Driver who killed cyclist in 2am crash walks free

Alastair Dudgeon was killed near the Kincardine Bridge in Fife on 6 January last year

A MOTORIST who fatally injured a cyclist on an early-morning commute has avoided a jail sentence.

Alastair Dudgeon was killed near the Kincardine Bridge in Fife at about 2am on 6 January last year following a collision with a Vauxhall Astra driven by James Sneddon.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard yesterday that Mr Dudgeon, from High Valleyfield, Fife, regularly cycled to and from his work as a baker at a Tesco store in Camelon, on the outskirts of Falkirk.

Sneddon, 42, phoned an ambulance after his car hit the mountain bike.

Paramedics who went to the scene found no sign of a pulse and the victim was taken to the Forth Valley Royal Hospital at Larbert, Stirlingshire.

Mr Dudgeon was found to have suffered a broken neck, rib fractures and internal injuries, including to the aorta – the main artery from the heart.

The Crown charged Sneddon, from Falkirk, with causing the death of Mr Dudgeon on the A985 between the Longannet roundabout and Kincardine Bridge by driving dangerously, failing to observe the cyclist and colliding with the rear of his bike.

Sneddon had denied the charge and last month a jury found him guilty of the lesser offence of causing death by careless driving, which carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.

Yesterday, judge Nigel Morrison, QC, ordered Sneddon to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work under a community payback order.

The judge said: “The death of Alastair Dudgeon at the age of 51 is a tragedy for his family.”

He said Mr Dudgeon’s widow was “devastated” by the loss.

But the judge said he took into account that there had been no deliberate course of bad driving, nor had there been aggravating features such as drinking or using a mobile phone.