Maureen Jesper pleaded guilty to causing the death of Jacqui Witham by careless or inconsiderate driving.

Birmingham Magistrates Court was told the 88-year-old was behind the wheel of her Renault Clio when she struck the mum-of-two.

The incident took place on Friday Lane in the village of Barston, near Solihull, on January 12 last year.

Jesper, of Sambourn Close, Solihull was disqualified for driving for 10 years and ordered to pay costs of £459.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/20/pensioner-88-spared-jail-after-mowing-down-cyclist-without-knowing-18985968/

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On 23/06/2023 08:03 pm, [email protected] wrote:

Maureen Jesper pleaded guilty to causing the death of Jacqui Witham by careless or inconsiderate driving.

Birmingham Magistrates Court was told the 88-year-old was behind the wheel of her Renault Clio when she struck the mum-of-two.

The incident took place on Friday Lane in the village of Barston, near Solihull, on January 12 last year.

Jesper, of Sambourn Close, Solihull was disqualified for driving for 10 years and ordered to pay costs of £459.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/20/pensioner-88-spared-jail-after-mowing-down-cyclist-without-knowing-18985968/

Who was on the bike?

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On Friday, June 23, 2023 at 8:03:46 PM UTC+1, [email protected] wrote:

Maureen Jesper pleaded guilty to causing the death of Jacqui Witham by careless or inconsiderate driving.

Birmingham Magistrates Court was told the 88-year-old was behind the wheel of her Renault Clio when she struck the mum-of-two.

The incident took place on Friday Lane in the village of Barston, near Solihull, on January 12 last year.

Jesper, of Sambourn Close, Solihull was disqualified for driving for 10 years and ordered to pay costs of £459.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/20/pensioner-88-spared-jail-after-mowing-down-cyclist-without-knowing-18985968/

QUOTE: He said that while her failure to see the cyclist was careless, she was driving at a relatively low speed of 36mph with her vision impacted by glare that created a shadow on the verge. ENDS

Shadows now instead of the Sun? Bollocks.

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[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

Maureen Jesper pleaded guilty to causing the death of Jacqui Witham by careless or inconsiderate driving.

Birmingham Magistrates Court was told the 88-year-old was behind the
wheel of her Renault Clio when she struck the mum-of-two.

The incident took place on Friday Lane in the village of Barston, near Solihull, on January 12 last year.

Jesper, of Sambourn Close, Solihull was disqualified for driving for 10 years and ordered to pay costs of £459.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/20/pensioner-88-spared-jail-after-mowing-down-cyclist-without-knowing-18985968/

Something odd here…

Maureen Jesper knocks the cyclist off the bicycle, who is then struck by a second vehicle that also didn’t see the cyclist.

So why is only one driver being punished?

Shouldn’t the second driver suffer some sanction?

And they both failed to see the cyclist, so was there in fact something affecting the drivers’ vision as Jesper claimed?

--
Spike

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QUOTE: He said that while her failure to see the cyclist was careless, she was driving at a relatively low speed of 36mph. ENDS

I'm sure that this Mr Arsehole would take a different view if his client was hit by a cyclist riding at 36mph and hitting his Rhiannon clone playing chicken in the road. He would have been bombing along at "crazy speeds".

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[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

QUOTE: He said that while her failure to see the cyclist was careless,
she was driving at a relatively low speed of 36mph. ENDS

I'm sure that this Mr Arsehole would take a different view if his client
was hit by a cyclist riding at 36mph and hitting his Rhiannon clone
playing chicken in the road. He would have been bombing along at "crazy speeds".

Supposition piled upon supposition and well larded with a mixture of apples
and oranges can result in any petty vindictiveness that you want.

--
Spike

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On Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 9:57:04 AM UTC+1, [email protected] wrote:

QUOTE: He said that while her failure to see the cyclist was careless, she was driving at a relatively low speed of 36mph. ENDS

I'm sure that this Mr Arsehole would take a different view if his client was hit by a cyclist riding at 36mph and hitting his Rhiannon clone playing chicken in the road. He would have been bombing along at "crazy speeds".

20mph - the speed that drivers find it "impossible" to keep to as it is "too slow" yet they complain about reckless cyclists overtaking them at the same speed.

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[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

On Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 9:57:04 AM UTC+1, [email protected] wrote:

QUOTE: He said that while her failure to see the cyclist was careless,
she was driving at a relatively low speed of 36mph. ENDS

I'm sure that this Mr Arsehole would take a different view if his client
was hit by a cyclist riding at 36mph and hitting his Rhiannon clone
playing chicken in the road. He would have been bombing along at "crazy speeds".

20mph - the speed that drivers find it "impossible" to keep to as it is
"too slow" yet they complain about reckless cyclists overtaking them at the same speed.

Supposition piled upon supposition and well larded with a mixture of apples
and oranges can result in any snide and petty vindictiveness that you want.

--
Spike

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On Friday, June 23, 2023 at 8:03:46 PM UTC+1, [email protected] wrote:

Maureen Jesper pleaded guilty to causing the death of Jacqui Witham by careless or inconsiderate driving.

Birmingham Magistrates Court was told the 88-year-old was behind the wheel of her Renault Clio when she struck the mum-of-two.

The incident took place on Friday Lane in the village of Barston, near Solihull, on January 12 last year.

Jesper, of Sambourn Close, Solihull was disqualified for driving for 10 years and ordered to pay costs of £459.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/20/pensioner-88-spared-jail-after-mowing-down-cyclist-without-knowing-18985968/

Didn't she get the option of retaking her driving test at the age of 98?
"The war on the poor, innocent and oppressed motorist" - Daily Gammon.

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On 24/06/2023 06:05 am, [email protected]...

...pretending to answer his own posts, says:

On Friday, June 23, 2023 at 8:03:46 PM UTC+1, [email protected] wrote:

Maureen Jesper pleaded guilty to causing the death of Jacqui Witham by careless or inconsiderate driving.
Birmingham Magistrates Court was told the 88-year-old was behind the wheel of her Renault Clio when she struck the mum-of-two.
The incident took place on Friday Lane in the village of Barston, near Solihull, on January 12 last year.
Jesper, of Sambourn Close, Solihull was disqualified for driving for 10 years and ordered to pay costs of £459.
https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/20/pensioner-88-spared-jail-after-mowing-down-cyclist-without-knowing-18985968/

QUOTE: He said that while her failure to see the cyclist was careless, she was driving at a relatively low speed of 36mph with her vision impacted by glare that created a shadow on the verge. ENDS

Shadows now instead of the Sun? Bollocks.

Unqualified pundits on Usenet are ALWAYS better apprised of the facts
than the court is, aren't they?

Did you MISS the fact that the lady in question pleaded guilty?

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On 24/06/2023 09:57 am, [email protected] wrote:

QUOTE: He said that while her failure to see the cyclist was careless, she was driving at a relatively low speed of 36mph. ENDS

I'm sure that this Mr Arsehole would take a different view if his client was hit by a cyclist riding at 36mph and hitting his Rhiannon clone playing chicken in the road. He would have been bombing along at "crazy speeds".

Does being as idiotic as you were there take a lot of practice?

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QUOTE: 4 days ago

I doubt if the fact that she has never had an accident before is of much comfort to the dead woman's family! This happened on a country lane, if the driver couldn't see properly, she should have driven more carefully. How could she not even realise she
had hit someone? At the end of the day, someone is dead because of her. A small fine and being banned from driving (effectively for life) is not a particularly harsh sentence! As far as I am concerned, any driver who causes a death on the road should be
banned for life. ENDS

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Sriracha | 3912 posts | 13 min ago
0 likes

So no culpability or punishment all round.

The geriatric ought already to have surrendered her licence long ago, so its suspension is just correcting that administrative oversight.

Meanwhile the second driver is given a pass, all culpability for the death somehow neutralised.

It's like the legal inverse of joint and several liability with each one's actions exculpating the other.

https://road.cc/content/news/88-year-old-caused-death-cyclist-without-noticing-302103#comments

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On 24/06/2023 07:37 pm, [email protected] wrote:

Sriracha | 3912 posts | 13 min ago
0 likes

So no culpability or punishment all round.

The geriatric ought already to have surrendered her licence long ago, so its suspension is just correcting that administrative oversight.

Meanwhile the second driver is given a pass, all culpability for the death somehow neutralised.

It's like the legal inverse of joint and several liability with each one's actions exculpating the other.

https://road.cc/content/news/88-year-old-caused-death-cyclist-without-noticing-302103#comments

You were hoping that readers would believe that you wrote that.

But "exculpating" is known to be beyond you.

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mctrials23 | 103 posts | 7 hours ago
3 likes

And this is why you should have to take your test again every 5 years or so once you hit 60. The number of dangerous elderly drivers on our roads is shocking. The ones you pass on the motorway doing 45. The ones that clearly can't see as they edge out of
a side road despite you hurtling towards them. The ones that are driving so far below the speed limit its dangerous and every time a car comes in the other direction they slow down.

I was passed a few months back by an elderly man who overtook me going about 1mph faster than me and was about 6 inches from my handlebars the entire time. I'm sure he thought he was being entirely safe.

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What a load of snivelling rubbish.

It’s easy to see why cyclists as a group are hated.

[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

mctrials23 | 103 posts | 7 hours ago
3 likes

And this is why you should have to take your test again every 5 years or
so once you hit 60. The number of dangerous elderly drivers on our roads is shocking.

Cyclists don’t take any tests at all, ever, so what are you complaining about?

The insurance companies, who know rather more about this than you do,
report that elderly drivers are the safest in the road!

So, ‘up you, sunshine’.

The ones you pass on the motorway doing 45.

It’s called ‘operating a vehicle within one’s limitations’, clearly a totally unfamiliar concept to cyclists.

The ones that clearly can't see as they edge out of a side road despite
you hurtling towards them.

That’s despite your hi-vis, helmet cam, 5000 lumen headlight, and blaring Hornit?

The ones that are driving so far below the speed limit its dangerous and every time a car comes in the other direction they slow down.

You do realise that a speed limit is a limit, not a target?

I suppose that as speed limits don’t yet apply to cyclists, that concept would be unfamiliar to you.

I was passed a few months back by an elderly man who overtook me going
about 1mph faster than me and was about 6 inches from my handlebars the entire time. I'm sure he thought he was being entirely safe.

I was passed a few months ago by a cyclist, with only inches to spare, with
him travelling several times faster than me. But that was on a pavement. He probably thought he was safe, but couldn’t give a toss about my safety.



--
Spike

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RTA statistics show that it's the very youngest and the very oldests who suffer a greater traffic casuality rate. It's only from aged 70 that a very small proportionate increase in the rate-per-age-group begins to increase. Its the over 80s who are much
more likely to become casualties in RTAs than most other age groups. And this is because they are more frail rather than causing more RTAs themselves.When hit by another (even a cyclist) they die more easily.

The larger danger, age-group-wise, are the youngest age-group drivers, who are more likely to also be the cause rather than just the victims of a crash.

See the links given here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-... (link is external)

Like you, I have been concerned about the seeming lack of driving skills seen in many of the very old. Yet they are generally slow (as you mention) and also likely to signal their ineptitude in plenty of time for us to avoid them. Not so with boy racers,
some of whom like to actually ambush cyclists (amongst other road users).

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Sriracha | 3915 posts | 13 hours ago
12 likes

So the moral of the story is claiming you were totally unaware you hit someone, or claiming you were unable to see anything ahead of you, both are accepted in mitigation rather than being culpatory.

The suspension of the geriatric's licence is no more than an administrative correction to the fact that she had neglected to surrender it already.

And the driver who killed the victim gets the sympathy vote for finding themselves in such a situation.

The dismal logic seems to be, the second driver might not have killed the victim if the first driver hadn't hit them first, and she didn't even see the victim because of the sun's glare (and her geriatric impaired vision no doubt) so really it's nobody's
fault.

It's like the inverse of joint and several liability where the fatal combination of two incompetent and lethally negligent drivers' actions somehow conspires to mutually exonerate them.

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Sriracha replied to Christopher TR1 | 3915 posts | 14 hours ago
6 likes

I'm in this situation with an elderly relative - we all know they ought not be driving but it's actually very difficult to achieve that end when they won't accept it for themselves and voluntarily surrender tbeir licence. You have to shop them
anonymously to the DVLA, and - crucially - have their GP lined up ready to back up your assessment. Without a Power of Attorney the GP probably isn't even going to take your call.

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It's got little to do with being old. Inept and dangerous driving is practiced by every age group. Some of the younger ones are much more dangerous as they're much more inclined to the consciously dangerous mode rather then the merely inept mode.

Motorised missiles indeed. Personally, I'd severely reduce the access to the missiles. It seems a bit close-the-gate-after-the-horse-bolt to moan on about bad missile pilots after they've exploded their Audi or BMW on your person.

As to being ready for such a missile or the" busted cataract" )???) ..... easy to pretend that all dangers can be warded away if we are just astute gimlet-eyed road warriors or general life pathfinders. In fact, things do come out of the blue.

On the other hand, there is a cyclists' sixth sense that can be developed. This sums up the various car-twtches, badges and driver-expressions et al into an indication to the bike pilot of just what a nearby motor-missile might be about to do to you,
given a chance. Sometimes they can be dodged or even avoided completely.

But sometimes they sneak up

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[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

Sriracha | 3915 posts | 13 hours ago
12 likes

So the moral of the story is claiming you were totally unaware you hit someone, or claiming you were unable to see anything ahead of you, both
are accepted in mitigation rather than being culpatory.

The suspension of the geriatric's licence is no more than an
administrative correction to the fact that she had neglected to surrender it already.

And the driver who killed the victim gets the sympathy vote for finding themselves in such a situation.

The dismal logic seems to be, the second driver might not have killed the victim if the first driver hadn't hit them first, and she didn't even see
the victim because of the sun's glare (and her geriatric impaired vision
no doubt) so really it's nobody's fault.

It's like the inverse of joint and several liability where the fatal combination of two incompetent and lethally negligent drivers' actions somehow conspires to mutually exonerate them.

Larding supposition upon supposition is an excellent way of denigrating
your target group.

--
Spike

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QUOTE: Jesper, of Solihull, was said to have heard a "thud" as she drove along the 50mph stretch but failed to realise what happened. A short while later she discovered her door mirror was hanging off. ENDS

Amazing - these low flying Suns can do so much unseen damage.
What a load of bollocks.

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JulesC replied to IanMSpencer | 28 posts | 4 min ago
0 likes

Yes; HTF does the lawyer suggest poor conditions excuse it.
It if is bad, slow down.
If it is really bad (esp. if you're old & impinged) DON'T F**KING DRIVE.

How difficult is it?

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JulesC replied to Knee Yo Anderson | 28 posts | 29 sec ago
0 likes

You may be right, if only her own lawyer hadn't said
"He claimed that while her failure to see Ms Witham was careless, she was driving at 36mph in a 50mph zone and her vision was impacted by the glare on the road caused by rainwater."

If the conditions are so bad then stop the vehicle.

I remember a storm so severe that whilst I was driving down the M1 even the German cars stopped - this was the entire M1 and entirely spontaneously.

She could have stopped.

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[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

JulesC replied to Knee Yo Anderson | 28 posts | 29 sec ago
0 likes

You may be right, if only her own lawyer hadn't said
"He claimed that while her failure to see Ms Witham was careless, she was driving at 36mph in a 50mph zone and her vision was impacted by the glare
on the road caused by rainwater."

If the conditions are so bad then stop the vehicle.

I remember a storm so severe that whilst I was driving down the M1 even
the German cars stopped - this was the entire M1 and entirely spontaneously.

She could have stopped.

The epitaph of ‘The cyclist could have stopped’ is all too common.

--
Spike

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[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

QUOTE: Jesper, of Solihull, was said to have heard a "thud" as she drove along the 50mph stretch but failed to realise what happened. A short
while later she discovered her door mirror was hanging off. ENDS

Amazing - these low flying Suns can do so much unseen damage.

Ah! The first use in this thread of the ‘low flying sun’ manufactured jibe.

What a load of bollocks.

Isn’t it just.


--
Spike

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4 days ago

QUOTE: Younger drivers cause most incidents because of the speeds they drive at. Usually they are on their phones. They blunder along the pavements knocking people over. They don't indicate before turning. Maybe people under 35 shouldn't be on our roads.
ENDS

At least the killer in this case will never drive again.

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Spike <[email protected]d> wrote:

[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

4 days ago

QUOTE: Younger drivers cause most incidents because of the speeds they
drive at. Usually they are on their phones. They blunder along the
pavements knocking people over. They don't indicate before turning. Maybe
people under 35 shouldn't be on our roads. ENDS

At least the killer in this case will never drive again.

The lady concerned might well busy a souped-up electric-motor cycle, and
bowl happily along pavements scattering pedestrians left and right…untouched by ‘the law’.

Apologies for the errant s.

Soup…bowl… get it?

--
Spike

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[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

4 days ago

QUOTE: Younger drivers cause most incidents because of the speeds they
drive at. Usually they are on their phones. They blunder along the
pavements knocking people over. They don't indicate before turning. Maybe people under 35 shouldn't be on our roads. ENDS

At least the killer in this case will never drive again.

The lady concerned might well busy a souped-up electric-motor cycle, and
bowl happily along pavements scattering pedestrians left and
right…untouched by ‘the law’.

--
Spike

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Ian Bradbury
@bradbury2010
·
Jun 22
How the fuck do you "not notice" running over a person? Most motorists react violently to the slightest contact with their precious metal cage.

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On 25/06/2023 04:39 pm, [email protected] wrote:

4 days ago

QUOTE: Younger CHAV-CYCLISTS cause most incidents because of the speeds they PEDAL at. Usually they are on their phones. They blunder along the pavements knocking people over. They don't indicate before turning. Maybe people under 35 shouldn't be on

our roads. ENDS

Fixed that for you. The only amendments are those rendered in block
capitals, those changes necessarily [sorry for the five syllables] and inescapably [sorry... five more] required because of the content of the
rest of your post.

It now makes sense whereas it made none before amendment.

No charge.

PS: Chav-cyclists with IQs of less than 35 certainly shouldn't be out on
their own. But as we can all see everyday, too many of them are.

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On 25/06/2023 04:47 pm, Spike wrote:

Spike <[email protected]d> wrote:

[email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

4 days ago

QUOTE: Younger drivers cause most incidents because of the speeds they
drive at. Usually they are on their phones. They blunder along the
pavements knocking people over. They don't indicate before turning. Maybe >>> people under 35 shouldn't be on our roads. ENDS

At least the killer in this case will never drive again.

The lady concerned might well busy a souped-up electric-motor cycle, and
bowl happily along pavements scattering pedestrians left and
right…untouched by ‘the law’.

Apologies for the errant s.

Soup…bowl… get it?

It was subtle!

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Darren S
@Badger8882
·
Jun 21
@grantshapps
, is this what you meant when you said dangerous cyclists needed stiffer punishments?

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