Cyclist-killing lorry driver fined £300
20.09.07 by Buffalo Bill
The Standard today (2007-09-20, page 11) reports this:
Rob Singh, Crime Reporter
A lorry driver who ran over and killed a cyclist who was a writer and jewellery designer was today fined £300 after admitting careless driving.
Emma Foa, 56 died as she cycled from her home in Hampstead Heath to work in Clerkenwell in December. She was killed instantly after being crushed between the cement mixer’s rear wheels and roadside railings.
At Westminster Magistrates Court today Michael Thorn, 52 of Headley Down, Surrey was allowed to keep his driver’s licence and was ordered to pay £100 costs.
The court had been told that Thorn had been looking for some papers in his cabin when the bike was beside him and also when his vehicle began to turn left and the fatal crash occured.
The family of Ms Foa – the daughter of typewriter magnate Adriano Ollivetti said she was wearing a luminious reflector jacket and a helmet when she was crushed by the two tonne lorry.
District Judge Anthony Evans said: “I accept in cases of this sort it’s distressing for all concerned, the family of the disceased and the driver whose inadvertance has resulted in a fatality.”
Prosecutor Graham Parkinson told the court the incident happened at 9.10am in Camley Street, Kings Cross.
“Emma was riding her bike and reached the traffic lights. She went along the nearside and waited for the lights to change,” he said. “She was alongside for 37 seconds and would have been visible. He moved off and turned left causing her to be pushed to the ground and killed instantly. He had been looking for some paperwork in his truck… He felt a bump, saw a bike and jumped out to find her.”
Karen Dempsey, defending, said that Thorn was “shocked and distressed” and that the incident “would live with him for the rest of his life”. She added that witnesses had said he was not driving aggressively.
I am not sure what I am most shocked by. I am not shocked that, despite the fact that Mr Thorn’s criminal negligence has resulted in the unlawful killing of Ms Foa, the court is allowing him to continue to drive. I am not shocked that, despite being found guilty of road crime, the driver has been fined £300. The sentence is entirely in keeping with the tariff for road killing. The driver who killed London bicycle messenger Sebastian Lukomski received a 6 point endorsement and a £1000 fine. Yet again, the old adage ‘if you want to get away with murder, get behind the wheel of a lorry’ is proven true. OK, it’s not murder, it’s manslaughter but someone is dead because someone else was in charge of dangerous machinery, and failed to their job properly.
I am shocked that the judge has chosen the word “inadvertence” to describe the actions of the driver. Making a left turn whilst fumbling for papers in a HGV? That’s not inadvertence – that’s just f***ing stupid.
I am shocked that the defending barrister said that the driver was not driving aggressively. As if a lack of aggression excuses somehow a negligent act which has led to an avoidable death. The dead woman’s only mistake was to be riding her bicycle and assuming that “a luminous reflective jacket” and a helmet would protect her. She stopped at the lights, and she wasn’t in the “blind spot”. But the driver didn’t see her, because he wasn’t looking. And she was crushed to death because he was too busy checking his pay-sheet to make sure he had got his overtime to pay attention to what his two-tonne machine might be rolling over.
As we reported elsewhere, 5 London cyclists have been killed so far this year (2007) by lorries. Studies have previously shown that around half of all cyclist fatalities in London resulting from collisions with Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs or LGVs) are the result of left-turns by the lorries.
For more on the HGV/cyclist issue, click the contents link at the top of this page.
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f***ing disgrace!!
and roadside railings should be written off, they do all harm – no good.
— nick Sep 20, 09:17 PM #
it’s a pity he could not have been convicted of dangerous driving…the whole situation is enough to make your blood boil..
— breaking away Sep 20, 10:27 PM #
i wasn’t aware that £300 was the going rate for a human life. Disgusting.
— Nik Sep 21, 01:52 AM #
that’s disgusting. utterly disgusting.
i worked in a bike shop for a while, and when a new female cyclist came in and asked about safety gear, my best advice was about how to cycle, not what you wear. simply put, ride assertively (or aggressively!) but defensively, and never cycle on the inside of a lorry / bus. i don’t care that you should be able to and the driver should be more attentive, the simple fact is that, if it comes down to it, you lose everything and they nothing.
i’m not blaming her in anyway whatsoever, she did everything “right”. but the sad fact is that a cyclist in london has to ride as if they are invisible to all and that every car/lorry/bus is going to do a left turn right into you. :/
— lurkette Sep 21, 10:25 AM #
Lurkette, part of the problem is that TfL, as part of their ‘share the road’ campaign, actively promotes riding down the left hand side of stationary traffic as ‘safe’. See this.
— Bill Sep 21, 11:21 AM #
this is a disgrace. I think we need to have a proper look at the groups that are campaigning on this. We need to draw together London’s cycling community and say enough is enough.
If you drew all the groups in london together – from couriers to crit mass to commuters to teams you would have one hell of an voting mass. Maybe Livingstone would listen then.
— larryred Sep 21, 04:38 PM #
I read this and was shocked too, there however a while ago was a lovely Radio 4 programme about an off-duty policeman in Wales killed in a time trial. The police investigation was so thorough that several of the firm’s owners managers went to jail; suppose it depends who you kill.
I whilst Belfast based work in a national UK road haulage business – profit and margins always come ahead of people…
M
— Michael Sep 21, 08:09 PM #
cut his fucking bollocks off
— macbastard Sep 24, 12:11 PM #
cut his bollocks off ?makes you as bad as someone who use’s his vehicle as a weapon.
i am a hgv driver i have never killed any-one,nor did i start driving hgv’s so i could,you want to take the emotion out of the debate,organize a day out in a large/small hgv and see it from the drivers perspective,that aside fumbling for paperwork in traffic,not paying attention or checking your mirrors is know excuse and you should have a fit and proper punishment wether its a cyclist or pedestrian that dies.i have driven artics for 14 years and trust me car/van/bus/m/bikes and cyclists all can cause the deaths of lorry drivers, who by virtue of what they drive cause more carange,its not a conspiracy on the roads to kill cyclists its just law of averages,but i dont condone poor driving and dangerous driving sympathy to every-one killed on uk’s roads
— phil rigby Sep 28, 07:43 PM #
erm yes, the law of averages is explainable by drivers – fumbling for paperwork in traffic, not paying attention or checking your mirrors – and the fact that there are HGV’s in central London at all…
— _targetbot Sep 29, 09:33 AM #
Err Phil, just such a day out was organised. See here.
And what the f*** are you doing, exactly, apart from blaming the ‘law of averages’ for straight-forward driver negligence.
Oh, and BTW 'cyclists.. ..can cause the deaths of lorry drivers'??? That's a load of crap. Show me one example of a lorry driver who has died as the result of the actions of a cyclist.
— Bill Sep 30, 10:10 PM #
Dear Phil. Bollocks.
I work as a telematics researcher and have spent a lot of time looking at HGV incidents. The single biggest cause of HGV driver deaths is driving too close. Often behind another HGV while ‘drafting’ to clip some fuel savings.
HGV driver arrogance is rife. They think that because they pay the most road tax and fuel duty they have more rights to the highway. This assertion is incorrect.
Often less well educated, they often consider they know it all and don’t need to constantly learn and re-learn how to drive.
Pressured by JIT deliveries and ferry crossing times, they often push the WTD to the limit. On the A14 I worked out that just 1 in 7 drivers are alert enough to be driving.
I have never found a case where a cyclist, motorcyclist or pedestrian has caused the death of an HGV driver. Conversely, I have seen pictures of the remains of two families who were crushed and then burnt by an HGV failing to stop on an A-road, because the driver just couldn’t give a toss about the safety of other people as he arsed about in his cab with 35 tonnes hurtling down the road at 55mph.
By far the most effective safety device would be to fit a spike in the middle of the steering wheel, and the death of a cyclist would be an automatic life-ban. Decent mirrors and sensors would then be fitted pronto. For now, cyclists just aren’t worth caring about if you are a truck driver. If you kill one you’ll only get a few hundred quid fine. Cheaper than decent mirrors.
In the report on the crushed and burnt families case, the driver was ‘really sorry’ for what he had done. Wiping out two generations of two families is the direct result of a allowing stupid twats to drive these machines.
In effect you have just demonstrated the problem with HGV drivers – you don’t think it’s your fault and your education needs a huge hike, spelling included..
— MattP Oct 23, 04:53 PM #
Dear MattP
An interesting clueless idea of what truck drivers as you call them do etc, My respects 1st to the family of the bereaved.
You claim
“Often behind another HGV while ‘drafting’ to clip some fuel savings.” Most truck drivers do not own the vehicle and therefore dont care about that.
“They think that because they pay the most road tax and fuel duty they have more rights to the highway. This assertion is incorrect.” You are right your assertion is incorrect,again very few truckers worry about tax fuel duty etc, get your facts right.
“Often less well educated, they often consider they know it all and don’t need to constantly learn and re-learn how to drive,” Most drivers of LGVs will admit themselves as experienced and always learning, unlike your “average car driver” who brags he is the best.
“On the A14 I worked out that just 1 in 7 drivers are alert enough to be driving. “ I take it thats while you of course took note of the 100’s possibly 1000’s of car and van drivers, flashing there lights to overtake, cutting in and out of lanes with inches to spare without indicating ,while reading papers, shaving, drinking, talking on there phones etc?? Undoubtedly you are one of the morons calling for a ban on LGVs on the A14 in the early hours in the out side lane, then you will moan that you still arent moving quick enough as its the cars that cut in and out that are causing the problem. But now you have had your anti HGV rant (should be LGV) at someone elses loss, perhaps you could look at the picture in hand. This womans family suffered the greatest loss of all, yes because of the driver of an LGV, it could have been a car , a van , or a bus, but it wasn’t. This is one of many such incidents that happen on our roads, and the biggest problem is observancy from ALL USERS cars , bikes, trucks, vans, coaches etc, and on your own admission, you have been paying less attention to the road than you should have been and more to truck drivers. Perhaps you should practice a little more of what you preach. So full of high moral standards yet hang yourself by what you write. Hypocrit springs to mind.
— Mark Dec 4, 07:29 PM #
It’s nearly a year since my friend Emma Foa was senselessly killed by the driver of a cement mixer lorry in kings Cross. Wake up all you cyclists who have been critical of other cyclists killed in road traffic accidents. But particularly shocking in this case is that if the driver had not broken the law by fumbling around for papers in his cab instead of paying due care and attention to the road, Emma would certainly not have been killed. He broke the law and thanks, in part, to the unacceptable summing up by the Judge, he got away with it. There is nothing “inadvertent” about an action that is unlawful when it has resulted in someone being killed. Emma, you are badly missed and the world is so much poorer without you in it.
Jonathan
— stigy Dec 13, 11:52 AM #
Just to make a point here-if the lorry was a ‘two tonne cement mixer’ it’s not an HGV, it’s a 7.5 tonner and most probably driven by someone with no more than a car test under his belt and the attitude to match-hence the accident. Sickening.
— Matt Jan 12, 07:56 PM #
Lots of people have made the point about the 2-tonne thing. I think it’s either a typo or a mistake in the original report. I doubt that there is such a thing as 2 tonne mixer.
— Bill Jan 12, 08:48 PM #
Some mixer bodies are fitted to 7.5 tonners-this would equate to a payload of around 2 tonnes.
The Times report it as 2 tonne as well.
Either way, the driver didn’t get what he deserved. I drive artics and while there’s often an element of simply not knowing on the part of cyclists,blatantly bad driving like this is disgusting and gives those of us who trained and do our jobs properly a bad name. If I drove like that and killed someone I’d exect to go to prison.
— Matt Jan 13, 12:23 AM #
The sickening thing is that an almost identical incident occurred in London about 8 years ago. Guess what? The driver got away with a rap on the knuckles – even though CCTV evidence showed the Lorry overtaking the cyclist beforehand – HE MUST HAVE SEEN HER.
— Michael Carter Feb 28, 08:07 AM #