Emma Way tweet
Emma Way, the motorist who tweeted about having knocked a cyclist from his bike, has been found guilty of failing to stop after an accident and failure to report an accident. However, she has been cleared of a third count relating to careless driving.
Way was fined £300, will have her driving licence endorsed with 7 penalty points and also has to pay £337 in costs.
The BBC reported that earlier today, she had told Norwich Magistrates' Court: "The tweet was spur of the moment. It was ridiculous and stupid and I apologise to all cyclists."
She added that posting that message on Twitter is “the biggest regret of my life so far.”
Shortly after the incident in Rockland, Norfolk on Sunday 19 May which left cyclist Toby Hockley with minor injuries, Way posted a tweet on the social network that read: “Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier – I have right of way he doesn't even pay road tax!" together with the hashtag, #bloodycyclists.
The 21-year-old was charged with careless driving, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident.
Way told Norwich Magistrates’ Court tday that as a result of her tweet, and the media storm that followed, she had lost her job as a trainee accountant.
ITV reports that her solicitor asked her to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, how stupid it was to tweet about the incident. She replied, “11.”
Way, who denied the charges, claimed that the handlebars of Mr Hockley’s bike had clipped her vehicle and that she saw him wobble slightly as she looked into her rear-view mirror, leading her to assume he was okay. She added that she was unable to stop due to a blind corner.
The cyclist, riding a sportive with a friend, told the court that although he did not come off his bike, he did end up in a hedge.
"A car came around the corner, narrowly missing Jay," he recalled.
"The car was heading over to my side of the road.
"I was hit on the leg by the wing and on the arm by the wing mirror and tried to slam on my brakes to regain control."
That infamous #bloodycyclists hashtag was reappropriated by cyclists in the wake of May's incident, with Mr Hockley himself helping set up the bloodycyclist.com website which aims to "raise some awareness and money for some of the dangers that face cyclists on a daily occurrence."
Merchandise including a #bloodycyclist jersey can be bought through the site.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.
103 comments
So it's still the tweet she regrets rather than hitting the guy on the bike
What a load of crap. She should have at least been given a ban.
I reversed out of a parking space in 2003, I managed to scrape a plastic bumper of another car. Left all my details, but because I didn't contact the police, I got failing to stop and failing to report. 18 month ban and £450 fine....
She gets away with still being on the road after an incident with a human, who to my mind is my fragile than a plastic bumper....
So what does constitute careless driving ?
At best she is not capable of giving driving full care and attention but she is still permitted to drive. The law is an ass.
Outrageous
It's a shame the law could not make her cycle a minimum mlage over the next year.
It would have really taught her what the roads are like for non-drivers
Handlebars clipped her vehicle as she drove around a "blind bend"? That's a ludicrous viewpoint and I'm sorry but I fail to see how she got away with the driving without due care and attention charge.
well if we all keep posting her name, Emma Way, then it will keep showing up on searches and as employers more and more use the web to research people whos CV's they receive then its going to be bloody hard for her to get a job
Emma Way
oh did i mention
Emma Way
Should be 12 month ban and a month working in a morgue to make the point sink in
"A person is to be regarded as driving without due care and attention if (and only if) the way he drives falls below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver."
On the plus side, 7 points and 21 years old will mean that insurance will cost her a fuckload of money, but I agree that a ban would have been appropriate.
My licence got a 40 day holiday for a single occurrence of speeding. I neither hurt nor inconvenienced anyone.
Private prosecution for physical and psychological injury in the offing? The CTC or some other cycling body could fund it.
Indeed ... and worse than than - she only regrets getting pulled up in public about the tweet - not about the tweet itself.
That seems unbelievably harsh. Surely it isn't in the public interest to prosecute something like that?
Yes the standard of drunk, deaf blind, later middle aged magistrate after a couple of bottles of gin to steady their nerves!!!!!!
I'm getting to be of the opinion that some form of helmet cam is a very wise investment. I got one a couple of years ago for about £90 from dogcam, initially for motorbike use but on reflection, I reckon I'll be attaching it to my roadie helmet from now on.
What better way of establishing what happened in an accident and its aftermath than having it recorded?
She has signed a TV deal with ITV's Daybreak. She's gonna be profiting from all this. I kid you not.
http://ipayroadtax.com/no-such-thing-as-road-tax/i-knocked-a-cyclist-off...
You are assuming the police don't loose it, or the judge accepts that all footage has been edited to look worse than it was!
“the biggest regret of my life so far.” She thinks there's going to be bigger regrets to come?
I bet her previous accountancy firm employer is pleased they didn't hire her, she doesn't even know that 11 is not on the scale of 1-10!
She's not sorry she knocked him off, she's sorry she got caught - outrageous that she wasn't banned!
Cheers dp24.
So on the basis of this magistrate's reasoning, competent drivers can collide with other road users forcing them off the road.
I stand by my earlier conclusion.
I thought it was illegal to make money from crime!
how do you complain to ITV for paying convicted criminals for their story? I guess the autobiography is next.
Yes, that does seem harsh. I was given 8 points (to bring me to an attention grabbing 11) and £660 fine for an "accident" (no damage, no injury) with a car on the motorway that I failed to report. I was convicted of driving without due care. So, how does someone who doesn't take due care and actually hurts a human being not get convicted of that?
BTW, I'm not defending or complaining about my conviction, I was driving badly!
Actually, like a twat!
Proving the careless driving was probably the hardest bit, her word against the cyclists I suppose. I'm actually suprised and delighted that it got this far, I expected the usual can't be bothered approach from the CPS.
She might make a few quid from ITV (who we should all email / tweet I'd say) but her career as an accountant is pretty screwed. Getting a trainee position as an accountant is very difficult so hopefully this incident will make it even harder for her. I don't normally gloat in people misfortune but not ashamed to say I am here
We could always bombard ITV..
http://www.itv.com/contactus/get-in-touch/
More proof if any was needed that knocking cyclists off their bikes is seen as acceptable behavior by the courts
The only positive I am taking from this is that she was found guilty on 2 of the 3 counts. OK, not the main one of importance, but its better than the normal outcomes reported here when the lesser charge is brought then people are found not guilty. Small steps i guess...
I fear that will only encourage them
She hit a cyclist. How is that not driving without due care and attention? She didn't give enough room. It's not someone's word against the other's. In fact, she even said "I hit a cyclist today"!!!!
I agree, though, that it is pleasantly surprising to see it get taken this far. Even if the conviction is disproportionately low.
Don't forget, she lost her job too, a conviction in court also, not something that she will easily move on from. I know they don't always say, but I'm sure that the judge included this when considering her punishment.
Colinth is right. Proving the careless driving is not easy. Her word against his. He has nothing to indicate how fast she was going, and had not made an effort to report the incident himself from what I remember. It was also not a head-on collision which suggests that she at least left some room for someone to move passed her (even if it was an inch). I'm not saying she wasn't careless or anything else - but that proving it is not possible. Who is to say he was not cycling without due care and attention down a hill? I'm sure that is the defence.
Ultimately, she has seen British justice and will likely have learned something from all of this.
Gkam - sorry to hear of your incident. That seems a little unfair.
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