'Impatient' driver, 79, sentenced after cyclist hurt
BBCAn "impatient" driver who broke a cyclist's collarbone when he dangerously overtook him on a country lane has been given a suspended sentence.
John Rice, 79, was rushing home from a tennis game when he clipped the cyclist on a single-track lane in Northumberland in April 2023, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
The cyclist told the court he had been left in "constant pain" and his whole life had changed.
Rice, a grandfather of "exemplary" character and community standing, had denied wrongdoing but was found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was jailed for one year suspended for 18 months and ordered to pay £4,830 in court costs.
The retired accountant and prominent member of his local church was half a mile from his home near Stannington in his Ford Kuga when he encountered the cyclist approaching a sharp left hand bend, judge Tim Gittins said.
By Rice's own admission he was running late, the judge said, having been to play tennis and needing to get home so his wife could go to church choir practice.
'Wobble claim rejected'
Out of a "degree of impatience and frustration", Rice, who historically had been caught speeding, made the "extremely poor decision to overtake" as the pair neared the bend, mounting a grass verge to try to get past, Gittins said.
The cyclist was travelling at 20mph, which was "more than adequate for any vehicle on that road", the judge said, while round the corner there was a passing place.
"You could and should have waited," the judge told Rice.
The "dangerous", "impatient" and "poorly timed and executed" manoeuvre led to Rice cutting across the cyclist and "in all likelihood" hitting him with the Kuga's wing mirror, the court heard.
The judge said he rejected Rice's suggestion the cyclist "simply wobbled and fell off" out of possible shock of the car passing, or that the road surface was a "significant contributory factor" in "unseating" him.
In the aftermath Rice contacted emergency services and went to a nearby home to rouse a doctor, the court heard.
'Good name loss'
The cyclist, who suffered a broken right collar bone, told the court he was in "extreme pain" after undergoing surgery and remained in "constant pain".
He said he had slept "fitfully" ever since due to night terrors and the pain in his shoulder.
His ability to work as a maintenance man had been drastically reduced, the court heard, while three years on he had been left with "physical and mental scars".
Gittins said he accepted Rice was of a "previous exemplary character" and had expressed "very deep remorse" for injuring the cyclist.
The judge said Rice was "highly regarded" by all who knew him and the biggest impact on him was the shame he felt by the loss of his "good name".
Had there been any suggestion Rice had deliberately hit the cyclist out of frustration, he would have been jailed immediately the judge said.
The issue of compensation was in the hands of insurers, the court heard, but the judge said Rice should pay £4,830 court costs.
Gittins said the evidence against Rice had been "clear", telling him: "I see no reason why the public should have to pay for the decision you made to have a trial."
Rice was also banned from driving for two years.
