Road rage minibus driver who deliberately struck cyclist jailed for two years

Found the previous story

https://road.cc/content/news/driver-who-knocked-richmond-pk-cyclist-bike...

Inspector Kevin Smith SYP wrote:

Interesting. 

No separate charge for failing to stop at the scene of an accident? 

Police chargeable offence. I would have used it here. I would also have referred it to CPS for authorisation for a dangerous driving charge due to the fact it looks deliberate rather than a momentary lapse in driving standards (the close pass followed by brake check looks dodgy). The failing to stop at the scene of an accident should be seen as an aggravating factor as it means that the driver can't be breath tested or drug tested (or interviewed for that matter). 

Assault isn't charged for driving offences usually as per CPS charging standards. Notably if you get "Causing serious injury by dangerous driving" the sentence is roughly equivalent to the sentence of actual bodily harm or causing GBH without intent (s20 OAPA).  Getting a charge for GBH with intent (triable in indictment only, theoretical maximum tariff of life imprisonment) is a whole other level of complexity, which is why the driving offences exist and technically have a lower bar.  
 

What you don't tend to get in this sort of story though is a lot of nuance and it ends up with speculation.  For all I know the officer in case did put the case to CPS and they decided to go for the lesser charge (going for the easy option is often used because it prevents a trial and trials are expensive, uncertain and the CPS are judged on their win ratio.)  
 

I hope that the cyclist involved is recovered and that the story doesn't descend into a spiral of victim blaming and what aboutery which is the usual trajectory for the road policing results I post.

(Strange how the interest lobby  didn't want to stick up for the drug drivers we arrested after a pursuit last week, poor innocent motorists set up by the fuzz etc.)

Inspector Kevin Smith SYP wrote:

Intent is a very difficult thing to prove.  Remember the burden of proof is on the prosecution. 

it is why attempt murder is the single hardest charge to prove on the statute, much harder than actual murder... for murder you only need to prove they intended or foresaw their actions would lead to serious harm, for attempt murder you need to show beyond all reasonable doubt that the intent was to kill.  That's why anyone who says "that should be charged as attempt murder" generally doesn't know what they're talking about in criminal justice terms.  

Driving offences don't require intent or any mens rea, just that the standard of driving is FAR below that expected of a careful and competent driver. Check out the CPS charging standards for more. 

I'm going to refer again to this timely link:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/27/british-soldier-who-mowe...

Driving at speed at a group of pedestrians might seem like a clear attempt murder, but note that it's charged here as a S18. 
 

Also the comments about the car being seen as less of a weapon - I've seen offences where a suspect has stabbed someone multiple times in the torso which were charged as S18 and not attempt murder. It's not as easy as they make it look at the telly.  It's nice to make comparisons but sometimes they're not realistic.  You might also want to take a look at your local newspaper to see how low the sentences generally are for common assault and ABH  

Ps as well as being a neighbourhood inspector I'm also a Detective Inspector so I do know a bit about this stuff. But I've hung up the winkle pickers and all about road safety and burglary now. 

These sort of occupations seem to attract those with unsuitable attitudes to driving. 

At last, a suitable sentence. The driver's ban will start at the end of the prison sentence. Even then, I expect insurance costs will keep the driver off the road, possibly for ever.

Glad he got jail time for this - using a minibus as a weapon deserves it. 

And the victim a prison officer too - I wonder if they will get to meet up in the future ! 

Isn't the following the rub?

Quote:

Sheriff Derek Hamilton said that Yorston had shown no regard for the consequences of his actions and that “what you did was quite extraordinary. This was no accident”.

“It is fortunate that the consequences were not more tragic,”

This shows the ordinary perceptions: by default road deaths / injuries are "accidents".  Aggressive actions (potentially fatal - as the judge pointed out) on the roads are "quite extraordinary".  The punishment is going to be low (as these things go) unless there's death or at least a lot of blood.

I'm not 100% on the "usual numbers" here but I think this is sentence is pretty high on the scale for injury by careless.

It's worth noting that the difference between the 2 cases mentioned here is that the minibus driver plead not guilty. 

Wow, a judge who actually understands!

How is that not an attempted murder charge? 

Any other situation where someone:

A - Knows through training in the use of their equipment that it has the potential to cause deadly injury (drivers license held)
and
B - Deliberately uses that equipment to attack a person in a way that realistically has a strong chance to kill that person

would be attempted murder, surely?

He can drive again in 4 years? In 2026 this person will be back on the road as if nothing happened after he tried to kill someone with a bus.