A ‘killer’ OAP driver tried to explain why he drove away after knocking down a cyclist between Wantage and Didcot - and claimed he had been 'deeply affected' by the fatal crash.

Edward Hinchliffe, 77, was behind the wheel of his Toyota Corolla on the morning of Sunday, August 2, 2020, when he struck cyclist Simon Chesher, who was out for a 70km morning ride with a training companion.

Mr Chesher was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital and died from his injuries a month later, jurors at Oxford Crown Court heard.

From the witness box, Hinchliffe told jurors yesterday (August 30) that he had seen the two cyclists on the A417 Reading Road ahead of him, indicated and pulled out to give the bicycles room of around a metre-and-a-half.

“The first inkling or the first obvious sign something was wrong was when an object or something smashed into the windscreen on the left-hand side of my vehicle,” he claimed.

“I panicked. The fight or flight mode kicked in. I’d never been in a position where that’s happened before. I carried on going then glanced in my mirror to see that cars had stopped and people were hurrying across [to the cyclist].

“Foolishly and emotionally [I] told myself perhaps it’s not too serious, perhaps he’ll be alright. I hear often of people being knocked off their bicycles and only having cuts and bruises.”

He said that, despite extensive damage to his windscreen, he felt he could still safely carry on to Didcot. He parked in a side street near the station and got on the train to London Paddington, then took a bus to a friend’s flat in north London. He did not tell the friend what had happened.

Cross-examined by prosecutor Robert Brown, it was put to him that his account of pulling out to give the cyclists space did not fit either with evidence from a crash expert about where the collision took place or the evidence from eyewitness driving behind the Toyota Corolla on the morning of the accident.

Hinchliffe, who has admitted causing death by careless driving, said: “I don’t accept any of your premises that I didn’t see the cyclist or that I didn’t react or I just didn’t bother and I just ploughed into them. I don’t accept those three basic premises.

“What I do accept is that in the manner of pulling out I obviously behaved carelessly in not pulling out far enough to cover any eventuality that might have happened in those few seconds before the collision.”

He denied that he had ‘lied’ in his account of the crash, or that he was trying to ‘downplay’ or ‘simply avoid’ responsibility for causing Mr Chesher’s death.

“I am taking responsibility for my part in the accident, but I feel it was borne of carelessness rather than dangerousness,” he said.

Hinchliffe countered a claim from the prosecutor that he was trying to ‘shift responsibility’ for the crash on to Mr Chesher’s shoulders.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I could not for a moment try to put the blame onto Mr Chesher or anyone else, but I don’t know what caused the actual collision except what I have said.”

At the end of his evidence, he asked if he could add some words. “I have had no opportunity to express my feelings towards Mr Chesher, his family, friends and loved ones,” the defendant said.

Told both by the judge and his own barrister that they did not feel it was relevant to the issues in the trial, Hinchliffe asked: “Is it not relevant in terms of me and myself and the sort of person I am?”

His brief, Irshad Sheikh, replied: “No, it’s not.”

The defendant, seated in the witness box with his back to the victim’s family and wearing a fir-green fleece, white t-shirt and grey jogging bottoms, said: “I am deeply affected by what happened and I can’t even begin to think of the upset and the grief that was caused by the accident to the family behind me.”

Jurors retired to consider their verdicts shortly before 4pm on Wednesday afternoon.

Hinchliffe, of Ormond Road, Wantage, denies causing death by careless driving and dangerous driving. The trial continues.

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23757006.hit-run-toyota-driver-addresses-jury-fatal-crash/er

swldx...@gmail.com <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:

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Spike

QUOTE: “Foolishly and emotionally [I] told myself perhaps it’s not too serious, perhaps he’ll be alright. I hear often of people being knocked off their bicycles and only having cuts and bruises.” ENDS

Are you suggesting that you have NEVER heard of cyclists getting KILLED after being knocked off their bikes?
WE DON'T BELIEVE YOUR PATHETIC EXCUSES, YOU KILLER.