Year's driving ban and fine for "careless" driver who killed cyclist

A nurse who caused the death of a 68-year-old cyclist when executing a right turn – despite the victim wearing a hi-viz jacket – has received a year’s driving ban, a £300 fine and been ordered to pay £150 costs with a £15 victims' surcharge, the Lincolnshire Echo reports.

As reported previously on road.cc the junction where the incident occurred was a known accident blackspot and indeed the council was warned five years ago that a serious injury or death was likely to occur there.

In a defence that has echoes of the Colorado hit-and-run case that has caused outrage, Wendy Walmsley’s defence lawyer, Ben Pears attempted to secure a lesser sentence for her by making a "special reasons" application.

"If Walmsley is banned from driving then she will lose her job," he said of 39-year old who had pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving.

"This is a stretch of road where there have been 10 similar injury collisions in the past 25 years – nine of which have involved cyclists and one a motorcyclist.

"History does very much suggest there is a danger when a two-wheeled vehicle on the road meets a four-wheeled vehicle trying to turn right into North Road.”

District Judge Richard Blake rejected this argument on the grounds that the junction is typical of those found elsewhere in the county, though he did state that this "was one of those tragic accidents that anyone could find themselves involved in".

The victim, Derek Vickers, was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident on the morning of  May 17 and having been thrown from his bike suffered serious head injuries to which he succumbed later that day.