Shame of nurse who failed to aid cyclist she killed

Heather Butler, 67, was jailed for five years and four months at Hull Crown Court yesterday after she admitted causing the death of 15-year-old Sam Brown, whose bicycle she ploughed into while he was cycling home with a friend on the evening of September 6 last year.

A professional driver who found himself travelling behind Butler on the country roads between Knedlington and Gilberdyke prior to the crash said he was so alarmed by her erratic driving that he pulled back. Describing her behaviour, the following driver, Nicholas Webb, said she “gassed it, driving fast”, and was “all over the road”. “He concluded the driver was either drunk or using a mobile phone,” said Mark Kendall, prosecuting.

After a series of bends, from which Butler would accelerate, they approached a straight section and Mr Webb saw a cloud of dust and the Audi “jerking about”.

This was the moment of impact and a woman in the public gallery sobbed as the court heard how Sam Brown hit the bonnet and windscreen before being “catapulted” into his friend, who suffered a number of broken bones.

Mr Webb performed a U-turn and saw Sam lying on the verge. Other motorists stopped and were trying to revive the youngster and he noticed the Audi had stopped further up the road but then realised it had driven off.

Butler had driven another 227 metres before stopping to remove Sam’s bicycle, which had become attached to the car. She then drove on less than a mile to The Old School House Nursing Home in Gilberdyke, where she ran the nightshift, arriving just after 9pm with half the windscreen smashed and a wing mirror hanging off.

Staff noticed she was “unsteady on her feet” and said she had to be let in because she could not type in the code to open the door.

One colleague could smell alcohol on her breath and asked if she was all right, to which Butler replied: “No, I think I hit a cyclist”.

Police were called and Butler was breathalysed and arrested. The lower reading she gave when tested again at Goole Police Station was 84 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35 in 100.

The court heard “it was rare she did not smell of alcohol” and she had once been formally reported for being drunk at work.

Two female members of staff went out in a car to investigate, found Sam and tried to help resuscitate him until police took over.

In Butler’s first two interviews with police she produced prepared statements giving her version of events.

In the first, she said: “I recalled seeing a cyclist ahead of me, very close to me, and I then felt the impact at the front of my car.

“Following the feeling, I pulled over and got out. I could not see anything close to my car.

“I was in a state of panic and thought I should drive to work and report it at work. It never occurred to me to use my mobile phone.”

Paul Genney, defending, said Butler, who sat with her head bowed throughout the hearing, wanted to apologise to Sam’s family through him, and said: “She is genuinely remorseful. She regards this as an absolute tragedy that anybody should be killed in this way.”

The court heard it was dark at the time of the accident and that both boys were wearing dark clothing and did not have lights on their bikes. They had earlier smoked cannabis with friends in Howden but were cycling in an orderly and appropriate manner when the crash happened.

Butler was not speeding at the time but a crash investigation found she did not brake or attempt to take evasive action prior to the collision.

In her victim impact statement, Sam’s mother, Tracy, said his death had devastated the family and the pain was “almost unbearable”.