Suspended sentence for driver who killed cyclist

Adrian Lane and his partner, Mónica Bolado, were due to move to Spain a week after he was killed

A nurse who killed a cyclist in "a few seconds of bad driving" has been handed a suspended jail sentence.

Adrian Lane, 58, died when he hit a car which was turning as he travelled down Ringinglow Road towards Sheffield in September 2022.

The car's driver, Gillian Dungworth, 40, from Rotherham, had turned across Mr Lane's path causing him to somersault into the vehicle's windscreen, a court heard.

At Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, Dungworth was handed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, after she pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.

Dungworth had been driving her Vauxhall Corsa on Ringinglow Road and had followed two other cars turning right down Common Lane when the collision took place.

Dash camera footage from Dungworth's car, which was played to the court, showed Mr Lane hitting her windscreen, leaving him critically injured.

Mr Lane, who was thought to have been travelling downhill at about 30mph (48km/h), was not wearing a helmet.

'Tragic accident'

A forensic crash investigator believed Dungworth would have been able to see Mr Lane for about four seconds before the crash, the court was told.

Another vehicle's camera showed Dungworth running out of her car "obviously distraught" as Mr Lane lay on the ground, Recorder of Sheffield Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said.

"It’s a few seconds' inattention, isn’t it?" Judge Richardson asked prosecutor Ian West, who replied: "Yes".

The court heard that Louise Lane, Mr Lane's former partner and mother to their children, had written to the Crown Prosecution Service saying the family felt it was a "tragic accident".

They added that no one was to blame for the crash and they had "no bad feelings or malice towards the driver of the car".

Judge Richardson said the case was "tragic", describing Dungworth as a "respectable" woman who had driven her car "very badly for a few seconds".

The defendant, of Marlowe Road, Herringthorpe, wiped away tears as the judge said she was "filled with genuine remorse" for what had happened.

The two-year suspended sentence and a five-year driving ban was proportionate, he added.

"This is a tragedy in every conceivable way. You caused that tragedy by a few seconds of bad, bad driving," the judge concluded.

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