HGV driver who left cyclist with “permanent and irreversible” injuries after hitting him and causing bike to “fire off” road handed four-month suspended prison sentence and banned from driving for a year

A lorry driver who caused “permanent and irreversible” injuries to a cyclist he struck while overtaking directly towards two oncoming HGVs, in a manoeuvre described as a “terrible miscalculation” by his barrister, has been handed a four-month prison sentence suspended for two years and banned from driving for 12 months.

James Templeton admitted causing serious injury by careless driving after hitting a cyclist, leaving him hospitalised for six months with a string of serious injuries, on the A629 Halifax Road near the village of Cullingworth, West Yorkshire, in March 2023, the Yorkshire Post reports.

This week in Bradford Crown Court, a witness to the collision – a brief clip of which, filmed by the cyclist’s rear-facing camera, was shown to the court – said that 66-year-old lorry driver Templeton was not giving the cyclist, who was wearing high-visibility clothing, “enough room” as he attempted to overtake him.

The witness then said that they saw the man’s bike “fire off” into the bushes, as he rolled down the road following the collision.

After “hearing a bang”, Templeton stopped his lorry and later told another witness that he had “just clipped a cyclist”. The 66-year-old also told police that two other lorry drivers were approaching in the opposite lane at the time, and that he assumed that had passed the cyclist.

The cyclist suffered several serious injures in the collision, including damage to his spinal cord, a fractured pelvis, a skull fracture, several broken ribs, and a collapsed lung, and spent the next six months undergoing treatment in hospital.

> Woman who drank "five pints and measure of spirit" before killing cyclist on drive home from pub jailed for six years

Judge Sophie McKone told the court this week that the cyclist and his wife’s lives were “now unrecognisable” since the incident, and that he had gone from being a hard-working, independent man to one who is now “completely dependent” on his wife for even the most basic needs.

The judge added that the victim required a wheelchair to go out and is in “constant pain”, telling Templeton that “his and wife’s lives will never be the same again”.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, the cyclist explained how his life had been turned “upside down” by the collision, and that, without work, he now felt “useless” and that he “no longer has a purpose”.

Defending Templeton, barrister Darren Finnegan described the lorry driver as a “fundamentally decent man who was profoundly remorseful for his actions”, adding that he had not renewed his HGV licence since the collision and was in the process of surrendering the operator’s licence for his ground works business.

Finnegan argued that his client, in attempting to pass the cyclist, had “miscalculated terribly” and that this misjudgement had “tragic consequences”.

The barrister also told the court that an immediate prison sentence would impact Templeton’s partner and son, and added that his client had a history heart attacks, including a mini stroke since the collision.

> Motorist who killed cyclist in “a few seconds of very bad driving and inattention” handed suspended prison sentence and five-year driving ban

Judge McKone accepted that Templeton had admitted the offence at the earliest opportunity and that his remorse was genuine, but argued that he had been carrying out an unsafe overtake which left the cyclist with “permanent and irreversible” injuries.

Noting that the sentencing guidelines for the offence of causing serious injury by careless driving indicate a minimum of six months in custody after a trial, the judge however concluded on Wednesday that Templeton was entitled to a third off his sentence due to his guilty plea.

McKone also decided that the lorry driver’s four-month term should be suspended for two years, taking into account his age, plea, lack of previous convictions, and his personal mitigation.

She also disqualified him from driving for 12 months and imposed a six-month home curfew between the hours of 7pm and 6am.

Nevertheless, Judge McKone conceded that such a sentence would appear to the victim and his family to be “totally and utterly inadequate”, and fail to reflect what they had suffered and what they would continue to suffer for the rest of their lives.

> Suspended sentence for drunk cyclist who knocked pedestrian unconscious, as Mr Loophole uses case to call for new laws and bicycle number plates

This sentencing of a motorist who left a cyclist with serious injuries comes in the same week a drunk cyclist, who hit two women on a pavement in Cheshire before riding off, leaving one of the victims unconscious, with broken teeth and an injury to her little finger that later had to be amputated, was also given a suspended jail sentence.

Carwyn Thomas pleaded guilty to two charges of causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving and appeared before a judge at Chester Crown Court, who called his actions “shameful” and sentenced the drunk cyclist to a 14-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

That particular case has been leapt on this week by certain sections of the media, with Nick Freeman, the lawyer known by his Mr Loophole nickname and famous for obtaining not guilty verdicts for celebrities charged with driving offences, appearing on TalkTV to make the case for updated legislation and cyclists to be required to display a number plate.

“If you don’t have legislation and you don't make people accountable then they’re going to do whatever they want,” Freeman said.

“It would be like taking number plates off cars, people would drive dangerously.”