The Age reports that Billie Rodda has been sentenced to a three-year community corrections order after she pleaded guilty to causing the death of Australian pro cyclist Jason Lowndes by dangerous driving.
She also pleaded guilty to a summary charge of using a mobile phone while driving.
As well as the community order, she was fined and banned from driving for three years.
We’d already reported that Rodda was going to be spared jail, in large part because the prosecution and defence accepted she had not been using her phone in the moments immediately before the crash – even though she’d sent and received a whole series of texts leading up to it.
It was also agreed that she would have had between 2.2 and four seconds to see him. Reading the reports, this seems to have been considered a small amount of time.
We’d consider two seconds to be quite a long time to spot something on the road while driving. Four seconds is an age.
The defence said she’d been looking at her speedometer.
"You said you had no time to react and indeed you did not brake or steer away before the collision," said Judge Wendy Wilmoth. "There were no warning signs as to the likely presence of cyclists and there was no dedicated bike lane nor any opportunity for either Mr Lowndes or you to veer left."
Wilmoth said Rodda's moral culpability was low as she was not speeding, on drugs or alcohol, or fatigued at the time.
We should have a sweep on which PBU Tenpin is.
It's counter-intuitive, but I've found taking the lane to be safer when riding into the sun, especially on a 'fast' road. You can get hidden in the...
No idea. He just seems to be a rich, selfish, violent twat.
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They should get rid of those entitled bus lanes. Buses are just more traffic - and they keep stopping. That's not helping congestion! I mean -...
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What an utter super cnut. ...
I did have sympathy for those who live 500m inside the limit, and commute outwards. I have relatives who do the opposite....
Porsche Taycan. £150k wank-panzer
I know how traumatic it is after a major impact to get back on the bike, and get back to something you love doing that puts you at risk....