exercise for 6 months and the DVLA required medical reports to confirm I was fit to return to driving.

Doctors indicated that the majority of people would suffer a blackout at some point in their life and, in most cases, no specific cause would be found.  Around the same time I was informed of the death of an old friend who died whist diving on a wreck after apparently blacking out whilst he was at the surface.  He was only 40 years old.  Quite sobering really! 

Avatar
cidermart | 5 years ago
2 likes

More like a loss of conscience. Absolutely disgraceful! A lifetime ban from driving as a minimum on top of whatever weakarsed sentence they give him.

Avatar
vonhelmet | 5 years ago
1 like

Why plead guilty if it wasn’t intentional? That makes no sense. Plead not guilty on some medical grounds.

Of course, if that were the case, he should then have his license permanently revoked, given we can’t be sure if or when this will happen again or why, but something tells me that won’t happen.

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
10 likes

Ah, hello again the old, 'I blacked out for no medically known reason' defence, why are they so accepting that he had no knowledge of what was happening? it's the killers word they're accepting to try to wriggle out of things.

Death by dangerous but you can bet sentencing will be lenient because he didn't mean to do it and has shown remorse and early guilty plea. Not sure if it's even worth printing the results, it'll be same old shite, different day. 

That said the family are dealing with this brilliantly and the building of a school in Mr Berry's name is a magnificent gesture and a lasting reminder of what a top guy he seems to be.

RIP to family and friends, taken too early.

Latest Comments