Texting driver who killed a biker is jailed for three years

Jailing Stephen Rawlinson, Judge Jonathan Rose told him he was distracted by the message and said: “Even the time to text eight characters is the time it takes to kill a man.”

The father-of-three was convicted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court of causing the death by dangerous driving of Nigel Earnshaw after he failed to see him on a roundabout at 10.30pm on September 5 last year.

Rawlinson, 26, of Bradford, was seen driving his Ford Focus at speed in Saltaire, seconds before it struck Mr Earnshaw’s Honda 125cc motorbike.

He said he could not understand how he failed to see the motorcycle and said he thought the noise he had heard when he hit Mr Earnshaw was children throwing stones at his car.

During the trial, prosecutor Richard Clews said Rawlinson’s mobile phone was taken from him at the scene and examined by the police.

He had sent a text message at 10.28pm telling his grandmother he would be with her shortly.

Rawlinson denied using his phone when he was driving.

But Mr Clews told the jury: “He was either grossly inattentive or he was, for some reason, grossly distracted for a considerable period of time on the approach to the roundabout.”

Mr Earnshaw, 58, a rugby enthusiast who was driving to work a night shift at Hallmark Cards in Bradford, died in hospital 18 days later. He suffered a fractured ankle and developed a fatal deep vein thrombosis.

He was riding within the speed limit and had right of way on the roundabout.

He and his wife, Susan, from Keighley, had been married for 38 years.

The stalwart of Cleckheaton Rugby Club served as Grand Master of the Grand Society Order of the Oddfellows for two years and worked for good causes throughout his life. He and his wife were charity fundraisers.

Judge Rose said Mrs Earnshaw “suffered a daily loneliness” since the death of her husband. She had been deprived of the friend, companion and breadwinner she expected to spend her latter years with.

The judge told Rawlinson, who was on his way to pick up his grandmother: “There was an arrogance in your driving that night. You were driving too fast for the road, for the circumstances, too fast to respect other road users.”

Judge Rose said Rawlinson was composing a short text to his grandmother at the wheel of his car, telling her to be ready when he arrived.

“You just wiped out the machine and the man who was upon it,” Judge Rose said.

He banned church-going Rawlinson from driving for four years and ordered him to take an extended re-test before he gets back behind a wheel.

After the case, PC Robert Hampshire, of West Yorkshire Police Western Area Roads Policing Unit, said: “It has been a harrowing week for the family and, thankfully, common sense has prevailed with the jury. A just verdict has been received.

“The sentence is somewhat irrelevant to Mrs Earnshaw, however, the Rawlinsons still have a son. Mrs Earnshaw no longer has a husband.”