Man receives 1 year sentence because another driver crashed.

tomstickland

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/homepage/Car-racer-faces-year-prison/article-925647-detail/article.html

Seems a bit odd to me. Young man in a slightly modified car overtakes some other cars and then an old man in a Lotus sports car. Goes round a corner and the Lotus driver crashes an dies.
Paper describes it as racing, but details say it lasted 10s. Isn't the Lotus driver responsible for his own crash?

Volcano

He was done for dangerous driving, as opposed to causing death by dangerous driving. It appears that although the case involved a death, this wasn't considered by the judge. According to this site:

https://nelsonsonline.secureclient.co.uk/nelsons/?event=base:article&node=A76047BD76550

driving at excessive speed and on the wrong side of the road are 2 offences for which you can be prosecuted, this coupled with his previous speeding offences seems to be enough to get him sentenced.

Can't help thinking the jury may have been influenced by someone dying anyhow.

anewman

Sounds like the guy who died should be on the end of one of these charges as well, but he's not around to face the music now.

Dave101t

on the up side, one has learnt his lesson, the other cant put others at risk anymore.

Poppy9

Volcano wrote: »

Can't help thinking the jury may have been influenced by someone dying anyhow.

And so they should. Their stupid macho racing cost one of them his life.

The report says they were racing towards a bend doing about 80mph in a 50mph speed limit.

A witness told Bristol Crown Court both cars were overtaking other vehicles and racing when 51-year-old Mr Martyn, of Dark Lane, Banwell, lost control of his Lotus

Thankfully no innocent people were killed like in this incident. Arrogant, dangerous driving must be punished and he only had a 12 month sentence and will be out in 6 months. Not a huge price to pay for contributing to someone's death.

p.s 51 isn't that old for a driver. You should see some of them round by me!:D

goldspanners

but how can they prove that the 306 was doing 80 mph? just on the say so of one witness? they can prove the speed of the lotus because of the crash scene, but the 306 was in front of the lotus when he crashed. i think its a bit harsh on the 306 driver,he was in front,nothing to do with the lotus. only one witness suggested any kind of racing.
so with very little solid evidence the guy was speeding or driving dangerously he ended up with a suspended sentence plus a ban and have to take more training.

maybe the guy in the lotus was on the phone, changing radio station or just couldnt handle his car,who knows,but if he didnt crash then this would never have went to court.

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

The fact is the crash should be irrelevent

He was convicted of dangerous driving, how many people who drive at 80MPH/race are given a year in jail and 2 year ban.

Very few Id hazard a guess

I bet if the 25 year old had died the old guy wouldnt be in prison right now

goldspanners

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

I bet if the 25 year old had died the old guy wouldnt be in prison right now

i would agree, note the papers slant at the top of the story, 25 year old driver races buisnessman. !!!!!!? was he running? were they not both drivers at this point?

tomstickland

Poppy9 wrote: »

And so they should. Their stupid macho racing cost one of them his life.

The report says they were racing towards a bend doing about 80mph in a 50mph speed limit.

Thankfully no innocent people were killed like in this incident. Arrogant, dangerous driving must be punished and he only had a 12 month sentence and will be out in 6 months. Not a huge price to pay for contributing to someone's death.

p.s 51 isn't that old for a driver. You should see some of them round by me!:D

What if the 306 over took the Lotus who then sped up and they both ended up taking the corner at 80mph? First car made it round OK. The racing aspect would then be due to the dead man.

I've been looking at http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=682156&mid=0&i=40&nmt=A%20year%20in%20prison%20because%20the%20car%20behind%20crashed?!%20WTF?&mid=0
and an alternative suggestion is that the non-dead man carried out a bad maneovre.


I've had some cases in the past where I've overtaken slow cars who then go all loopy and speed up. In most cases a corner has been involved after the straight, so imagine I went round the corner at a reasonable speed and they lost control on the corner. Was I trying to race?

Poppy9

tomstickland wrote: »

What if the 306 over took the Lotus who then sped up and they both ended up taking the corner at 80mph? First car made it round OK. The racing aspect would then be due to the dead man.

I've been looking at http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=682156&mid=0&i=40&nmt=A%20year%20in%20prison%20because%20the%20car%20behind%20crashed?!%20WTF?&mid=0
and an alternative suggestion is that the non-dead man carried out a bad maneovre.


I've had some cases in the past where I've overtaken slow cars who then go all loopy and speed up. In most cases a corner has been involved after the straight, so imagine I went round the corner at a reasonable speed and they lost control on the corner. Was I trying to race?

I assume like yourself I only have the newpaper report and witness testimony to go on that said they were racing towards the corner and TBH this is the sort of stupid driving you see everyday by some men and their toys. One person has to prove his car is better than another car.

There are two roads in particular by me that bring out the worst in racers and you know they are racing by the way they are moving through traffic.

There was obviously enough evidence to convince a jury of 12 people that they were dabbling and if you are playing games like this on the road then you have to take the consequences of your actions as this mans actions contributed to the accident. If he hadn't been playing a game with this car, and the game could have been going on for miles before the accident, then he wouldn't have been prosecuted for dangerous driving. His driving was deemed dangerous though to other road users.

I don't know the road but I doubt it was safe to approach or take a bend at 80mph.

Metheparentsibling+thecat

I dunno... I don't drive but there are things I agree with - witness is the only one who uses racing - business man shouldn't have been speeding - the car the defendant had means little (it just prejudices the jury).