This time from York - the way the headline is slanted is interesting....
Paul
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Death smash driver's ruin
(See http://www.thisisyork.co.uk/york/news/index.html for picture of crash
location)
by Evening Press reporter
A YOUNG driver who killed an elderly cyclist while reversing his car on to a
busy York road told today of his remorse over the accident he said had
"ruined his life".
Plumber Robert Collinson said he felt "terrible" about causing the death of
79-year-old Frederick Booth.
As Mr Booth's family expressed disgust at the "lenient" sentence handed to
the crash driver, he warned it was only a "matter of time" before somebody
else died at the same blind exit.
The 24-year-old called for safety changes on the narrow cul-de-sac - so cars
unable to do three-point turns on Wray's Avenue did not have to run the risk
of reversing into Huntington Road.
His friend, Labour councillor Paul Blanchard, has also made urgent calls to
City of York Council for safety work on Wray's Avenue.
He said: "This junction seriously concerns me. It's a blind exit and
entrance - a death-trap which needs sorting out without delay.
"There is a place where cars could do a three-point-turn, but there is a
gaping hole in the road preventing it being used. This hole needs filling in
right away."
Collinson, of Wray's Avenue, spoke out after he pleaded guilty before York
magistrates to careless driving - an offence that carries a £2,500 maximum
fine.
The defendant, who has a speeding conviction from 2003, was fined £500, with
£45 costs, and banned from driving for a year.
He said police told him he was facing ten years behind bars if found guilty
of dangerous driving.
But Mr Booth's son, John Frederick Booth, 49, said the sentence was too
light.
He said: "I'm disgusted with the outcome of the case and the penalty that's
been given to him for taking a life - how much do you put on a life? £500
for my dad's life isn't sufficient - it's far too lenient."
John Booth, from Huntington Road, said his father, who served in the RAF
during the Second World War, was "fit as a fiddle" and did not deserve to
die the way he did.
Magistrates heard Collinson did not see Mr Booth cycling along Huntington
Road towards the city centre on May 29 at 9.50am.
Robert Galley, prosecuting, said music blaring from the defendant's car
stereo was as loud as a symphony orchestra. This may have stopped him
hearing a warning cry from the cyclist as Collinson backed out.