Shropshire motorist fined after hitting back of cyclist 'throwing' him into the air

Anthony Michael Berry, 72, denied charges of driving without due care and attention, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident.

Mr John Dove, prosecuting at his trial at Telford Magistrates Court, said Berry was driving a BMW 5 Series on the A495 from Welshampton to Ellesmere on November 30.

Mr Dove read statements from several cyclists who described how the car had overtaken them, crossing the double white lines in the centre of the road, as they approached the brow of a hill heading towards the junction with the A528.

He said that Berry's wing-mirror had "almost clipped" the outside leader of the group as he cut back in front of them.

Two of the cyclists went on ahead and caught up with Berry as he stopped at a junction.

One of the men, Thomas Brazier, appearing as a prosecution witness, told magistrates that he had pulled in front of Berry's BMW and was preparing to dismount when he was struck from behind by the car.

"It hit the rear wheel of the bike. The rear wheel was entirely broken and I was thrown up into the air and landed to the left of the vehicle at the junction in the middle of the road," said Mr Brazier.

The court was told the cyclist was lucky that there was no traffic at the time.

Mr Dove read statements by three other cyclists who saw the car strike Mr Brazier before driving off. The cyclist was left with bruising to his side and hip and scratches and told the court the bike's repair bill had come to £900.

Magistrates found Berry, of Rosemary Lane, Whitchurch, guilty of driving without due care and attention but cleared him of failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident.

The bench accepted that an accident had occurred, but that Berry had not been aware of it.

He was fined £250 and ordered to pay £235 court costs, plus four points on his licence.

Berry, who was not represented, told the court that the road was narrow and that the cyclists should not have been riding two abreast.

He said that as he had stopped at the junction two cyclists had come up both sides of his car and that he had been talking to one of them on the driver's side.

When asked what he thought had happened to Mr Brazier, who had cycled up the passenger side, he said: "I don't know. There's a little car park, I assumed he'd turned left and gone down there."

Berry said that it was a "difficult junction" and that drivers were forced to look repeatedly left and right before pulling out. "If Mr Brazier was there, I would have seen him," he added.