Van driver killed cyclist after being distracted by WhatsApps

A van driver who killed a cyclist while distracted by WhatsApp has been spared jail.

Shayne Hill, 32, was said to have been ‘engaged with his phone’ for 10 seconds before he smashed into Cheryl Tye, 54, without having seen her, causing her bike and helmet to shatter into pieces.

Mrs Hill, a keen triathlete who had been taking part in an organized time trial event with her husband, hit the windscreen of Hill’s blue Citroen Dispatch van, before being thrown into the air.

Other motorists stopped and tried to revive her with CPR, but she died at the scene from multiple injuries at 9.35am on June 26, 2022, on the A11 dual carriageway at Roudham, near Thetford, Norfolk.

A previous trial heard how Hill’s sister had sent him around 25 pictures ‘in ones and twos over a few minutes’ on WhatsApp showing a family barbecue the previous day just before the impact.

Hill told police he was using his phone in a holder as a satellite navigation device and could see the message notifications flashing up, but they were partially obscuring his screen so he had to clear them by touching the screen so he could see his phone clearly.

He denied causing death by dangerous driving and was cleared after a three-day trial in July as his family sobbed in the gallery, but he admitted a lesser charge of causing death by careless driving.

Judge Anthony Bate gave him a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, banned him from driving for a year and ordered him to do up to do 30 hours unpaid work with a 15 days’ Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR).

The judge said that Hill’s ‘inattention on the road ahead’ had caused the fatal crash but gave him credit for his guilty plea.

He described Mrs Tye’s death as a ‘very sad case indeed’, saying it happened after events took a ‘very tragic turn’ when Hill ‘failed to see’ her on her bike and crashed into her.

Judge Bate said Mrs Tye, a former manager of Hadleigh Town Council in Suffolk, was a ‘loving daughter, sister and friend to so many’, and said her death had a devastating impact on her husband and wider family.

Mr Tye’s husband Christopher described the ‘devastating’ consequences of her death in a statement which was read to the court.

He said that he had ‘come to the numbing realisation that having set off together in this race he’s now on his own’, and told how he was now ‘no longer able to take part in such races’.

Michael Clare, defending Hill, said Hill had been ‘looking down at his drinks bottle or wiping messages from his [phone] screen’ when the crash happened.

He described it as ‘more than a momentary distraction’ behind the wheel and said it had been a ‘brief but avoidable distraction’.

Mr Clare said Hill had ‘no memory of what happened’, but had co-operated with police and was remorseful.

Ms Tye, a member of Plomesgate Cycling Club, was taking part in a 50-mile trial event organized by the Breckland Cycling Club, which involved riding on a section of the A11 between Snetterton and Thetford, Norfolk

She was wearing a white and yellow top with flashing lights on her front and back when the crash happened on a straight section of the road with good visibility, in fine weather conditions.

Following her death, cycling time trials were suspended on the dual carriageway pending a review into safety measures.

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