£35 fine for fatal bike crash

Earlier this month a taxi driver, who was involved in a fatal collision with a young cyclist last summer, received a £35 fine and three penalty points on his driving licence from an English court.

The driver had only been charged with driving without due care and attention notwithstanding that, following the collision with Tom Ridgeway, he carried on driving for a further 90 metres with Tom’s body on the bonnet of his car until he hit a tree.

The English Crown Prosecution Service had been unable to work out the actual cause of the crash or whether the actual cause of death had been the collision or the 90 metre bonnet journey. They were therefore unable to support another charge.

The Telegraph reported that, following the accident, the taxi driver had voluntarily surrendered his taxi licence.

“Neither the charge nor the sentence reflect the enormous tragedy of a young man's death when he was simply cycling along next to the pavement,” Mr Ridgeway's mother told the Telegraph.