BMW driver ploughed head-on into cyclist after drinking two pints at work event

A Nottinghamshire father left a cyclist with multiple broken bones when he ploughed head-on into him after drinking two pints at a work event. Shocking CCTV played at Nottingham Crown Court showed James Barber’s BMW Sport career into the bike, sending the blameless rider flying over the bonnet and onto the road.

Seconds earlier, dashcam footage captured by a driver who was following the 35-year-old defendant filmed him swerving across the middle line. The father-of-two, who was injured, said his wife had to give him water through a straw, shave and shower him following the collision.

Handing him a 22-month jail term, suspended for two years, Recorder Michelle Heeley KC said: “You had been out at a work event and made a foolish decision to drink two pints. I accept you were not speeding but you were swerving across the road, overtook a parked car and drove into the victim. You simply did not see him.

“This could have been fatal and you would have had to live with that on your conscience. I accept you are fully aware of that and of the consequences of your actions.”

Denney Lau, prosecuting, said the incident took place in Pithouse Lane, West Leake, at around 5.30pm on March 22, last year. He said the victim had just left work and was cycling home when he was struck by the defendant’s BMW.

He said: “He saw the car swerving towards him and then could not remember anything. The car hit him head-on and a witness who was following him described seeing him go on to the wrong side of the road on a blind bend and described it as ‘an accident waiting to happen’.

“He failed a roadside breath test but on the evidential sample taken at 6.59pm he blew 35.”

In a victim impact statement, read to the court by Mr Lau, the cyclist told how he is a keen rider who has been using that route to and from work since 2016.

He said he spent 13 days in hospital having suffered a broken back and other bones, and he underwent surgery to have a disc removed from his back and replaced.

The father said: “I can remember my wife feeding me water through a straw, which would sometimes fall out for a long time. I had six weeks in a neck collar and my wife had to shower me.

“I was a physically active person before this and now I feel like a kid with other people doing everything for me. There were times when I could not hold a cup in my hands.

“My wife and daughters have been brilliant as has my work. I am not thinking about going back to cycling just yet, I am taking baby steps, but I am getting there, but I want to get back on my bike.

“I don’t dwell on the what ifs, my focal point is my family.”

Barber, of Leveret Way, East Leake, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving. Andrew Thompson, mitigating, said his client has never been in trouble with the police before and has a child.

He said: “He was driving home from work and foolishly he’d had a couple of drinks. He knows the journey well, saw a parked car outside the pub and he went far too far across the road and did not see the victim coming towards him on the pedal cycle and that’s very unfortunate. The defendant, to his credit, did stop.

“The police came, he cooperated fully and he actually admitted the offence to the police.” As well as a suspended sentence order, the judge disqualified Barber from driving for three years.