Cyclist left with 'permanent and irreversible' injuries after being hit by HGV

James Templeton, 66, admitted causing serious injury by careless driving in the aftermath of the collision which took place in March 2023 and on Wednesday a judge at Bradford Crown Court sentenced him to four months in prison suspended for two years.

The court was shown a brief video clip from a camera attached to the rear of the cyclist’s bike which filmed Templeton’s Volvo HGV coming up behind him on the A629 Halifax Road near Cullingworth.

A witness to the collision said Templeton was not giving the cyclist, who was wearing high-visibility clothing, enough room as he overtook him and he saw the bicycle “fire off” into the bushes and the man rolling down the road. Templeton, of Trough Lane, Denholme, stopped his lorry after hearing a bang and he later told another witness he had just clipped the cyclist.

He told police later that two other lorries were coming towards him as he overtook the cyclist, but he thought he had passed the complainant.

The court heard the married complainant suffered a catalogue of serious injuries and had spent six months in hospital after the collision. Judge Sophie McKone said his injuries included damage to his spinal cord, a fractured pelvis, several broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a fracture to his skull.

She said the victim and his wife’s lives were now unrecognisable and the complainant had gone from being a hardworking independent man to a man who was completely dependent on his wife for even the most basic needs.

The judge said the complainant now needed a wheelchair when he went out and was in constant pain.“His and his wife’s lives will never be the same again,” the judge told Templeton.

In a victim impact statement read out by prosecutor Beatrice Allsop the complainant described how his life had been turned upside and he now felt useless.

He said he missed working with his colleagues and felt he no longer had a purpose.Barrister Darren Finnegan, for Templeton, described him as a fundamentally decent man who was profoundly remorseful for his actions that afternoon.

He revealed that Templeton’s HGV licence had not been renewed since the collision and he was in the process of surrendering the operator’s licence for his ground works business.

He said his client had been attempting to pass the cyclist, but he miscalculated terribly and his misjudgment had had tragic consequences.

Mr Finnegan said an immediate prison sentence would impact on Templeton’s partner and son and he said his client had a history heart attacks including a mini-stroke since the collision.

Judge McKone said Templeton had admitted the offence at the earliest opportunity before the magistrates court in June this year and she accepted that his remorse was genuine.

But she said he had been carrying out an unsafe manoeuvre and the injuries caused were “permanent and irreversible”.She explained that she had to follow the sentencing guidelines for the offence which indicated that the starting point for sentence was six months in custody after a trial.

Judge McKone conceded that such a sentence would seem to the victim and his wife to be “totally and utterly inadequate” to reflect what they had suffered and what they would continue to suffer for the rest of their lives.

Templeton was entitled to third off his prison sentence due to his guilty plea and the judge decided that his four-month term should be suspended for two years after taking account of his age, his guilty plea, his lack of previous convictions and his personal mitigation.

Judge McKone made it a condition of the suspended sentence that Templeton complies with a six-month home curfew between the hours of 7pm and 6am. She also disqualified him from driving again for 12 months.