Hit & Run Driver In The Dock
This from the front page of today’s Whitley Bay News Guardian:
Hit and rund driver held on remand
A man charged in connection with a hit and run which left a Whitley Bay father fighting for his life has been remanded in custody.
Peter Rowell is accused of driving the car which collided with cyclist Alistair Barnett , 51, in Monkseaton Drive on June 21 and then attempting to cover up evidence by having his car repaired after the accident.
Rowell, 24, of Eastbourne Gardens, Whitley Bay, entered no pleas to charges of dangerous driving, perverting the course of justice, failing to stop, failing to report an accident and making a false statement to obtain motor insurance, when he appeared before North Tyneside Magistrates’ court on Monday.
The former Kwik Fit worker was remanded in custody to appear before Newcastle Crown Court on October 19.
Anyway, I hope Alistair Barnett is on the mend, and if they find Rowell guilty, will get the satisfaction of seeing him sent down for a good long stretch of bird. Well, if he’s found guilty at the Crown Court, I hope they trow the book at him.
Interestingly enough, I’ve searched, and can find no reference to whether or not the victim was wearing a helmet - is this actually a case of the press reporting the relevant facts of what happened, rather than trying to cast judgement on the cyclist?
Doubtless the driver’s defence team will seek to make an issue of whether or not the victim was lidded and day-glo’d-up, and probably also say that the whole affair was the cyclist fault, as he swerved suddenly into the car’s path and there was nothing the driver could do about it . . .
Cynical? Me?
I know the accused very well indeed, and i must say i really do hope he gets put away for a long stretch. He has only just got his license back after a 2 year ban for drink driving. He used to race up and down Eastbourne Gardens in Whitley Bay like it was his own personal drag strip. Many times we have commented that this toerag would end up killing someone, fortunately on this occasion he hasn’t. But time will tell and he will end up taking someones life through his reckless driving in the future
Couldn’t agree more, absolute scum of the earth. What kind of human would leave another for dead, it’s sickening. Throw the book at this piece of dirt and don’t ever make him welcome on our streets again. He has history and has blatant disregard for other road users, Stories around the town suggest he was a drug user and had a cannabis problem, how true this is I don’t know.
Yep. We have the same sort of drivers who routinely use the sea front between Tynemouth & South Parade as their private drag strip. I’ve been recently thinking about trying to get something done about this - either by trying to get the council to put in some serious traffic calming (make the road narrower, and introduce some on-road obstacles to break up the site lines, etc), or going down the guerrilla, road witching route.
More on this later. Probably.
In the meantime, it’s also worth remembering that until after the trial at Newcastle Crown Court next week, Peter Rowell is only accused of these various crimes. Whatever we may think of him, either through direct contact or reputation though, he is still innocent until proven guilty.
[...] the same Alan Barnett who was deliberately run down by driver Peter Rowell in June [...]