A professional footballer has pleaded guilty to causing the death of a cyclist by careless driving.
Lucas Akins, who currently plays for League One club Mansfield Town and has also played for Huddersfield Town, Burton Albion and various other professional clubs in England and Scotland, admitted causing the death of Adrian Daniel on Huddersfield Road in Netherton, Yorkshire Live reports.
The 36-year-old footballer of Heys Road, Thongsbridge, near Holmfirth, hit the 33-year-old cyclist, causing him serious injuries. Mr Daniel was treated by paramedics and rushed to hospital but died ten days later.
The Yorkshire news website reported that Akins was driving a Mercedes G Wagon at the time of the collision and that he today appeared at Leeds Crown Court to enter a guilty plea to a charge of causing death by careless of inconsiderate driving.
Prosecuting, Carmel Pearson said the plea was accepted and Mr Daniel’s family had been informed.
Judge Menary bailed Akins until April 24 when a sentencing hearing will take place and told him: “You have pleaded guilty to the offence at count 2. I am imposing an interim disqualification and you are now disqualified from obtaining or getting a driving licence. You must not drive on a public road.”
Causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.
Akins has played for League One club Mansfield Town since 2022, the striker making 25 appearances this season and starting the team’s most recent fixture on Saturday. road.cc has contacted Mansfield Town Football Club for comment but did not receive a reply.
28 thoughts on “Professional footballer admits causing death of cyclist”
Driving a Mercedes G-Wagon
Driving a Mercedes G-Wagon
Now, a footballer doesn’t need a high-up, square-fronted, car like that. there isn’t a “business case” for him owning one. It is purely a fashion choice.
But it is a car that is much more dangerous for a cyclist compared to a Mercedes A-class, a similar luxury car. There is a reasonable counterfactual to be explored as to whether Mr Daniel would still be alive if Akins were in a less dangerous car.
This should be a factor in the sentencing.
I think you could easily
I think you could easily argue that 90% of vehicles on the road are unnecessarily sized and add a considerable risk of injury (to others) in the event of a collision. Here in Devon, a large number of people seem to think “I live in the country so a huge SUV is necessary”, whereas a once a week trip to Sainburys and once a month to the docs is not really what they’re built for.
I often look at the size of cars being driven around small winding roads…and then marvel how the world seems to fall apart when they meet something similar coming the other way.
That (car-shaped) boat has
That (car-shaped) boat has sailed, alas… (until something like this starts becoming popular).
Many modern vehicles exhibit something of the “reverse-tardis” effect – they are not much bigger on the inside given their much bigger exteriors. But apparently that’s “because safety” or something.
Anyway – I would be in favour of some kind of a Japanese-style rules (apparently you don’t get to have a car if you can’t show you’ve a place to store it, was it?) Perhaps something more lenient initially like “if you have a garage, you don’t get to park your car on the street outside”. Which of course would be unfair as for many older properties where could you now buy a car which would fit?
And many properties have more
And many properties have more than one car these days.
If I had to keep my car in the garage, I would have nowhere to keep my bikes.🤔
I just can’t understand why such large cars are in such high demand. Fuel costs, tyre costs etc are much higher.
It is a triumph of marketing over practicality.
Yes … and people buy what’s
Yes … and people buy what’s on sale. (You might have to look harder for something smaller).
Keeping up with the Joneses?
Arms race (have to have a mini-truck to protect myself from others with them)?
Garages are just “storage space” because we (collectively / government) have accepted that “public space” includes “my parking space”. Why wouldn’t you, until they actually clamp your car and charge you? (Then you go to the court … of public opinion!)
Those monstrous vehicles may
Those monstrous vehicles may look unnecessary in Devon, but here in London they are simply ridiculous. Yesterday as I cycled through St John’s Wood along a narrow street this absolutely gargantuan Range Rover saw me and still turned into the road to face me. So I had to stop and get off my bike to get past. (I was on a GSD) The fat fck couldn’t even wait for me to pass. And he was on the phone.
We’re gonna need a bigger
We’re gonna need a bigger bike…
Several times recently I’ve
Several times recently I’ve come across drivers having to back out of roads and take an alternative route because either their cars wouldn’t physically fit into a narrow street with parked cars or their driving skills weren’t up to getting down it without scratching their precious against them. One would think that would only have to happen once before they realised they’d bought the wrong car for the urban environment but obviously obnoxious wealth flaunting is much more important than practicality.
Rome73 wrote:
Drivers (admittedly, not urban Range Rover drivers) tend to be quite good around horses and their riders – you’d think it would carry over to German shepherd dogs and their riders.
“… this absolutely
“… this absolutely gargantuan Range Rover saw me … “
Did it (the car) have eyes? Was it self-driving?
Or was it the driver who saw you?
the little onion wrote:
Footballer must be worried!
Footballer must be worried! He’s at serious risk of a terrifying suspended sentence and a talking-to here. Yet another deployment of the ‘careless’ instead of ‘dangerous’ dodge.
Have some compassion, the
Have some compassion, the average League One footballer’s salary is only around £5000 a week, judging by some of the penalties we’ve seen handed out recently to drivers who kill cyclists he’s at serious risk of losing maybe half a day’s pay…
Driving a car over two tonnes
Driving a car over two tonnes, or wider than 190cm, should preclude pleading down from dangerous to careless driving if you injure or kill someone. You chose to take such a monsterous vehicle out on the roads, where you knew it would increase the risks to other road users, hence it wasn’t careless at all, it was dangerous.
Or even better: make driving
Or even better: make driving licences weight-restricted. AIUI you have to take a different test to be able to drive a minibus or a LGV or a HGV. Why not have it that a standard driving licence only allows you to drive vehicles up to a certain weight, and make that weight be low enough that you’d have to take a special test if you wanted to drive a wankpanzer…?
There already is. For old g
There already is. For old g!ts like me the weight limit is 7.5 tonnes, for people passing since 1997 it is 3.5 tonnes (both gross vehicle weight). The manufacturers have all sorts of tricks to keep the max GVW below the 3.5 tonnes, such as making some of them only 4 seaters as a 5th person at a nominal 75kg will push them over the limit.
In that case, perhaps lower
In that case, perhaps lower it to – say – 2 tonnes? I’d wager that would catch out all the Wankpanzerkapitäne…
I can’t understand why it’s
I can’t understand why it’s took 3 years for this to come to court, then the killer gets another 7 weeks before anything actually happens to him (which won’t be anywhere near enough). The killer has been allowed to earn a lot of money in the last 3 years which, most likely, he wouldn’t of done If this had come to court a lot sooner. Most clubs probably wouldn’t of employed a convicted killer, even if they only got a fine and a suspended sentence. It seems the CPS have allowed him to finish his footballing career before taking him to court.
duzza wrote:
Are you sure? The football world’s not exactly known for its strong moral stances.
Courts have a massive backlog
Courts have a massive backlog due to the pandemic. Nothing to do with the CPS allowing him to finish his footballing career.
Google the Luke McCormick
Google the Luke McCormick case.
stonojnr wrote:
I still don’t understand why lifetime driving bans aren’t issued for cases like that.
hawkinspeter wrote:
I agree, they should be there as a punishment and a deterrent; unfortunately the Court of Appeal ruled in 2023 that a lifetime ban can only be imposed if, essentially, it can be proved that the offender will remain a risk to the public for the rest of their life. If there is any possibility of rehabilitation, they said, a lifetime ban should not be imposed because it could hamper the rehabilitation process (presumably because driving a car is obviously an innate human right and it’s cruel and unusual punishment to take it away permanently). An extraordinary ruling, particularly when one looks at the specific case in which they allowed the appeal against a lifetime ban which was of an offender who had been disqualified from driving twenty-four times and convicted of drink driving nine times.
Yeah but if you take away any
Yeah but if you take away any chance of getting their licence back they’ll turn into some kind of amoral road-bandit! * checks court records again * … oh, err ….
If people are deep in addiction they will likely do anything … so perhaps there is an argument that at some point after they’ve thoroughly proved to have changed their life we should reconsider things?
OTOH if they’ve really come full circle and appreciated the harm they’ve done perhaps they’ll understand why some things are no longer permitted to them?
And indulging my penchant for
And indulging my penchant for picking up the least important matter in the entire article…
“obtaining or getting a driving licence”. What is the difference?
arowland wrote:
He’s kindly explaining, in case the footballer isn’t familar with the word “obtaining.”
And he played for his club
And he played for his club just hours afterwards.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cvgwn0m0mezo
I wonder how he got to the
I wonder how he got to the game?