Pharmaceutical consultant who killed cyclist while driving on wrong side of road cleared of careless driving

This is terrible and I absolutely agree that it is shocking that overtaking on a bend where the driver could not clearly see the oncoming traffic is considered "safe and careful driving".
I've had a number of incidents where people overtake coming the other way when I'm cycling, and it is truly terrifying to see a 2ton hunk of metal travelling towards me at 60+mph, only a foot or so wide of my handlebar. I cannot believe that is acceptable.
Other reports of the story do at least mention the driver "sobbing in court as she recalled the events", so I think the lack of remorse percieved is thanks to road.cc's reporting rather than a stone cold killer. - either that or some good acting to get off.
As for that councillor who thinks the answer to people getting killed on bikes is removing them from the road - absolute cretin. It's exactly like saying the way to stop rhino's from being killed by poachers is to get rid of all the rhino's. It's the drivers, not the cyclists that are the problem.
I'm just hanging on til the day that the oil runs out and everyone has no choice but to get on their bike to get to work every day - it will be bliss.

Amazing. What I understand is she was surprised to see the cyclists heading towards her on their side of the road as she overtook another cyclist whilst going around a corner.

That is F*****g negligence. If you can't see around a corner it is not safe. it might have been a lorry around the corner (I wish it was, she would be the victim rather than an innocent).

I'm sick of this protect the motorist gobs**ite.

Scum driver, scum judge.

Summing up, Mr Janick Fielding the defence barrister said: “Ben Pontin said it was a stupid decision to overtake. It was nowhere near as stupid as Mr Pontin’s decision to put Denisa Perinova on that bike in the first place.

“He ought not to have been so reckless with the life of his young girlfriend and he failed with terrible consequences.”

Judge Patrick Eccles QC told the jury they would have to consider whether Dr Measures’ driving was careless and set in motion a chain of events which led to Miss Perinova’s death.

The jury of 10 women and two men took three hours, 50 minutes to return a unanimous not guilty verdict.

A letter by Denisa Perinova's parents.

http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?id=1363185

I can't shake the feeling that Helen Measures is a scumbag and a weasel.

My God, that is heart-breaking, Denisa was lied about in court and in the press, she wasn't a novice cyclist at all, that was a pack of lies.

Quote:

Dear Mr O’Loughlin

Thank you for your email to the Attorney General's Office.

As the jury in the case of Dr Helen Measures found her not guilty and she was subsequently aquitted, no sentence was imposed and it will therefore not be possible for this office to review this case as unduly lenient.

Full details of the unduly lenient scheme can be found on our website, the address is: https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-low-crown-court-sentence

Yours sincerely

James Ross
Correspondence Unit

so where next!

Digusting.

written email to DoT now, suspect i won't get a worthwhile reply. But i think it is upto everyone to make it clear that killing by negligence and disregard of the law is not acceptable. Whether with a gun or a car it makes no difference.

My understanding of the Dutch situation was that the people had enough and forced the politicians to change. It has to start somewhere in the UK!

"If I had been concerned, I would have stopped suddenly."

Even allowing for ABS, at '40-50' around a corner - which presumably was too short to see all the way around - I find it difficult to believe that would have made any difference.

The jury, rather than the law, is an ass (and that's putting it politely)

dear god, why didn't this idiot just WAIT until after the bend? You do NOT overtake anything on a bend.

Disgusting irresponsible driving ....

Can anyone explain something to me, i know it is for the jury to make a decision, but i thought the judge tended to guide the jury?

Is this right or wrong?

We obviously have 12 people here who feel that overtaking on a bend is acceptable, i could argue that we have 12 people who should be immediately stripped of their driving licences!

I have not read all the replies here, so I may be missing something.

The failure to convict is likely to be the fault of a gullible jury influenced by a smart barrister.

It may be the fault of the investigating officers and the prosecutor failing to present the evidence well enough, though I doubt it.

What this is definitely is an absolute tragedy.

It seems to me that juries can be made up entirely of motorists, but there would be outcry if one were to consist only of cyclists. There must be some balance, somewhere. How that is to be achieved, whilst still retaining the principles of justice and the being innocent until proven guilty, is beyond me and probably most of us.

Two points come to mind on this:

1. If it had been another car instead of a bicycle and they swerved to avoid a collision and were killed would the defendant have got off? I doubt it.

2. I think the barrister has to take some blame here. It is their job to convince the jury that the accused is guilty and in this case it would seem that a competent barrister should be able to convince the jury that the driver was responsible for the death.

Can I be the one to point out that it was cyclists she was overtaking and not another vehicle, I would suggest that the majority of A roads are wide enough to accomodate bike - car - bike, also note it was a curve in the road and not a blind bend.

Tragically it would appear that the poor girl did not have the bike handling to cope with whatever unexpected circumstances being out on the road could throw at her.

*Advice*

Individuals who are involved in such heinous disregards for the sanctity of human life need only do the following:

Say you heard the driver say 'Allah-ho-Akbar'. The law will then regard it as a terrorist incident and the perpetrator will get at least 10 years.

What a f*****k ignorant and stupid c**t.

I hope that Dr Measures revisits what she said and realises how callous it sounds. She is responsible for another person's death after all, regardless of whether or not her driving was adjudged to be careless in the eyes of the law (and it sounds pretty careless to me).

A case so awful not even Daily Mail readers are defending the motorist (although of course the DM is keen on portraying the driver as an upstanding citizen)

What worries me is the apparent lack of any remorse on driver's part. Any normal person would be destroyed by an incident like this regardless of who was to blame. Her remarks are all about shifting blame as if she were contesting a parking ticket. The worrying thing is she doesn't seem to see that she has done anything wrong. Hence she won't modify her behaviour and is likely to continue driving in the same reckless fashion. Another accident waiting to happen. Shocking.

How does this even compare to this story:

http://road.cc/content/news/75712-motorists-jailed-separate-dangerous-dr...

A motorist is jailed after loosing control of his car with bald tyres and knocks off a cyclist ...

This woman didn't even loose control and KILLED a cyclist.

The Law in this country is a joke.

And if she'd been found guilty of careless driving, what kind of pathetic non-punishment would she have received?

Sickening.. The government are happy to cash in on GB 2012 but when it comes to law they are gutless

That is all.

"The jury deliberated for three hours before returning a ‘not guilty’ verdict."

Answer - juries should not be used in these cases. Bias. More likely to all be drivers, unlikely to be many cyclists in there.
What it shows, to me, is that 12 random people in this country think this was acceptable driving, maybe cannot see past the possibility of this happening to them as they take a similar risk while driving? Worrying / shocking.

You hit someone head-on on their side of the road, you're guilty. No clear view to ensure it's safe, wrong side of the road, guilty. How can that not be 'careless driving'?

This story makes me so so sad.

@j_stromquist is the ceo of the company, I hope he cares!

feel genuinely numbed by this story, seems everything about it is just plain wrong!

This is an insane, incomprehensible verdict. I just don't understand it. My sympathies to Miss Perinova's family and friends.

Dr Measures cannot be tried again. Sometimes juries do really stupid things, and sadly there was no Henry Fonda on this jury to stop it.

We can sit on our hands and froth at the keyboard, or get involved, and have a go at getting things changed. Bez's call for change in his blog post The Law and The Road: Things Must Change seems a damn fine start. Luckily I have a cycling pressure/campaign group near me, so that'll be the first port of call. Getting my hands dirty in CTC's Road Justice Campaign may also be on the cards.

What Pedro's said.

Personally I wouldn't be at all suprised if victims decide to seek justice without involving the law.

Jeez, blaming a cyclist on her first outing for panicking a bit when a car is speeding towards you round a bend at 40-50 mph. How do you practise the bike handling skills for that?