Judge Enright gets it just right

Lorry driver Richard Payne shoved the 74-year-old man off his bike in March, Cambridgeshire, in June this year after accusing him of making an offensive gesture at him as the cyclist let the lorry past.

The incident was witnessed by another motorist, who had also been tailgated by Payne that day – and the 66-year-old lorry driver was jailed for one year at a hearing at Peterborough Crown Court on Tuesday 24 November. 

Judge Enright said there was no suggestion of any improper action by the cyclist and declared: “Every road user is entitled to use the roadway – it is not confined to those with an engine. Horse and bike riders have equal entitlement.

Every road user is entitled to use the roadway – it is not confined to those with an engine. Horse and bike riders have equal entitlement."

Judge Sean Enright

“It can be very intimidating for riders to be tailgated in this way and to be overtaken at speed. A cyclist has no way out when a motorist pulls over and starts an altercation.”

Duncan Dollimore, CTC’s Road Safety and Legal Campaigns Officer, said: “Judge Enright’s eminently sensible and accurate comments will be music to the ears of cyclists everywhere. We have recently highlighted two worrying cases involving coroners. One claimed a lorry driver would not have expected to see a cyclist on a trunk road, then another speculated that a driver's failure to see the cyclist in daylight 'may have been compounded by his clothing'.

“We questioned whether these coroners understood cycling or, more importantly, the Highway Code.

“Clearly Judge Enright understands both, as his conclusions prove. While it is a pleasure to highlight this, it is a shame we’re having to do so purely because it seems to be the exception rather than the rule when it comes to legal hearings into incidents involving cyclists.”