The Court of Appeal has rejected a challenge taken by a bus driver over his conviction for causing the death of a cyclist in Dublin, with the court also stressing the need for drivers to take care around cyclists.
In a written judgement delivered by Mr Justice John
Edwards, the court noted the mismatch between the size of the bus the driver
was in charge of at the time of the fatality, saying this vulnerability of
cyclists must be acted on by drivers.
“There has to be particular regard for
cyclists because of their vulnerability,” the ruling handed down on Tuesday
said.
Cyclist Mary White (55) died in hospital after being hit
by a bus cutting a corner on Burlington Road, south Dublin. She was taken from
the scene, at a T junction on Burlington Road, at about 9.40pm on November
17th, 2014. She died, of head injuries, two days later.
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Dublin Bus driver Osborn Irabor (60), French Park,
Tyrrelstown, Dublin, pleaded not guilty to the charge. However, he was convicted
in October, 2018, on the charge of causing death by careless driving after a
two-day trial. He was banned from driving for four years.
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In sentencing Mr Irabor at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court,
Judge Francis Comerford said there was no criminal intent in the case. He
believed the crash was caused by Mr Irabor not seeing Ms White on her bike.
This, the judge said, was because she was in a blind spot created by the double
decker’s wing mirror.
He added she was in that blind spot, cycling towards the bus as it turned the junction towards her, because Mr Irabor had cut the corner and had not stopped at the junction.
Irabor appealed the conviction, with his lawyers arguing the terminology used by Judge Comerford when addressing the jury was overly technical, meaning the jury did not fully understand its options. However, that argument was rejected by the Court of Appeal.
The appeal court ruling rejected the proposition that the
verdict had somehow been at odds with the weight of the evidence in the case.
“On the contrary, this was far from a
marginal case. There was a collision between a bus and a cyclist which had caused the death of the cyclist,” the appeal court ruling handed down on Tuesday
said.
