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Driver jailed for careless driving that seriously injured two cyclists (Thames Valley Police)Careless driver jailed for 10 months and given two-year driving ban for seriously injuring two cyclists
Police have released footage of a careless driver smashing into two female cyclists at a roundabout, causing the victims "life-changing injuries". The motorist, Zahin Ali, has been jailed for 10 months and was also sentenced to a two-year driving ban at Reading Crown Court on Monday.
The incident happened on 2 June last year, the two female cyclists, one in their forties and another in her fifties, hit as they rode around a roundabout in Twyford on the A4 Bath Road towards Reading.
Ali, 20, was driving a Vauxhall Astra along the route when he failed to stop at the roundabout, smashing into the victims. Both women were seriously injured in the collision and sustained "life-changing injuries".
The motorist responsible was eventually charged by postal requisition on 28 September last year and in December pleaded guilty to two counts of causing serious injury by careless driving.
The incident was captured on the dash-cam in his vehicle and, at a hearing in court this week, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison and handed a driving ban for two years.
Thames Valley Police released the footage as a "reminder to people who choose to drive in such a manner that there are consequences".
Investigating officer Sergeant Matthew Cadmore, of the Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit, said: "The victims' lives and those of their families have been tipped upside down due to Zahin Ali deciding to drive so carelessly. Everyone has the right to travel on the road safely, whether by car, motorcycle, pedal cycle, horse or on foot.
"Drivers should take extra care to avoid collisions with vulnerable road users, because a pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist or horse rider will always come off worse. Whenever and wherever you drive: watch your speed, expect to encounter different road users, be patient, give others time and room, be ready for others to make mistakes, concentrate on your driving, never drive and use a mobile phone.
"I hope this sentence serves as a reminder to people who chose to drive in such a manner that there are consequences not only for them but for others too."
In September, the force successfully prosecuted a "dreadful" hit-and-run driver who killed a cyclist before "calmly" boarding train to London. Edward Hinchliffe, on licence from prison for sex offences at the time of the fatal crash, struck triathlete Simon Chesher before driving through a red light and repeatedly hitting the kerb with a smashed windscreen, and was jailed for five and a half years.
The judge told the defendant, "any humanity that you had evaporated and you calmly went on your way to London as if nothing had happened".
"Dreadful, dreadful behaviour. Any decent person would have immediately stopped and offered what assistance they could. You did not."
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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78 comments
Its fucking ridiculous isn't it. Its used as an excuse for so many shit things drivers do. "I couldn't see them because of X". Well if you can't see properly then you don't do whatever you were planning. If I can't see because of the sun I put the visor down and slow down and move my position so I can see. If I can't see what is coming from my right I slow down and stop if necessary.
I understand what you are saying but I would put it a different way,
Zahin Ali recieved a fair punishment for the crime, unfortunately a well to do white woman with a plummy accent would probably have been let off with a slap on the wrist.
That is precisely the point. Different groups of people are treated very differently under the law. If Ali was a political donor, for example, he could apologise and our politicians would have let him off for showing contrition and being genuingly remorsefull. That's assuming he'd slipped them £10m.
£200k will do it in Wales.
Well that's something to celebrate! Wales is a smaller place but the graft is almost two orders of magnitude cheaper than in England!
Scotland is apparently bent on a similar scale so maybe that's the rate for Celtic Nations? Well, that is, if you just put the decisions in the Edinburgh trams saga down to incompetence (estimated project cost over 1 billion - could have had a lot of cycling and walking infra for that AND bunged the bus company some...)
It's great value for money. For £200k you get the actual First Minister in your pocket.
I'm sure lesser ministers are available for an absolute steal.
No need to worry about little things like being a convicted criminal or killing the odd worker either.
They should up their rates! (Although didn't that business cleverly nab him on the way up, before he reached the heights?) In 2010 - a "cab for hire" was 3-5 grand a day.
Around 2016 lower rank ministers were around 100 grand a year (to get their attention). Services from former prime ministers have of course always commanded considerably more.
Again - glass half-full, or empty? Are we pleased these matters eventually came to light and even attract a tiny amount of censure? Or still upset that the general attitude seems to skew towards the only "crime" is having the bad luck (or utter lack of finesse) to be caught? (Parallels with unsafe and illegal driving, here...)
"and our politicians would have let him off"
How would that work? This isn't Russia.
I think you need to catch up with the news, it is now an established principal that politicians will forgive people their crimes if they apologise.
They're free to do so. We should all try to be forgiving. You're still going to get banged up though if the crime you committed warrants it.
are you sure? I thought it was that people are expected to forgive politicians, even if they don't apologise
Pure speculation.
Possibly, or maybe an educated guess?
That's not how I would describe Katie Price.
Er, no it doesn't. If I punch someone in the face and they get a bruise, that might be common assault. If I punch them and break their nose that might be ABH or GBH. If I kill them with that punch (it happens) then it's manslaughter or murder.
its a joke.
Anyone found seriously harming a relatively vulnerable road user and in fault should be sentenced to 7 years behind bars, by tariff, unless he pleaded guilty which the customary reduction applies. He should be banned from driving for life.
Anyone found DUI or killing a more vulnerable road user should be murder by statue.
Penalty for motorized vehicles are, obviously, too low for the potential harm they cause. Same for a cyclist maiming a pedestrian because of carelessness.
And to prove my point. In another Road.cc post a Glasgow HGV driver gets a slap on the wrist for killing someone. His name wasn't Ali!
Well, it's something, I suppose.
I presume that they couldn't prove whatever he was doing that made him so distracted?
(Probably gives him ten months to grumble about bl00dy cyclists…).
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