Bacardi & Coke Range Rover driver hit cyclist
MOTORIST, 57, WALKS FREE AFTER ‘TRIAL OF FACTS’
A JURY has found that a Range Rover driver smashed into a cyclist after drinking Bacardi and Coke. Janice McVicar, 57, briefly stopped in the middle of the road after the crash and attempted to move a deployed airbag that got stuck under the windscreen, before driving away. McVicar, of Grange Drive, Eccles, Salford, then drove down Moorside Road in Swinton before crashing into a parked car and rolling her white Range Rover Evoque onto its side. The cyclist, Jade Edmonds, who had taken up bike riding in order to get fit for her wedding, was left with significant injuries – including brain damage – and needed intensive surgery.
She had to have her face rebuilt during a gruelling ninehour operation and has been left with a scar from ‘ear to ear.’ She also suffered a broken femur, a broken wrist, damage to one of her kidneys and was left with 10 per cent vision in her right eye.
McVicar was found unfit to stand trial at an earlier hearing due to medical issues and was not present during the proceedings.
This means that, instead of undergoing a criminal trial, the jury at Manchester Crown Court was asked to decided whether she had or had not committed the acts of which she was accused.
They found she had committed those acts.
But, as McVicar’s GP concluded that she falls under the Disability Act, she was given an absolute discharge from court without any time in jail. Instead, her driving licence will be sent to the Secretary of State to decide whether she will be disqualified. In a ‘trial of the facts,’ the jury previously heard that the incident occurred on June 7, 2020, at around 6.15pm, when Ms Edmonds was cycling up Moorside Road – she said she only ever rode on the pavement.
The court heard that McVicar told a police officer at the scene: “I know I shouldn’t have been driving. I had a drink, I have done wrong, I’m sorry.”
Following a blood test, she was found to have 168 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood – the legal limit is 80 milligrams, the court heard.
McVicar went on to make a number of unsolicited comments, including: “I didn’t think I was over the limit. I hate cyclists, I can’t stand them. Some of them are stupid, aren’t they. I’ll sign anything, I admit I’ve done it, I just want to go home.”
At a police interview the next day, she said she had been with a small group of friends in her daughter’s garden where she had drunk a Bacardi and Coke.