BMW driver accused of “forgetting what the words ‘give way’ meant” after colliding with cyclist at junction; Spiderman supports the Tour de France + more on the live blog
"Forgetting what the words give way meant"
Occasionally, you wonder if a BMW driver is aware of the reputation that precedes their choice of vehicle. Are they just excited by the funky-coloured quadrants of the circle on the badge spinning on the wheel as they move? I know I was, when I was six at least…
Today’s bit of BMW driver-lore comes from Ipswich Crown Court where a driver is on trial for causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate driving. The incident occurred at this junction in the village of Beck Row, just west of Thetford Forest.
As reported by The Bury Mercury, Anna Sim pulled out of this junction in September 2023, hitting Harold Leper, described as a keen cyclist who had never suffered a road collision since he started riding regularly in 1978.
The prosecution told the court Sim was on her way home and “forgot what the words give way meant” when she pulled out at the junction.
CCTV footage from the nearby Londis was shown to the jury, alongside an image of Leper lying next to his bicycle after the collision. He has no memory of the incident and also suffered a fractured rib.
Sim for her part, told police in 2024 that she had looked both ways and believed she had enough time to pull out, blaming the cyclist for “coming onto the wrong side of the road.”
She told officers: “If he had carried on in his original direction of travel he would never have collided with the car.”
Based on Sim’s listed address and the court hearing that she was heading home, it seems likely that she would have turned right out of the junction. It is possible that Leper, seeing this suddenly, tried to swerve to avoid the car by moving out of the lane into the other side of the road.
Either way, the lane is narrow and so a collision may have proven impossible to avoid if Sim didn’t see the cyclist approaching. Still, it’s another frustrating, deeply preventable incident. The trial continues…
Spiderman at the Tour de France
I don’t care much for Spiderman. I saw one of the recent-ish ones on a scout camp a few years ago. But thankfully I know who Tom Holland is, and he’s neither a historian nor a vicar.
I think you can get used to cycling being such a niche in the sporting world that it’s all the more shocking when people from the mainstream of the culture start talking about it. Like when LeBron James uploaded a video to Mathieu van der Poel courtesy of Canyon…
> I PROMISE, the Canyon and LeBron James back story
For many non-cycling fans in France, when the Tour de France comes to visit, the publicity caravan is a bigger spectacle than the 90 seconds of the riders and race convoy passing through. At last year’s Grand Depart in Lille, I managed to nab several hats, two t-shirts – including that polka dot one, a local newspaper with Van der Poel’s stage win on the front page, vouchers to the Asterix theme park, and several chilled lemonades. Sadly I missed out on the Haribo.
But it now seems there’s a new addition to the caravan…
View this post on Instagram
A Spiderman truck with tonnes of surprises? Tom Holland saying, “I’ll see you out there?”
I like this old school marketing, as befits an anachronism such as the publicity caravan itself. In truth I won’t be satisfied until we see Spiderman driving the little strawberry or bottle of bleach, or I’ll settle for him throwing out estate agent key rings from the top of the bus…
Err... how do the brakes work?
Spotted at the Whole Foods
by
u/DarnellaTheGreat in
Justridingalong
Reminds me of the AI monstrosity we saw a couple of weeks ago, only this appears to be real! Might need an Allen key or four…
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Another example of a driver's actions that would have been a straight fail in a driving test but is barely likely to lead to a disqualification... I'm wondering if having a driving licence is like a "Get out of jail free" card...
Yes indeed. I have a version of the R8100 and you definitively need ceramic for the socket.
@perce I'm not sure I agree with that. I think thats just confirming that he is take fully responsibility and recognises that the cyclist could have done nothing to mitigate it.
If we don't fight it now, we'll all end up forced to wear baggy shorts!
@Rendel Harris Agree, I am baffled that the 84 year old who is now banned from driving for year can then start driving again without a retest. We should be re-tested regularly.
@mitsky Just checking the figures and apparently the 2026 average cost is £58,000 per year per prisoner; worth noting that is only the direct cost, you then have to factor in ten years of lost tax income from the prisoner, ten years that the prisoner is making no contribution to society as a worker or as a consumer, plus the fact that if they were the primary breadwinner very likely the costs will include benefits for their family as well. None of which should be a reason for keeping violent recidivists out of prison of course, nor drug/drink drivers who kill, but it is a factor worth considering for lower-level offences.
@Surreyrider I ride in Surrey a fair bit and absolutely many do look like that but the point is they all *think* they're driving perfectly reasonably (as one discovers when remonstrating with someone who's skimmed one by 30cm, "I gave you masses of room") so deterrent penalties have little effect. That's why we need to strike at the root cause and actually train drivers properly and test them stringently (and more than once over the course of a potential 70+ years of driving, it's absolutely absurd that competence and knowledge in what for most people is the activity in their life that will run the biggest risk of killing people you never have to have your qualifications renewed).
@mitsky Imprisonment currently costs over £50k p.a. per prisoner and obviously that will rise over the course of a ten-year stretch with inflation. Regarding culpability and mitigating sentences etc, of course I'm not against condign punishment for drivers who kill (and cyclists on the tiny, tiny handful of occasions when this happens), including prison as appropriate; I was objecting to the ridiculous and oft-repeated demand of MM that drivers who kill cyclists must get ten years, "no excuses, no exceptions".
Hey, but their wool blend cycling adjacent t-shirts are/were fantastic.
@Surreyrider Still the boss. Ride one, you'll see why
1 thought on “BMW driver accused of “forgetting what the words ‘give way’ meant” after colliding with cyclist at junction; Spiderman supports the Tour de France + more on the live blog”
Another example of a driver’s actions that would have been a straight fail in a driving test but is barely likely to lead to a disqualification…
I’m wondering if having a driving licence is like a “Get out of jail free” card…