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news
Driver knocks cyclists from bikes near Yeovil (video still via Martin Hills).JPGVideo: Shocking footage of driver ploughing into group of Somerset cyclists
A Somerset cyclist has released shocking video footage of the moment a motorist ploughed into the group he was riding with, leaving one of them – his wife – unconscious.
The driver, 81-year-old Michael Tarrant, received a two-year driving ban at Taunton Crown Court last week after pleading guilty to dangerous driving at Taunton Crown Court.
Prosecutors decided not to proceed with a separate charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving following his guilty plea to the less serious charge, reports Somerset Live.
Tarrant, from Wincanton, will have to take an extended retest to get his licence back once his ban expires.
He was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay a £20 victim surcharge.
The footage was shot in Mudford, near Yeovil, on 23 November 2017 by Martin Wills who was on a group ride with fellow members of Yeovil Cycling Club, reports Somerset Live.
Shot from both front- and rear-facing cameras, it shows Tarrant knocking several cyclists from their bikes as he passed them at speed.
Mr Wills said: “The first shows my wife Sandra being hit. The second video shows one of the group being knocked off and crashing into me.”
In an interview with Somerset Live shortly after the incident in November 2017, Mr Wills gave a fuller account of how it unfolded.
“The first I knew was a heavy blow to my right buttock,” he explained.
"This sent me off balance and I fell heavily with my bike landing on top of me.
“Propping myself up, I found I was looking north along the road we had come down.
“One of the riders was lying in the road a few feet away with her wrecked bike next to her.
"Another rider, who had miraculously escaped injury, was putting my wife, who was unconscious, into the recovery position,” he continued.
“Several cars had stopped and three of the occupants were first aiders, who immediately joined us attending the three prone ladies.
“As I was speaking to my wife she regained consciousness but had no recollection of what had happened or where she was.
“Two people were attending to another of the riders so I had a look at one of the other riders, who was in shock and shivering violently.
“Her bike lay behind her completely wrecked. A lady from a following car covered her with a coat and stayed monitoring her.
“I returned to my wife and within 15 minutes the ambulances and paramedics arrived.”
Four of the cyclists required hospital treatment and Mr Wills added: “Apart from being knocked unconscious, my wife sustained a broken finger, cracked ribs, a bump on the back of her head and various bruises. I had cuts and bruises.
> Four cyclists in hospital after driver hits group ride from behind
“The emergency services did a brilliant job. The paramedics, ambulance and first aiders were all brilliant. Yeovil Hospital also treated us quickly, efficiently and with compassion during this stressful incident."
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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62 comments
Motorists should have to take an eye test every two years, and be issued with a certificate if they are safe to drive, or need glasses to drive. The certificate should be registered with the DVLA, and their insurance company.
Driving without a valid certificate should be treated as harshly as drink driving.
Did anyone else notice the front and rear cameras in the video were on different bikes?
You can see the rear camera from the front footage, and the front from the rear.
I reckon he would of run into them wherever they were positioned. Heck I reckon he would have run into the back of a tractor.
In the 14,000 miles I've done since I took up cycling again 5 years ago, I've only ever had near misses with two drivers and both were extremely elderly men who's powers of observation and situational awareness were clearly somewhat lacking...
There are so many things about this case that enrage me but what gets me most is how he didn't receive a life ban from driving. He failed to stop at the scene of the accident but was charged with failing to stop. The only reason I can possibly think of that CPS didn't prosecute was that he claimed that he wasn't aware that he'd hit the cyclists and that CPS felt it would be difficult to prove. If that was the case then clearly he should not be allowed to be driving a car. For me it's not a case of punishment, it's simply a case of not allowing someone to drive who is clearly a danger to the public at large when behind a wheel.
Of course it could be that he has the right connections - I have witnessed this!
I've just watched the video again.
Conditional discharge, driving ban and extended retest, and a £20 victim surcharge? - what a f-ing joke
What on earth was Mr Tarrant looking at, that he failed to see the cyclists? Was he focused on the speed limit signs ahead, perhaps? (Probably not, as he didn't brake when passing them).
He appeared to be travelling faster than the other cars in the video, too.
Seriously, if it was "accidental" then how on earth did he fail to see the cyclists? Did he forget he was driving a car? Did he panic when he suddenly realised that there were other cars on the road and he couldn't safely move out and pass? Did he forget that "brakes" had been invented some time ago? (Edited:) Perhaps he thought that one of those fabled invisible sacks of potatoes had dropped from the sky and hit the side of his car?
If he pleaded guilty, then do we have any record of what he said in court? He must have provided some sort of mitigating explanation, or did he just play doddery for the judge?
When you have law firms advertising the fact they have a great result rate of getting motorists off these incidents you down have much hope any more.
Many don't want to rob people of the freedom driving gives, but then on the other hand want to take away the greater freedom cycling gives.
I just made the mistake of googling for Michael Tarrant, and there were quite a few hits, especially msm newspapers; many of the comments are horrific, with a lot of people saying that the cyclists deserved it. The government review of the safety of cycling really does have to address the issue of cycle hating drivers, there are a lot of them out there.
A lifetime ban ought to be a given, and an absolute minimum concequence.
Not as 'punishment' but merely as a recognition of the fact the guy isn't able to drive to the required standards (assuming he ever was - probably age-related but could be that he should never have had a licence in the first place and has just been lucky till now).
The punishment for injuring people ought to be additional to that. I'm not sure what is appropriate for someone of his age, but surely there should be something if only for the callous failure to stop, that can't in any sense have been accidental?
At the age of 81 he may have got his license before testing was required
He's not old enough, everyone had to take a competency test after 1934, my grandad had started driving his dads fruit and veg lorry/van at about 12/13 (1930ish) but by time WWII came about he'd already taken a test and was a specialised driver driving anything from munitions to fuel to pretty much anything with an engine and wheels.
Without the camera footage it's questionable if the Law would have cought up with him.
BTW I'd do time for that cunt.
Fuck
When you watch the footage, it's hard to see how it looks anything other than deliberate. I'd be less bothered about people on the road if it actually was.
It's a deliberate action, but not deliberate attempt to collide with the riders IMHO, it's simply a combination of a shit attitude to driving, safety of others and piss poor eyesight/ability to judge distance.
Either way it deserves prison time plus a lifetime ban.
This to me precisely demonstrates why riding single file on this type of road was a mistake. They are pretty much all hugging the curb as good little indoctrinated cyclists should, (the widest and first to be hit is maybe 40cm out, the rest are less than a rulers length away) and yet it is this very thing aligned with a person who shouldn't be in charge of a wheelbarrow as to why this occured.
Ride two/three abreast, the position clearly invited this coffin dodger - just like others with better eyesight/reactions to think they could squeeze through. Riding wide and/or two or more abreast negates this instantly, yes you might get honked at, yes you might get some choice words but driving into and through the back of you particularly in a large group is rare as rocking horse shit., it certainly is compared to the squeeze/close pass and then being struck/forced off the road.
Even if your eyesight/judgment is poor psychologically it's very difficult and a different consideration altogether to do that, a totally different thing to misjudging distance or thinking you can just get past to simply mowing down people from behind.
This is yet another thing CUK and others can do to get the bullshit in the HC code changed and to get people on bikes to ride primary at the very least on these narrow roads (and bends) with government information adverts throughout the year to remind drivers of what other road users can and will do and why and if in a group ride two or three abreast forcing drivers to overtake in the opposite lane.
yet another example of CPS not fit for purpose and their clear discrimination against people on bikes, the amount of time and money spent on the Alliston case who was charged incorrectly with manslaughter and was stitched up like a kipper and killers like Helen Measures, that wankpuffin that killed the 4 poor sods in Rhyll and so many more just shows you how fucking unjust and slanted the system is!
Judge, I hope a member of your family gets mowed down and one of your pals lets off the criminal with as light a sentence as yours you cunt!
I agree with your latter sentiments but really find it a 50:50 with regards to this.
I ride quite wide so I have the choice to move left/right, don't get pushed into the curb and make the majority of drivers have to make a concious decision. However, for some drivers it causes more of a conflict because they simply wont cross the white line. Thus sometimes riding primary, even on a clear road, I've had ridiculously close unneccessary passes. I'd be willing to suggest they'd have took the same line if i was further left.
That's not to say it still isn't the better option, however again there should be no question of where you ride, the onus should be on those in the killing machine!
I totally agree that where we ride should not be criticised and I wasn't criticising simply pointing out why I would never ride in that position and that I beleive it to be incorrect. That they like many others are indoctrinated to think they are required to ride in the gutter, continually deferring and by definition encouraging wank overtakes and bullying through.
It absolutely should not make a jot of difference as to our safety, however more than anything else, road position makes a huge huge difference with respect to close passes, being able to make a maneouvre more readily and IMHO being less delayed. Some people move off to the left and stop before turning right and then wobble out to cross sometimes three lanes - if you look at how some road designs are now going cyclists are been told they should do this which is frankly ridiculous. IF you are already riding primary it's massively easier to make a right turn, if you're in primary it makes avoiding crap in the gutter not an issue at all, there are so many upsides to riding in a strong position and absolutely none to ride in the gutter.
If only those cyclists had:
Rode single file - they are
Wore helmets - they are
That just leaves number plates, cycling proficiency tests, and road tax. Wonder how much difference they would make.
Come up keep up. Everyone knows full well that a bell and pedal reflectors would have prevented all this.
Not stopping?
Accidents can happen (altough this wasn't an accident), but not fucking stopping. That is absolute scum of the earth. That's a conscious decision made at the time and should have been added to the dangerous driving.
As for sun in ther eyes... Slow the fuck down, or watch the shadows.
The soft sentencing on older drivers is disgrace. A few years back one in an automatic 'got confused' (as you do) and drove forwards instead of backwards.....through a local off-licence front. Luckily nobody was on the pavement at that point and she only killed some Jack Daniels.
She didn't even get banned, with some crap from her solicitor that she'd suffer unduly if she had no licence. It was only luck some didn't unduly suffer being pinned between a car and a shop.
It's annoying that for example, they're making kids jump through hoops to get a motorbike licence and you can't get a decent bike until x,y and z but yet any daft bastard can have any car. I wish they'd do a performance driving test for faster cars.
Lets say he was too old an infirm for jail, surely there was an option of a big fine ?
All that will happen is the insurers will pay out, so the bloke does not have much of any penalty.
If anyone knows the victims in this case and they are interested in pursuing a private prosecution for causing serious injury by dangerous driving I'll happily help fund it. Age is no excuse and Michael Tarrant should be made to account for his behaviour, including time in prison.
Seconded.
Edit: I just heard on the radio that this video has gone viral. Am I foolish in expecting a wider discussion of the pathetic sentence?
You may well be disappointed. I've just seen this on fakebook and the twats lining up to parade their ignorance of the Highway Codes and attack the cyclists is truly depressing. Makes the Daily Mail look like The Guardian. One tosser has a close-up of the distance between a bike wheel and the hedge, suggesting that the bike should be further to the left. Stupid cunt seems unaware of the existence of handle bars...
Everyone should provide negative feedback to the CPS let them know what a bunch of tossers they are for not pursuing the charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving:
https://www.cps.gov.uk/form/feedback
I hope one day to be the only witness to the death of a partner/family of an MP/prosecutor/policeman killed in a road traffic accident so I can turn around and say I'm not giving evidence 'cause it's a complete waste of time, then watch them jump and down about the injustice.
Probably did not clearly meet the requirement for "serious", bearing in mind that this is a criminal trial and 'beyond reasonable doubt' is required, so the threshold to meet would be high.
Thankfully, there are civil remedies with a lower burden of proof.
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I checked the highway code and it says for dangerous driving "2 years’ imprisonment / Unlimited fine / Obligatory disqualification"
Where was the fine ?
We have far too many behaviorally challenged drivers on our roads
Here was an opportunity to remove one of the worst examples
Two years and he will be back driving?
Hang on - the CPS thought they could make a charge of Dangerous Driving stick, but not a charge of Causing Serious Injury by Dangerous Driving. I can only imagine that's because they didn't think the riders' injuries qualified as "serious" in law. In which case - I wonder how much damage a driver has to do before the more serious charge is considered. No charge for failing to stop either.
We all know why, but for some reason it's always left unsaid - at 81 years old, the driver's field of vision will be considerably narrowed, their reactions will be slow and their hearing will be compromised.
My mum used to work in a Post Office back in the days when road tax discs (OK, VED certificates) were a thing. It was very common for elderly folk to require help filling in the necessary form due to poor eyesight, then merrily hop in a car and drive off.
There was a prog on the radio a few years ago, about failing eyesight, and one optician said it was a common occurence for him to tell people that their eyesight was no longer good enough to drive and that they should inform the DSA. In every case, next year he'd tell them the same and watch them drive off, again.
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