A man who killed a cyclist in a hit-and-run incident in Liverpool has been sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
James O’Donnell, 35, was driving at speeds of up to 68mph along a 30mph road when he hit 63-year-old Keith Hornby from the rear. Hornby died at the scene from his injuries.
Merseyside Police say that O’Donnell, who was driving at 63mph at the time of the collision, promptly drove away from the scene before abandoning his car nearby. He then started walking back to his home in Huyton after stopping to buy alcohol. However, he was apprehended by police and promptly arrested.
Police bodycam footage shared to coincide with O’Donnell’s sentencing shows him stumbling across the road and slurring his words. During his arrest, he told officers “I’m drunk” and that he was “gonna kick off”. He was subsequently found to be three times over the drink-driving limit.
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O’Donnell initially denied the charges of causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop at the scene and driving a motor vehicle when the alcohol level is above the limit. However, he changed his plea to guilty before the trial and was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison.
Detective Sergeant Andy Roper said O’Donnell showed “a complete disregard for anyone else on the road.”
“Having struck Mr Hornby, O’Donnell then showed absolutely no remorse or concern for what he had done. He turned his car around, returned to where Mr Hornby lay and looked at him before driving away at speed into the housing estate.
“Keith Hornby was going about his life, enjoying something he loved to do and riding his bike on a route that was extremely familiar to him. As he enjoyed that sunny spring day, he had no idea a dangerous drunk driver was approaching him from behind at excessive speed.
“Mr Hornby was the primary carer for his elderly mother and was just taking an hour out of his demanding day to get some fresh air and exercise.
“Our thoughts remain with Mr Hornby’s family and friends.”
At the time of Hornby’s death, his family in a statement said they were “devastated with Keith’s death and are struggling to come to terms with how it occurred.” Cycling was described as his main hobby, his family adding that “many people would have seen Keith riding his dark blue mountain bike.” He was also days away from celebrating his mother’s 90th birthday.
8 thoughts on “Drunk driver who killed cyclist while driving 63mph in a 30mph zone jailed for 11 years”
Nearly 12 years is not nearly enough for that IMO, but at least it’s jail time.
Meanwhile, with the lack of shocking CCTV footage, drivers can simply explain they ‘cannot understand how they ran over and killed the cyclist’ and that is accepted by the court as ‘fair enough, well, best not drive for a year and I’m sure you’ll be fine to be back out on the roads again’.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7478vgykw8o
This particular case, the poor lady cyclist was most likely using the cycling infrastructure, which places a cyclist at greater risk across a junction with poor sight-lines.
But that appears to have excellent sight lines.
He didn’t see her because he didn’t look.
My thoughts and sympathies to the family and friends of Jane, and of course Keith.
Excellent sight lines if you stop at the junction and look properly.
We have all probably experienced a driver who rolls up to a give way like this, glances quickly then pulls out. I expect that’s exactly what happened in this case. I think the driver only bothered to look for motorised traffic and completely ignored the existence of the cycle lane.
It’s frustrating how ‘I can’t explain how I didn’t see the cyclist’ seems to be accepted as a defence argument, rather than an aggravating factor.
He got off lightly. 5 years if he keeps his nose clean. Makes you wonder what you have to do to get a life sentence…
But in mitigation, he was so pissed, he had no idea he was speeding.
The useless selfish prat is actually grinning as he is arrested.
There was an excellent story in the papers yesterday about Nathan Newby, who received the George Cross for his incredible courage in talking a mentally ill man who intended to attack his former workplace with a bomb out of his plan. The attacker was jailed for a minimum of 37 years despite not going through with it; there is plenty of argument to be had (in my opinion) as to whether that sentence was appropriate and whether treatment rather than punishment would have been preferable, but I don’t think many people would find it reasonable that this piece of human sewage will get, with good behaviour, seven times less jail time when he did actually kill someone.
There seem to have been literally no mitigating factors and nothing in his defence and even then he gets a middle of the road sentence.
Personally speaking however I don’t believe there are any excuses for doing what he did. I wonder what he sentence would have been if he had stopped after killing this man? No doubt we would be reading about a 4-5 year sentence because he decided to stop. We would be hearing about his good character. His single lapse in concentration.
Without the CCTV footage, he would have been able to claim ‘the cyclist just swerved out in front of me, nothing I could have done to avoid them’. Followed by the old ‘I was in shock, so drove home and had a few whiskies to calm my nerves’.