On 24/08/2011 15:32, Bertie Wooster wrote:

"Simon Mason" wrote:

"A motorist who caused the death of a cyclist by failing to stop at traffic
lights has been jailed for 20 weeks. Brian Creasey, 51, knocked down cyclist
Ian Hammel near BAE in Samlesbury on the morning of September 29 last year.
Engineer Mr Hammel, 53, from Penwortham, was on his way to work at BAE when
the collision occurred on the A59, near the entrance of the site.
He died 10 days later in hospital.
Creasey, of Fulwood Row, Preston, admitted causing death by careless driving
when he appeared at Preston Crown Court yesterday. The judge rejected a
claim by Creasey a squeal of his brakes had caused him to panic and
therefore accelerate, going through the lights on amber on the A59.
Creasey had told the court he had thought there was enough time to get
through the light while it was on amber and added he saw Mr Hammel's bike at
the very last moment."
http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/moto...eath_1_3706216

20 weeks!?! How cheap can a life be???

ALl due to the circumstances of the case, presumably.

Neither of us know what they were and so our comments are effectively
meaningless (well, at least, yours are; I have kept mine to myself).

There was a time (and quite recent at that) when a careless driving charge
(irrespective of the outcome) could not lead to a prison sentence at all. One
has to assume that if the prosecution had thought they could make CDBDD
stick, they'd have gone for it. But it *is* an assumption, because as we
already know, neither of us knows what happened.