This afternoon I joined Kate Cairns, the admirable woman who has campaigned so tirelessly to prevent others sharing the fate of her sister Eilidh who was run down and killed by a lorry driven by Lopes in Notting Hill in February 2009, together with a representative of Roadpeace and a Cairns family friend, at Isleworth Crown Court. We were there to see Lopes sentenced for the crimes of (1) causing the death by dangerous driving of Ms Nora Gutmann, an elderly pedestrian whom Lopes ran down in June 2011 with a lorry on a light controlled pedestrian crossiing near Madame Tussauds on Euston Road and (2) falsifying data from the tachograph of the lorry he was driving.
I could have spent the first day of the long legal vacation watching Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome winning medals in the Olympic Time Trial but I am glad that I instead spent time seeing a case of the type I regularly comment upon. As a mere member of the public I struggled even to remain in the Courtroom - but this is not the place for me to express my views on the importance that Justice is dispensed openly and publicly.
The simplified facts were that Lopes did not see Ms Gutmann on the pedestrian crossing when he moved off once the lights had changed in his favour. He was not wearing the glasses that he was required to wear as a condition of his licence following his conviction of driving with uncorrected defective vision which resulted from the investigation, such as it was, that followed the death of Eilidh in February 2009. When the police drove the lorry away from the accident scene they noticed that the tachograph had been induced to record that the vehicle was at rest. This had the effect of disabling both the speedometer and the milometer and would have prevented the brakes from applying automatically in the event of an emergency. Chillingly the magnet was then stolen from the lorry when it was in the police compound, though there is no way of knowing whether Lopes or his employer was responsible for this.
The relevance of Eilidh's death was of course that it made it plain to Lopes that he needed glasses to drive and one would have thought that tragedy would be a sobering experience for any driver regardless of whether or not the police investigation had demonstrated fault on his part. Yet his subsequent driving record was appalling. In July 2009 he drove into the rear of another vehicle causing £3,000 worth of damage. In August 2010 he was involved in a collision though he disputes this was his fault and the Judge therefore rightly disregarded it. In March 2011 he collided with a parked motor vehicle and failed to stop, as a consequence of which he was dismissed by his then employer. In June 2011, shortly before he killed Ms Gutmann, he attempted to overtake a minicab so closely that he removed the wing mirror.
His solicitor argued that since none of these incidents had resulted in any conviction they should be disregarded but the Judge wisely disagreed.
His best mitigation was that he had, in interview, come clean over the fact that he had not been wearing his glasses and the effect that imprisonment was having on his family.
The sentence was 4 years imprisonment for the causing death by dangerous driving with disqualification from driving for 6 years following which he would be required to take an extended driving test. On the tachograph matter he was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment to be served concurrently (i.e 4 years in total).
My own take on this is how very bad we are at preventing needless tragedies on the roads. I say no more about the admitted deficiencies of the original investigation into Eilidh's death. The July 2009, March 2011 and June 2011 events are all strongly suggestive of driving offences that merited (at least) points on a licence but it is no surprise that no prosecutions followed these damage only incidents, let alone any near misses there might have been. Equally it seems implausible that Lopes's employers were unaware that the tachograph on their vehicle was being disabled, yet no action appears to have been taken to ensure that that particular haulier was closed down.
Both Eilidh's and Nora's families have been very generous in their forgiveness, preferring that Lopes never drive again than that he go to prison for a prolonged period. Their joint press release deserves all the publicity it can get and I reproduce it below. It is perhaps to be hoped that one day the Court of Appeal will revisit their caution over prolonged and even lifelong driving ban, as technology develops to make such bans more reliably enforceable.
The remainder of this post is the families' press release:
CALL FOR BAN FOR KILLER DRIVER
In a momentous week for cycling when Great Britain's first 2012 Olympic medal has gone to Lizzie Armistead in the women's road race, and Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton ever to be crowned Tour de France champion, families of the nation's everyday cyclists live with fear.
The failure on the part of authorities to properly protect cyclists and pedestrians on our streets, or to treat these deaths as real crime, is a cause for shame not pride. The families of two victims today stand together to demand better.
They are calling for the Judge at Isleworth Crown Court to permanently revoke the license of Joao Lopes, 56, who has killed not one, but two Londoners. He is to be sentenced today for death by dangerous driving after he killed youthful, fit and active 97 year old Nora Gutman, at a pedestrian crossing in Marlebone.
Shockingly, Lopes had already killed before, but had not been prevented from driving again. In February 2009, Eilidh Cairns, 30, died after being knocked off her bike from behind, run over, and crushed by Lopes' truck. Eilidh, a TV producer, was a strong and experienced cyclist who did a daily 20 mile commute and knew of the dangers of HGVs.
The police found no connection between Eilidh's death and the actions of the driver. Lopes pleaded guilty to the minor charge brought of driving with uncorrected defective vision. He was fined £200 pounds, given three points on his licence and permitted to carry on driving a tipper lorry.
Police later admitted the investigation had been substandard and carried out a full review following the death of Ms Gutman but the CPS again decided that no charge would be brought with respect to Ms Cairns' death. Lopes went on to have at least three more driving collisions before finally killing Nora Gutman whilst driving without his glasses. He also pleaded guilty to a tachograph offence.
There is a shocking disconnect between our national pride and support for the cyclists representing our country in competition and the inherent complacency about the slaughter of cyclists and pedestrians on our streets. HGVs are involved in more than 50% of deaths of London's cyclist and yet make up less than 4% of road traffic. Twice as many pedestrians were killed by HGV than cyclists in the first decade of this century.
And yet, dangerous drivers generally do not have their licences revoked after fatal collisions. Only three drivers were given a lifetime ban in 2011. If Lopes is banned for life today it will be two deaths too late.
Kate Cairns, sister of Eilidh, set up the See Me Save Me campaign to eliminate the blind spots in lorries.
Kate says: The defence of most drivers involved in the death of vulnerable road users is that they simply didn't see them. This is not good enough. We have affordable technology such as cameras and sensors which eliminate blind spots. It is installed on new cars to protect bumpers so why do we value the life of a cyclist less than the sheen of a bumper? We need to re-evaluate the focus on victim blaming. More pedestrians are killed by HGVs than cyclists, but the government doesn't urge pedestrians to wear high vis and helmets. The danger is posed by huge clumsy vehicles driven blind in tiny shared spaces. Focus has to be on the vehicle that poses the greatest risk, the trucks, and the responsibility to manage the risk has to be proportionate.
It is clear that the justice system in Eilidh’s case failed to respond properly and Lopes was allowed to carry on driving. If it is decided he will be kept off the road today it will be a great relief but it is too late for Nora, and too late for Eilidh. We need to treat road crime as real crime. We need proper and competent police investigation that is transparent and accountable. We need to afford cyclists and pedestrians the protection of the law, just like any citizen.
Stricter liability, as in so many other countries, would incentivise employers to equip their drivers properly and to train them to do the job asked of them. It would also ensure truck companies and construction clients set and enforce proper standards and best practice. All we are asking is that the legal system is such that people on our streets are not at danger of death and maiming from commercial activities. HGVs are mobile places of work.
Having campaigned for three years since Eilidh's death so others do not have to die I am here because of the death of another amazing woman, Nora Gutman, who was run over by the same kind of truck by the same driver. None of us should be here to today and that includes Lopes. Blind spot danger could have and should have been designed out. Because our transport and justice systems tolerate risk on our roads, my family and the Gutmans are shattered, whilst that of Lopes will suffer his imprisonment. No-one should have had to suffer, least of all Nora and my sister.
Victim impact statement from the family of Nora Gutmann
Though 97, Nora Gutmann was still youthful when she died. She was still healthy, still living on her own, still totally independent. We all looked forward to many years left with her. She was also still totally engaged in living, learning, growing. She listened to various engaging programmes on the BBC on a regular basis, read voraciously and has, for many years, been enrolled and engaged at the University of the Third Age -- a school for retired people where she had signed up for a course in Buddhism for the fall term. Nora was also a deeply forgiving person. I don’t think she would have wanted Joao Lopes to be sent to prison, or to deprive his family of a breadwinner. As a family we don’t feel a desire for retribution against Lopes. We have been informed by the police that Lopes may drive again, and could even get his Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) license back at some point. We find the possibility that Lopes could ever drive again to be completely outrageous. Lopes killed Eilidh Cairns, a 30 year old experienced cyclist in 2009. He continued driving dangerously after that, having at least three more driving collisions before killing Nora, and shockingly there was no system in place to monitor this dangerous behavior or to take him off the roads. We ask the court to do everything in its power to protect the public and prevent Lopes from ever again getting behind the wheel of any vehicle.
The indictment alleges that on or about December 1, 2011, Guzman met with an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent an agent and a confidential informant (CI) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation "to discuss the sale of the Henri Matisse painting 'Odalisque in Red Pants' which had been reported stolen from the Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art (Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas (MACCSII) in Caracas, Venezuela in or around December 2002." Guzman allegedly gave the CI a password four days later to access an email file containing photographs of the artwork.
