Death crash driver loses appeal

A driver who collided with a group of cyclists, killing two of them, has lost his appeal against conviction - exactly a year after the tragedy.

Elaine Armstrong, 35, and Harry Scott, 47, died on 13 February 2002, after they were struck by a car driven by Robert Wood.

Wood, 20, claimed he was dazzled by an unusually bright cycle light and wanted his conviction for careless driving overturned.

But on Thursday a judge said Wood should have been able to see the cycle light and react in time to avert the accident near Wigton, Cumbria.

Lose control

The appeal hearing was told Mrs Armstrong, her husband Michael, Mr Scott, and two others were cycling back to Wigton in the dark.

They were facing oncoming traffic on a footpath separated from the A596 by a grass verge, when Wood's car spun off the road and hit three of them.

Mr Armstrong was so badly injured in the incident that part of his leg had to be amputated.

Wood had told the police he had left the lit section of the bypass and was in darkness when he was dazzled by the bright light on the bike owned by cyclist Michael Edmondson.

Apply brakes

He said he had not known what the light came from and thought its source was in the road in front of him and that he was going to hit it.

He claimed his car started to spin out of control when he tried to apply the brakes and he had felt a bang.

Wood, a sales assistant, of Maryport, had denied careless driving, but was found guilty by Eden magistrates following a three-day trial in Penrith in December 2002.

He was banned form driving for 18 months and fined £400.

Dismissing the appeal, Judge Charles Mahon said that while he did not consider it to be a case of a "mad-cap driver", Wood should have been able to react to the cycle light in time to avoid the tragedy.