Cyclist's death-verdict.

Inquest raises speeding concerns
Jun 28, 2011, 18:00pm By Claire Wood Comments (5)
It’s emerged that a driver who collided with a cyclist on Earlham Road was found guilty of death by careless driving earlier this year.

76 year old John Rudledge died after being knocked off his bike near the junction with Alexandra Road last September.

The incident has caused local councillors to ask how speeding could be reduced along that stretch of road.

John Rudledge, a retired master craftsmen was involved in a collision with a Peugoet 306 on 27th September 2010. He’d pulled out of Alexandra Road onto Earlham Road on his bike, when he was knocked off. He died of his injuries 2 days later in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

The driver of the car, Rebecca Ottoway, told the inquest: “Literally, in the blink of an eye, I saw someone cycling into my lane, straight into my way.” A police officer from the Serious Collision and Investigation team calculated that she would have had 4 or 5 seconds to react, and that her car would have been travelling at between 32-43 mph, in a 30 mph zone.

Rebecca Ottoway pleaded guilty to a charge of death by careless or inconsiderate driving and was sentenced at an earlier hearing to 12 months community service and was disqualified from driving for a year.

Andrew Boswell, a Green Party councillor for Nelson ward said after the inquest: “We need more speed enforcement and need to find more ways to encourage people not to speed up. I think a flashing light( indicating cars exceeding 30mph) at the end of West Parade would help.”

The coroner, William Armstrong, expressed “his deepest sympathy to Mrs Rudledge and her family.”

Comments to “Inquest raises speeding concerns”

Donna Grant says: Jun 28, 2011, 23:23pm
I think the safest possible solution here is a push-button pedestrian crossing. Flashing lights may help a little but a ‘red light’ means “STOP” which at the moment, many motorists are failing to do.

Deb says: Jun 29, 2011, 09:05am
It would certainly help Donna. At the moment we have the absurd situation of having a crossing that is too dangerous to let your children cross the road on…

Harry Cole says: Jul 11, 2011, 13:29pm
So a killer driver will be back on the roads in a year. The whole of the Golden Triangle is plagued with idiots using residential roads as their own personal racetrack, and even when they kill someone they get a slap on the wrist. If you want to kill someone, use a car.

Susan Pearsehouse says: Jul 12, 2011, 11:35am
This tragic death raises more questions than answers. Why did the Evening News ignore the verdict? Why was Rebecca Ottoway’s disgusting attempt to blame the cyclist not challenged? Why is the sentence unbelievably lenient? The message is clear, speed as much as you like, you won’t get caught, there is no enforcement, and when the inevitable happens and you snuff a life out and tear a family apart you merely suffer 12 month’s inconvenience.

Susan Pearsehouse says: Jul 12, 2011, 13:02pm
By the way, kudos to Claire for being the only person to bother reporting this case, as far as I can see. This just makes me so mad! Where is the justice? Was Rebecca Ottoway on the way to an Israeli/Palestinian Peace Conference? Was she transporting a human liver for transplant? Or had she overslept so decided to gamble with innocent peoples’ lives in order to shave a few seconds off her commute? Live is cheap, if you want to kill someone use a car.

End quote.

Earlham Road is pretty dodgy, pinch points, traffic islands, speeding is rife and there is virtually no enforcement, even in the 20mph zones in the side streets.

http://www.southnorwichnews.co.uk/news/inquest-raises-speeding-concerns/comment-page-1/#comment-1242

I'd like to have the Judge answer these questions or better still kill a close member of his or her family by car and see what they think of letting said driver on to the road within 12 months.

As a society our attitudes around transportation are not humanistic and caring.
This is so sad, if it was a one off it would be a tragedy as it stands it is part of a shameful pattern...

...

"This is the basis of car culture, the idea that the world and all of the world's people are merely in its way." -- Travis Hugh Culley

This kind of verdict does nothing to improve our safety. It makes for very sad reading that someone can break the law, cause a fatality and yet get such a minimal punishment.

How f**ing retarded was the driver that her eyes blinking could take 4-5 seconds?

On the phone probably.

As a society our attitudes around transportation are not humanistic and caring.

If they were it would blow the whole fucking country to bits.

Much as I hate the stupid buzzwords that politicians and the media seem to cling to for various things, there would need to be a "sea change" in road layout, traffic law, enforcement and public attitude.

I'd start with strict liability and proper punishment.

Not going to happen though. Especially when the police can't seem arrest someone for assault even with the whole thing including number plate caught on camera.

3 years imprisonment, crushed car, lose driving license permanently...

This is far to depressing to read it nonchalantly at the moment. Let me bookmark it for later use.

But then you'd get people being let off because they need to drive for a living. This really happens, there are over 10,000 people still driving legally with 12+ points (source)

Of course the idea that they should have thought of that before they broke the law again seems far too complex to wrangle with.

D-lock justice FTW. Except you know damn well you'd be caught and done for it. Pretty hard to do from beyond the grave too.

"Rebecca Ottoway pleaded guilty to a charge of death by careless or inconsiderate driving and was sentenced at an earlier hearing to 12 months community service and was disqualified from driving for a year."....

Nice to see cyclist safety and human life is being highly valued by our justice system, sending a strong message to all road users.... I despair!!!!

Update:

http://www.southnorwichnews.co.uk/opinion/time-to-tackle-accident-blackspot/

Residents paying for traffic calming would lead to a kind of road safety apartheid with wealthy areas having humps and chicanes and poor areas having zilch. I disagree with those stupid flashing speed limit signs, when I ride along Thorpe Road cars cannot overtake me without triggering them, they're pointless. We need proper enforcement and proper sentences for idiot drivers who place the importance of shaving seconds off their journey above vulnerable road users' welfare.

Update:

http://www.southnorwichnews.co.uk/opinion/time-to-tackle-accident-blackspot/

Residents paying for traffic calming would lead to a kind of road safety apartheid with wealthy areas having humps and chicanes and poor areas having zilch. I disagree with those stupid flashing speed limit signs, when I ride along Thorpe Road cars cannot overtake me without triggering them, they're pointless. We need proper enforcement and proper sentences for idiot drivers who place the importance of shaving seconds off their journey above vulnerable road users' welfare.

Alongside this, cyclists may need more support. In Thorpe, the council is trialling a scheme which may be rolled out elsewhere. There, drains have been covered over, to allow cyclists to ride along beside the pavement. And new cycle logos have been marked out and road centre lines removed. Other councils have trialled similar schemes and found they significantly reduced speeding. The Thorpe Scheme is costing £37,000 to trial for a year.

That's £37,000 well spent, Thorpe Road is now a pleasure to cycle along

This is horrible. That poor family. I don't think that signs flashing to tell you your going over 30 could ever do anything. If you haven't the wherewithal to notice it on your speedo then you shouldn't be behind the wheel in the first place.

Norwich has the problem that it is a very old city built around an archaic road layout that just isn't designed for the volume/with of traffic that piles around it all day. Add to that the hesitance and absent mindedness of many drivers, focused more on their destination, auto-piloting their way to work/home each day and the results speak for themselves.

Each car owner should be forced to own and maintain a bicycle, having to use it for city commuting a minimum of 8 weeks of the year. I think that is more likely to wake people up than the introduction of traffic 'calming' measures which result in the vast majority driving faster where they know there are none.

My deepest sympathies to the Rudledge family.

Proper punishment and heavier fines would fix attitudes in an instant. Folk care about their wallets:

This is the basis of ca$h money culture, the idea that the world and all of the world's people are merely in its way." -- MG

Your completely correct Multi Grooves, most people care more about their wallet than their health it seems.

What sickens me is that in today's society of being lazy slobs, people cycling to travel (being the healthy ones) are the most at risk.

I still stand by the fact that anyone who lives less than 4 miles from their place of work should have to pay a tax to use a car to get to work.

what the SH*T. when i was at school, a guy a few years older than me went down for 5 years for crashing his car (sober) and killing his passenger. That was manslaughter. How is this any different?