Company director who drove his Aston Martin car ‘like an idiot’ before he mowed down a family of three cyclists has escaped jail
Kyle Lloyd was driving at 70mph in a 40mph zone when he hit Peter Mead, Elizabeth Hutchings and Saffron Mead
A YOUNG company director who was “driving like an idiot” when he mowed down a family of three cyclists has dodged jail.
Kyle Lloyd, 30, was
driving at 70mph in a 40mph zone before he collided with Peter Mead, 68, Elizabeth Hutchings, 58, and their 14-year-old daughter Saffron Mead as they crossed a road.
The trio suffered serious injuries in the crash on the A337 near Lymington, Hants, in September 2014.
Lloyd, who is a director of a custom wheel company, “accelarated hard” as he drove away from a junction minutes before the collision, a witness claimed.
A witness told police the Aston Martin was travelling at “incredible speeds” and said the car’s engine was “screaming”.
Lloyd claimed he slowed down to the speed limit by the time he reached the area the family were struck.
He denied three charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was found not guilty after a trial at Bournemouth Crown Court.
A jury found him guilty of three lesser counts of driving without due care and attention, which carries a maximum sentence of an unlimited fine.
The court heard the family of three had been staying in a caravan at a campsite in the New Forest and were heading back there from a bike ride at the time of collision.
They had dismounted their bikes and were walking across the A337 when Lloyd hit them.
Peter sustained a fractured lower leg and cuts and bruises and had to be resuscitated by paramedics and airlifted to hospital.
Elizabeth suffered two broken thigh bones and a broken ankle and their daughter had a fractured jaw and injuries to her teeth.
Simon Jones, prosecuting, told the court Lloyd had been driving at an average speed of 63mph in the lead-up to the crash.
Lloyd, of Lymington, said: “I drove off like an idiot unfortunately. (The car) had a noisy engine and I was accelerating away.”
He said the collision happened after he glanced in his wing mirror at a car travelling in the opposite direction.
Lloyd added the family were in the middle of the road, and he attempted to swerve around them as he had no time to brake.
He will be sentenced on May 6.