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Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)Pregnant woman blames collision with elderly cyclist on kicking from unborn baby
A heavily pregnant woman who said she hit an elderly cyclist in her car because her unborn baby was kicking her has received a £150 fine in court and three points on her licence for driving without due care and attention.
Rebecca Knowles-Dixon, who previously appeared in this BBC feature wondering whether her tattoos and piercings would prevent her from getting a job, ran into Graham Walden, 74, on a county road near Ashburton, Devon, in September.
Mr Walden was thrown some distance by the collision and suffered serious head and chest injuries, the court in Torquay was told.
Knowles-Dixon was driving down a hill when she said a series of ‘painful kicks’ caused her to flinch and swerve into a hedge in the path of the cyclist, according to a report in the Plymouth Herald.
She also blamed glare on the windscreen, but was only driving at 20mph.
Mr Walden suffered fractured ribs and was airlifted to hospital but survived.
Knowles Dixon argued that losing her licence would cause her exceptional hardship as she lived more than two miles from a bus stop and needed the car to do festival work.
She told the court: 'I was heavily pregnant at the time when the baby kicked me in the ribs several times and very hard.
'This made me flinch and caused me to have a momentary lapse in concentration.
'I could not have predicted what happened. It’s never happened to me before. It’s really quite painful.'
Latest Comments
- john_smith 2 hours 38 min ago
Straight into the sun is perhaps an exaggeration, but at that time it would be about ESE, and there are bits of the road which head roughly SSE, so...
- john_smith 2 hours 47 min ago
7 October was just a bit of harmless fun until the "msm" ramped it up.
- hawkinspeter 2 hours 47 min ago
It's not censored if you just pirate it
- stonojnr 3 hours 52 min ago
an example of Kesgraves "best cycling infrastructure in the country" https://maps.app.goo.gl/GsCMbzDUTPdq59qS9
- ktache 3 hours 55 min ago
They are not going full gas at every point. They would destroy themselves. And tactics, they save themselves for when effort is really needed....
- wookey 4 hours 24 sec ago
It turns out that that is national police policy. We found out from this process that there is national 'secured by design' policy which causes...
- mtbtomo 4 hours 39 min ago
Been available for quite a while, full GRX mechanical 12 speed. Probably around the same time as 105 mechanical 12 speed if I were to guess.
- TheBillder 4 hours 45 min ago
Less harmful citrus degreaser is easy to find at £8 or less for 5 litres. Works ok for me, even diluted up to 4:1. Both paraffin and white spirit...
- Veganpotter 4 hours 51 min ago
Nope, it's to keep your straps down and quieter. Plus most sunglasses are polycarbonate and aren't going to shatter like glass anyway
- Steve K 5 hours 22 min ago
And, more seriously, where's the coverage of the closure of the cycle lane which forces you to cycle on the Totton bypass.
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38 comments
There's a nasty odour of misogynism mixed in with some of the comments regarding light sentencing. Try and draw some comfort from the fact that there was a conviction.
I think you'll find its "misogyny" and (I think, without looking through the thread again) "comments from one commenter".
I don't think this is about gender at all - how many male drivers have done similar with some other excuse - sun in the eyes, stomach cramp, sneezing fit, prostatitis playing up etc?
As with all the usual motorist excuses the question it leaves me with is - was it something massively abnormal that nobody could possibly have expected to happen? (Like being distracted because an alien spaceship suddenly lands in the adjacent field, or your unsuspected and undiagnosed epilepsy suddenly kicks in for the first time ever in your life). And if not, should you be driving at all if you can't cope with a mundane event?
I have a problem with the way we simultaneously allow almost everyone to drive in almost any conditions, yet also accept minor details about their condition or the driving conditions as excuses for injuring and even killing people if they mess up. It seems to me drivers get to have it both ways.
If you can't drive safely because of either your condition or the external environment, then why are you driving at all? This applies to a huge range of things, not just this case.
Edit - I suppose there's a wider issue, of why we've ended up arranging society so so many people think they _ have_ to drive, even when it imposes risk on others.
Completely agree.
Reminds me of a rather ridiculous comment from a driver, who professes to be on "both sides of the argument" (I hate that there even has to be an argument), who categorically demanded that a review in the law surrounding cyclists being allowed to commute when it's windy be taken up, as it was clearly a problem as "most cyclists can't control themselves in the wind".
Erm... yeah...you can probably imagine my "wordy" reaction to that one!
Just to veer away from the argument for a moment; did anybody else watch the video that accompanied the BBC article?
I was greatly amused to learn that while piercings, dreadlocks and a cardigan (admittedly a horrible cardigan) were supposedly unacceptable for an interview, it is apparently quite normal to wear so much fake tan you look as though you've blacked-up.
To IronMancole
The sad thing about cyclingDMlondon was that he claimed to be a solicitor yet slags off the profession he purportes (?) to represent.
A bit of a walter mitty in my honest opinion.
I think he's partial to a bit of goat.
He said he'd unsubscribe so he'll have abandoned that name and possibly pop up with another in due course.
In the mean time, let's get back to crossing bridges regardless.
I will start by saying I don't agree with what cyclingDMlondon was saying in the slightest.
That out of the way, there's nothing to be gained in calling someone a troll when they're not actually trolling.
Not trolling, you say?
No, I think he actually believes what he said. He didn't say it for the sole purpose of eliciting a reaction from everyone else. Sad, I know, but no true troll ever sounds so earnest or takes the time to attempt to explain themselves. Also, once a true troll gets a reaction they don't bugger off, they stick around to poke their victims some more.
Also, maybe when he said "unsubscribe" he meant "from this thread"? Just a thought.
IMHO there's too much of a trend these days in online discussion towards branding people trolls when they have odious or unpopular opinons or (as seems to be the case with a growing number of troll accusers) just having an opposing opinion and expressing it in anything other than a deferential manner.
And the golden rule is: if you really, truly, think someone is trolling, then IGNORE, REPORT, IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE. In replying to someone whom you think is a troll, you're only doing yourself a disservice by taking what you yourself have already identified as bait.
Oh, and did I mention IGNORE?
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