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Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)Woman who caused cyclist to fall off his bike and die banned from driving for six months
A woman who opened her car door without looking, causing a cyclist to fall off his bike and suffer fatal head injuries, has been banned for driving for six months and fined £305.
Robert Hamilton, aged in his 70s, was riding along Linaker Street in Southport in January this year when mum-of-one Joanne Jackson, 44, opened the drivers door of her Toyota Avensis into the road, killing him.
Instead of manslaughter, however, the Crown Prosecution Service chose to pursue the lesser charge of opening a car door so as to injure or endanger a person, which Jackson admitted to, at Wirral magistrates’ court on Thursday.
Jonathan Egan, prosecuting, told how one witness said the door hit the cyclist, another that it caused him to swerve, but either way her act was “negligent” and caused him to fall.
Mr Hamilton was taken to Preston Hospital by air ambulance, but later died of his injuries.
Jackson, representing herself, told the court: “I’m very, very sorry. It was an accident. I have got to live with this as well.”
Robert’s widow, May, has criticised the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision not to prosecute Jackson with manslaughter, and instead charge her with a traffic offence.
Mrs Hamilton told the Liverpool Echo: “It’s been absolutely devastating. I am so disgusted with the way these sorts of deaths are trivialised with very minor charges.
“Robert wasn’t wearing a helmet, but I was told that was irrelevant [in terms of charges]. Robert cycled all across Europe for charity.
“He did wear a helmet on longer routes but not shorter ones. One thing you can be sure of, more people are going to die the way Robert did. I wonder how many more before the law takes these sort of deaths seriously?”
Claire Lindley, Chief Crown Prosecutor, said: “The offence of manslaughter was very carefully considered by senior prosecutors, and a decision was taken that there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for that offence.
"This is a tragic case, and our thoughts are with Mrs Hamilton and her family.”
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46 comments
No you shouldn't open car doors without looking. But it happens, so never ever ride in the door zone.
Only yesterday I was out riding and going through a town passed a lad on a bmx riding right in the door zone. So I slowed a bit whilst passing and told him why he shouldn't. I had a look over my shoulder as I rode off and it seemed to have had an effect.
Manslaughter is a big charge for a silly mistake. and an enormous dollop of bad luck is the critical factor.
I reckon it is just as likely to happen on quiet roads where people open their doors without checking so I have to agree about always leaving a door's width, don't be complacent just because there aren't many cars parked and obviously be extra careful if a car has just stopped or you can see people in them. My dad {he's nearly 80) was doored recently, also in Southport and on a very quiet road, and one of the best cyclists in the Southport area was very badly injured the same way. It could have happened to me several times recently if I didn't always leave over a door's width. Where there is traffic it's better to risk annoying drivers a bit than to get doored, you do have to be a bit thick-skinned cycling on the road.
I was always taught to ride further away than door width of cars on a motorcycle and do the same on bicycle.
Yes, quite.
But then on a bike you have to deal with irate impatient drivers who think you 'block the road'...
Not so much of an issue with a motorcycle, as keeping up with traffic is very rarely an issue
THIS is why people wrongly cycle too close to kerbs and parked cars - they are frightened, intimidated by dangerous c**ts in cars and vans!
And if you don't ride in the gutter or dooring zone then you get a punishment pass, honked or shouted at (or all three) - these happen to me frequently and it really hacks me off. I don't move into Primary position to annoy people and stop them tailgating the vehicle in front, merely for my own safety.
I've had two nasty injuries from cycling too close to parked cars. Neither from dooring - one from a dog running out, and the other from a cyclist emerging from behind a van. So I now give them plenty of space, even if it means annoying the traffic behind me. But I'm a relatively quick, confident cyclist. Will I still be confident enough to do the same when I'm 70 years old?
My sincere condolences to Mrs Hamilton. I hope she finds some comfort in the fact that at least her husband's death was deemed worthy of a court case.
James Darby, 44 was killed in identical circumstances in Beckenham and yet treated as roadkill. It was also inferred in the local press that he was culpable in some way as they reported 'he crashed into a stationery car'.
No arrests...
How is it 'Unreasnoble for drivers to look before opening a door!?'
Next it will be 'Unreasnoble for drivers to always stop at a crossing, drive in the correct lane etc'
I give up on this world!
Any driver who opens their door without looking has too be a bit thick. It could be another car that clips the door, perhaps them too.
But the problem isn't that people are stupid, its that they really just don't think before acting.
Its a similar phenomenon to the people in car parks who fling open car doors even though they should know that there isn't room to do that without hitting the car parked next to them.
(Wasn't it the Bikesnob who said something about expecting people to come out of their cars like they're making a grand entrance and singing show tunes the way that they fling open their doors...)
Specifically, they don't think about bicycles. When was the last time you saw a moving car/van/truck get "doored" ? Drivers/passengers don't fling the door open with abandon when the vehicle coming is a big, heavy motor vehicle. It would rip the door right off, not to mention (maybe) squish them where they stand.
Getting out of a car, people check for motor vehicles. They do this because they are afraid of them - and rightly so. They don't check for cycles, quite simply because they are not afraid. The mechanism determining the behaviour isn't thinking before acting versus not thinking before acting; it is cowing in fear before acting versus not cowing in fear before acting.
Fundamentally most people don't give a shit about oncoming cycles, and the only reason that hundreds more people on bikes are not doored every day is because the people in the cars are being reticent and careful out of fear of the rest of the traffic, other than the bicycles.
There are only two possible solutions: 1. Segregated cycling paths, to create separation between bicycle and parked car, or 2. Ride right out in the middle of the lane, and get verbally and, occasionally, physically abused by the loutish element. And just once in a while, deliberately rammed in "punishment".
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And the lesson from this sad story is - Don't ride in the door zone.
Get an Airzound as well.
considering how long the doors on some big cars are and how pressured by traffic folks riding on a lot of roads are there's always going to be times when riders are within range of a flung open door. you only need to be 'inside the door zone' by an inch to risk being hit - difficult to guarantee you're always going to be in the clear if it happens
not sure how the horn will help - do you beep it as you go along in the hope it will alert people to your presence or do you beep it in preference to trying to brake or swerve if someone opens a door right in front of you in the hope they'll shut it again before you hit it?
I'd have thought and hope that there is a fairly substantial insurance claim being sought right now?
The old advert of "think once, think twice, think bike" springs to mind here. Although its not a motorbike as per the advert the adage remains the same.
If we went down the route of manslaughter it would have to be gross negligence manslaughter which, as someone already pointed out, a jury would find very difficult to prove. The lady would just have to say i looked in my wing mirror and at the time i did not see the cyclist. No one could prove otherwise and, rightly or wrongly, that is enough for her to get off.
Punishment seems reasonable. Can't believe they would even consider manslaughter though - it was a momentary lapse and opening a car door ffs, rather than any of the far more serious examples of carelessness cyclists have to put up with on daily basis. A tragic accident but I imagine the driver has suffered enough anyway.
As far as I'm concerned, there is never an excuse for "dooring". While I admit that during normal driving, external things may cause you to momentarily lose concentration and cause an accident etc, when you open a car door the only thing going through your head should be "Is it safe to do so", both for yourself and other road users. Not checking is utterly negligent. Check mirror and blind spot first, open door a couple of inches, then fully once you have established the road is clear. It's not difficult.
More frustrating is the town planner habit of placing cycle lanes down the driver's side of lines of parking spaces along roads, creating situations whereby following traffic will then beep you if you stray outside of the cycle lane so you have the fun choice of do I risk being doored, or knocked off by an angry impatient driver.
Yeah, the problem for me is with the juxtaposition of the attitude shown in this case - that its unreasonable to expect drivers to always look when opening doors, and hence that dooring incidents are just 'one of those things' and not really anyone's fault - with this sort of thing
http://road.cc/content/news/127477-reading-cycle-campaign-slams-door-zon...
The powers-that-be really can't be allowed to continue to have it both ways. If cyclists have to accept they can be randomly knocked off in door zones, it should be made clear to all road users that cyclists should never be in them, and never, ever, should they be 'advised' to cycle in them. Doing so borders on criminal, if you ask me.
Also, it should be made crystal clear to all drivers as part of the test that they should expect cyclists to take primary and that there is never any basis for objecting to them not being in those door-zones instead.
(Better yet, solve the whole problem by getting rid of most on-road parking!)
Why not get rid of all of it? Every residential street where I live is reduced to a single lane due to rows of cars parked on either side, my father in law hasn't moved his car in months because he's afraid somebody will steal his spot if he does, why not just sell the sodding car and rent one if you need to? As I understand it councils have no obligation to provide road space for stationary vehicles. Store your cars on your own property or in car park, if you can't do this don't have a car...simples.
I've been doored only once. Heading up the left side of a stationery traffic queue, where there was an empty bus stop, actually heading for the start of a cycle lane which goes along the driver's side of some parking spaces, the passenger of one of the cars decided that they should just get out now, and did so without looking. I clipped the door, ended up on top of the bike a few feet further on.
No very serious damage to me or bike, but the passenger hung around looking awkward (not English-speaking) until I just said they should go. The car (her husband, I'd guess), had watched that I got up and walked, and then sped off (the lights had changed and traffic started moving again).
Reported it to the police the next day, just so it appeared in stats, but I don't wear a camera and was too shaken to get a number plate, so nothing to do...
I work next to a station and its amazing how many car passengers you see jumping out of the cars and running for trains. I doubt very few of them are thinking of bikes as they do so.
I think this is a very good point. I always open a couple of inches and check, not just because I don't want to cause an accudent; but also I want to avoid damaging my car with the extra insurance premiums etc.
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As you point out it's not difficult is it. And your victim pays one hell of a price for your carelessness. I hope she suffers flash backs and nightmares for the rest of her life, at least she's got one.
Three points:
1. This is actually an unusually high penalty for a dooring that hurts (or even kills) a cyclist.
2. One of the reasons for the "penalty" being a short ban is that the ACTION rather than the CONSEQUENCES of the action is what is supposed to count.
3...which suggests that if the ACTION is what is supposed to be penalised, since you can see people opening doors with using wing mirrors, looking behind or using rear-view mirror (you should actually do all three) on a regular basis, you could penalise literally millions of drivers. No need to go a high as a six month ban, but you could give some penalty points out on a regular basis to - as I say - literally millions of motorists.
Which might get the message over.
It should also be easier not to find yourself in the door zone - but that's another issue.
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It doesn't matter how your do it, but if you kill somebody with a car no body in power gives a shit, do they.
Err that's not exactly true
In all fairness, if this had gone as manslaughter before a jury, they'd have found her not guilty. Because, as we all know, and is exemplified by indyjukebox's post above, people hate the idea of being held responsible for the consequences of their actions, so won't hold others responsible for theirs.
Whilst the event itself is very sad, the tone of some of the comments is difficult to understand.
For the posters who call it clear negligence, are you telling me that you are such a saint, that you have never made an error in your life? You have never made an error whilst cycling/driving? Never had a drink and done something stupid? God forbid if such an error on your/your wife's part causes you/your wife to end up in a similar state as the woman in this case.
I am not defending anyone, but errors happen, its life. You also dont need to respond to this post, it is just my opinion and I am not looking for a lengthy argument either.
Of course. We all have. However most of the time the consequences are minor. That does not change the fact that it's negligence. When nobody is hurt then we all just get on with our lives and try to learn a lesson. It's a very different thing when somebody dies.
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