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Lorry driver involved in fatal collision with Denbighshire cyclist banned for five years

Petition calling for safety improvements at the junction where the incident took place has now attracted over 1,000 signatures

The lorry driver involved in a fatal collision with Jane Greaves in Denbighshire last November has been handed a five-year driving ban and placed on a community order after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving.

John Dedman, 60, of Royston, Barnsley, hit Greaves at a crossroads on the B5428 near Trefnant, at a notorious accident blackspot.

Alun Humphreys, prosecuting, said that Dedman had told police: “I didn’t see her at all. She crossed the junction and before I knew...I just didn’t see her.”

He said that there had been a blind spot at his front near side corner, but the prosecution believed this could have been overcome by an adjustment of his seating position.

Andrew Hutchinson, defending, said of Dedman: “Physically he’s all right, emotionally he’s not,” and added that his client had been so affected by the incident that he had given up his job as an HGV driver.

“If he could turn the clock back he would, and the tragedy would live with him for the rest of his life. What we are seeing here is that the defendant’s standard of driving just dipped below the standard of a competent driver.”

The court heard that the lorry approached the crossroads at 3mph and hit the cyclist at about 11mph. A van driver is said to have heard Greaves shout, “Hey, hey,” as the lorry began to cross her path. Humphreys said she applied her brakes to try and avoid the collision, but the position of the lorry left her with no room to manoeuvre. She later died in hospital in Stoke on Trent.

Dedman was banned from driving for five years, placed on a community order for three months and will be electronically tagged for a 7pm-7am curfew. He was also asked to pay £145 costs.

Over a thousand people have signed a petition calling for safety improvements to be made to the junction where Greaves was killed. Jonathan Walker, who posted the petition, says that particular attention is required to significantly slow traffic on the Lower Denbigh Road and ensure that traffic entering the junction from the B5428 is brought to a stop.

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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4 comments

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Airzound | 8 years ago
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A fucking sickening sentence for a driver who was clearly incompetent, negligent who fucked up and killed some one. They just didn't look. Period. How much longer do we have to put up with this shit? So many drivers and courts DGAF about cyclists. Cycling in UK is dangerous.

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hampstead_bandit | 8 years ago
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“I didn’t see her at all. She crossed the junction and before I knew...I just didn’t see her.”

very common excuse for not noticing cyclists??

this evening whilst riding home on CS3 with other cyclists, had a complete asshat in a private ambulance straight turn across CS3 without indicating, causing us all to brake very hard to avoid riding straight into him. I came within 1 foot of hitting the side of his vehicle.

//ep1.pinkbike.org/p6pb12416824/p5pb12416824.jpg)

Several swear words were shouted at this driver due to the near death experience we'd all just had, perhaps he was short of customers and touting for business?

//ep1.pinkbike.org/p6pb12416825/p5pb12416825.jpg)

He then told us not to swear at him, and started ranting that "you lot think you own the road", "it doesn't matter you are on a cycle lane", "of course I indicated", etc.

time for a helmet camera, can anyone recommend a good value one to help me, help the Met prosecute these dangerous drivers?

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freespirit1 replied to hampstead_bandit | 8 years ago
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Why not start by reporting this to his employers?

They are ERS Medical.

www.ersmedical.co.uk

reg no YJ64JXV

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Evo Lucas replied to hampstead_bandit | 8 years ago
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Looks like they have form https://youtu.be/MWySv-MkJ68 Contour cams are quite reliable, as too basic Gopro models, something with GPS integrated would be the Garmin Virb.

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