An E-Bike rider has been cleared of killing 56-year-old Sakine Cihan by careless driving in the first prosecution of its kind.
An electric bicycle rider has been cleared at the Old Bailey of killing a pedestrian by careless driving in what is believed to be the first prosecution of its kind.
Thomas Hanlon, 32, was said to have smashed into Sakine Cihan, when he was 10mph above the 20mph speed limit as she crossed Kingsland Road in Dalston, east London in August 2018.
Mrs Cihan collapsed bleeding and had suffered multiple fractured ribs in the crash. She passed away in hospital the next day as a result of a ‘catastrophic’ head injury, in what is believed to be the first death of a pedestrian after a collision with an E-bike in the UK.
An Old Bailey jury deliberated for more than an hour on Monday 2 March to find him not guilty of all charges, including an alternative charge of careless driving.
Ms Cihan had tried to cross the road despite the lights being green for traffic, jurors were told. One witness recalled seeing Mr Hanlon and thinking ‘Jesus that’s fast’ just before he ‘suddenly saw arms and legs everywhere, flying in the air’.
Another said in a statement read to the court that heads collided before the rider got up ‘dazed and confused’, leaving the pedestrian motionless on the road.
Mr Hanlon turned himself in after a media appeal for the suspect was sent out by the Metropolitan police. He also declined to give evidence, accepted he did not have a licence or insurance but disputed there had been a fault in the driving which contributed in a more than a minimal way to the death.
