A callous cyclist who drunkenly mowed down two women as they walked along the pavement and left one of them seriously injured has been spared jail – on condition he wears a tag for three months to stop him drinking.
Chilling mobile phone footage shows a distraught Samantha Latham furiously reprimanding cowardly Carwyn Thomas as he rides off again moments after the terrifying impact.
Her friend Kate Wilson was propelled up to 12ft through the air as the 48-year-old ploughed into them from behind, zooming the wrong way down a darkened one-way street without lights.
The events manager was knocked unconscious after landing flat on her face ‘like she was a crash test dummy’.
She also snapped her front teeth and sustained gruesome injuries to her little finger on her right hand which later had to be amputated.Â
When Kate Wilson (left) was propelled up to 12ft through the air, her friend Samantha Latham (right) confronted the cyclist
The loyal friend confronted Carwyn Thomas (pictured) after he smashed into the woman in Nantwich, Cheshire
Mrs Latham, who had been walking with her friend to get a taxi in Nantwich, Cheshire, sustained ligament damage to her hand and a bruise to her eye.
A third friend filmed the 47-year-old berating ‘aggressive’ Thomas as an ‘absolute w*****’ for having ‘smashed into her on your bike’ and then ‘had a go at us’.
As he shamelessly gets back onto his bike and begins pedalling away – once more on the pavement – she yells: ‘And then you’re leaving – you f****** a***hole.’
She then exclaims in horror as she sets about tending to her stricken friend.
After a campaign by former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith to make reckless cyclists accountable for the consequences of their actions, Rishi Sunak’s government agreed to change the law.
However the proposed offence of causing death or serious injury by dangerous or careless cycling – punishable by up to 14 years in prison – was dropped after he called a general election.
Instead Thomas was charged under the Victorian era law of causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving and given 14 months jail suspended for two years.
He will have to wear a tag for 120 days as part of an alcohol abstinence monitoring programme after the court was told he was ‘grossly impaired’ by alcohol.
Kate Wilson was propelled up to 12ft through the air as 48-year-old Thomas (pictured) ploughed into them from behind, zooming the wrong way down a darkened one-way street without lights
A third friend filmed the Ms Latham (left) berating ‘aggressive’ Thomas (right) as an ‘absolute w*****’ for having ‘smashed into her on your bike’ and then ‘had a go at us’
Sentencing him, a judge spoke of his frustration at not being able to order ‘shameful’ Thomas to pay the women compensation as he has little money and no legal requirement to get insurance.
Afterwards the friends called for a toughening up on laws against riding a bike while drunk and said cyclists should be legally bound to take out insurance.
‘If I had fallen a different way, who knows what would have happened,’ said Mrs Wilson, who has no recollection of the incident.
‘I have no-one to sue because he has no money and because he was not insured.
‘As a community, people need to be less tolerant of cyclists, cycling in areas where they should not be.
‘They can cause real damage.
‘We need more powerful laws for when these incidents occur.’
There was no warning ahead of the collision on the evening of March 22, 2022, Mrs Latham told his sentencing hearing at Chester Crown Court.
‘I genuinely thought my best friend was dead, that she had died in front of my eyes.
‘When I think of that impact even now, I shiver, I feel sick.’
Turning to face Thomas as he sat in the dock, she added: ‘That man changed Kate’s life forever.
‘He changed my life forever.’
Thomas shamelessly gets back onto his bike and pedals off
Thomas shamelessly gets back onto his bike and pedals off
Mrs Wilson – also 47 – told the court she sustained ‘countless’ cuts and bruises in the impact, with hospital staff initially thinking she had been in a car accident.
Her lengthy recovery from her injuries ‘prevented me from being able to do lots of everyday tasks’ such as caring for her younger daughter and driving, she added.
‘I have always taken such pride in my appearance – this amputation has been difficult to adjust to psychologically.’
Thomas, of Crewe, admitted two charges of causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving and was given 14 months jail, suspended for two years.
The maximum sentence he faced was two years jail but Judge Steven Everett had to take into account his mitigation including his guilty plea and the fact he is a carer for his elderly mother.
Highlighting how cyclists are not required to take out insurance, Judge Everett said: ‘I am not a maker of the law, I am an enforcer.
‘But if I had my way, I would make a compensation order for many thousands of pounds.’
He told Thomas he had ‘cycled straight into them, no doubt affected by alcohol’.
‘If you had any compassion and any feeling, any sense of shame or remorse, you would have looked at Kate Wilson as she was lying on the ground, unconscious and potentially dead.
‘You would have done your very best to help them, instead of being aggressive and unpleasant which is what you were.
‘Words cannot express how badly and how shamefully you behaved.’
He also imposed 250 hours of unpaid work, a three month curfew and 25 days of rehabilitation activity.
Once more on the pavement – Ms Latham yells: ‘And then you’re leaving – you f****** a***hole’
While the incident happened too long ago for Thomas to have been charged under the proposed new law, campaigners say getting in on the statute book will save lives in the future.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport said: ‘The safety of our roads is an absolute priority for this Government, and that’s why we are committed to delivering a new Road Safety Strategy – the first in over a decade.
‘We will set out next steps on this in due course.’
