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news
Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)Driver who shook fist at cyclist before collision fined £400
A Devon motorist whose intimidatory driving resulted in life-changing injuries for a cyclist has been banned from driving for six months and fined £400 after admitting careless driving.
On February 7, 2019, Andrew Bashforth was driving to a snooker club in Budleigh Salterton when he stopped at a set of lights behind 68-year-old cyclist Julian Turnbull and his friend, who had ridden from Exmouth.
Devon Live reports that when the lights turned green, the cyclists moved away in single file, only for Bashforth to deliver a close pass.
The cyclists said that as they went past a row of parked cars on their left, they became aware of a Volvo on their right.
Turnbull’s friend said the driver brushed his arm as he passed and then moved closer still to Turnbull while “appearing to shout and shake his fist” at the cyclist.
Turnbull instinctively tried to reach out his right arm, but the car was so close he was unable to. He said that the driver of the vehicle appeared to be raising his left hand.
As Bashforth accelerated away, Turnbull lost his balance and fell, suffering a broken hip, dislocated shoulder, and ligament damage to his thumb.
He told the court the incident means he is no longer able to lead the fit and active life he once did.
The driver of a car travelling behind the incident thought Bashforth’s driving was sufficiently bad that she had slowed, expecting a collision.
She said Bashforth moved left into the path of Turnbull in what she felt was a deliberate manoeuvre.
When the cyclsit fell, she stopped her car to form a barrier and phoned 999.
Bashforth pulled over further down the street and was confronted by Turnbull's friend. He then drove away, saying he would be at the snooker club.
Arriving there, he told a man: "I've just knocked someone off their bike."
When the man asked how the person was, he replied: "I don't know, I left him in the road."
He returned to the scene an hour later and spoke to police, complaining when they seized his vehicle. He then repeatedly called them asking for it to be returned.
Emily Pitts, defending, said the incident had happened at low speed and Bashforth accepted he should have given the cyclist more room.
He had been due to stand trial for dangerous driving and Judge David Evans said there had been “a clear risk of conviction” for this. However, the Crown accepted his guilty plea to the lesser charge of careless driving.
The judge said: "It seems to me you gave way to a degree of impatience and you drove, albeit at a relatively low speed, with a momentary and foolish aggression and witnesses behind saw you very plainly.
"You are fortunate to have had careless driving accepted because there was a clear risk of conviction of the more serious offence and if you had been you would most likely have never driven again."
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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28 comments
Joke sentence, possibly because of a deal with the police in which he was charged with a lesser offence. The police love deals like that.
Looks like budleigh salterton snooker club might be getting a few doggy bags deposited through their letter box.
Why?
In what way are the other members of Budleigh Salterton snooker club responsible for the actions of Mr Bashforth?
It was probably someone at the club that told him to go back to the scene of the crime.
Yet another example of 'oh it's only a cyclist that was injured'. A witness sees him intentionally veer his car into the path of the cyclist, he arrives at the snooker hall and states he knocked a cyclist off their bike, and finally demands to have his impounded car returned. But it's only careless not dangerous!? WTF! It would be good to collate a list of all incidents like this and penalties that were handed out to show there is utter disregard for cyclists by the justice system, which sets the example therefore to the public that cyclists lives don't matter. Sod the cycle lanes, I want to know that drivers will give greater consideration for my safety even if only because they are concerned about the potential penalties for disregard.
This has been done several times over the years, and the results were pretty much as you suspect. Knocking off a cyclist and injuring or killing them resulted in disproportionately low sentences compared to other road users.
cant find the story link as it was several years back now, but I do remember a case where a cyclist was knocked off their bike by a car, who drove off, left the cyclist quite badly injured in the road. Somehow the police identified the car, caught up with the driver a few days later, and the driver got prison time for it, first offence too I think.
normally leaving the scene of an accident with someone injured, is punished with more than just a small fine, I can only think the driver returning to the scene in this case, however badly they behaved about it, allowed the judge to be very accomodating.
but seems weird if it was clearly meeting the threshold of dangerous driving, how the outcome for careless was nowhere near the maximum it could be.
wow this page is 7.8Mb and took 34 secs to load on my 40Mbps broadband - that's advertising
Consider subscribing perhaps? Worthwhile if you can afford it - for me the reviews and community help saved me more than the annual cost quite quickly.
Seems to be the charge is too little, this deserving of more severe punishment
The driver uses his vehicle in a dangerous and aggressive way, following no provocation.
Surely after a six month ban, a number of counciling sessions should be held. In another six months, if he learns the error of his ways he can have the license back. If not his weapon should be taken away.
What about a close pass simulator the driver is forced to cycle in a room with a surrounding screen. Some sort of system connected that wobbles the bike to simulate our poor road surfaces. You pedal for five minutes on a quiet road then mayhem breaks loose. Water, wind and road dirt splatters you as a lorry roars passed. Then like this case a driver slows squeezes you and shouts abuse. If the shoe was on the other foot they may not like it as much
Quite rightly, caught over the limit behind the wheel and you get a years ban.by what possible reason does an aggressive hit and run injury causing incident not result in a three year ban. Mind you it is Devon which makes Normal for Norfolk look like a Mastermind winner.
Whether it's acceptable to publicise the driver's details- you implied it wasn't, and I think it was.
My point is that you and others could now send abuse to whoever lives at that address considering it hasn't been valid for almost 30 years AND the report even states he lives in a totally different place. But go ahead and do your wannabe batman spiel.
I think we should praise the following driver though, could see the bad driving and slowed down anticipating the accident. Then used her car to block the road to protect the injured cyclist until help could come.
Yes, it should be the minimum from any driver but we have seen stories of people being killed by following vehicles or people moving accidents out of the way to ensure the road isn't blocked. Many years ago my mum was walking to work and witnessed a motorcyclist get knocked down by a car turning out of a factory. She ran to help the man, stopped him bleeding to death (unfortunately he still lost his leg) and had to scream at the fuckers trying to move the bike out the way, (to allow cars around the accident), to leave it where it was and instead direct cars to turn around and find another route.
So if I was standing next to someone in the street and pushed them over, I probably wouldn't get charged at all, because we were both stationary.
If you kill someone by driving over them slowly, does it not count?
"You are fortunate to have had careless driving accepted because there was a clear risk of conviction of the more serious offence and if you had been you would most likely have never driven again."
Never again, or for two years?
..
Try driving at pedestrians whilst waving your fist and shouting "Jihad". I'm pretty sure both the Police response and Court sentencing outcome ( should you still be alive to stand trial) would be a tad different.
Terrorism aside, using a car as a weapon should be treated much more seriously. It's attempted murder surely?
Not mentioned in this version of the article, but Bashworth is 81. I imagine that could have factored into his treatment in a number of (possibly conflicting) ways.
No, there bl00dy wasn't!
It's far easier to just accept his plea. After all, he only knocked someone off on purpose and caused them life-changing injuries while driving "...at a relatively low speed."
TBH I hate that they give the options in this case and many others. Especially as he showed no remorse at the time or since. "Give me back my car".
Exactly: complained when the police seized his car? Repeatedly called them asking for it to be returned? Clearly the actions of a terribly remorseful individual...
Doesn't seem like justice does it?! Even though justice has technically been served it is clearly not a proportionate punishment to the crime committed and the life changing injuries suffered. And until more serious sentences are issued we will hear more stories like this. The law either needs to be changed or updated to reflect how serious these crimes actually are and/or the judge has to issue punishments that deter others from such behaviour in the future.
So much for ...
"Justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done"
Wow! £400 and a six month ban; no mention of costs or having to do a re-test. Given the fact that there are two witnesses to the dangerous driving, and that he left the scene of a collision leaving an injured person lying in the road, I'm astonished that the CPS accepted his plea to careless driving and didn't proceed on the more serious charge.
Yet another road rage driver and a cyclist with life-changing injuries, who has been let down by our laughingly called justic system. I wonder how the government's review of road laws is going?
Best wishes to Julian, and hope his recovery is swift.
And also: why is the sentence not as harsh as it could be for the lesser offence? The prosecution reduced the charge and the judge reduced the penalty. Why?