Olympic hero Chris Boardman hits out after driver who killed mum while on phone behind the wheel jailed for just 30 weeks

Carol Boardman, 75, was struck by Liam Rosney's Mitsubishi pick-up truck on a mini-roundabout in Connah's Quay, North Wales, in July 2016.

Rosney, 33, had been on the phone to his wife Victoria at the time of the collision and network data showed four calls between them in the run-up to the crash.

The last call was terminated four seconds before experts calculated Mrs Boardman was struck.

Mrs Boardman, a keen cyclist, was knocked off her bike and run over. She died later in hospital.

Her son Chris Boardman, who won a cycling gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, said Rosney should have been charged with a more serious offence than death by careless driving.

Our legal system thinks that's OK, and it's wrong

He said: "Somebody being careless takes somebody's life and it's treated as just that – carelessness.

"Somebody who takes me swimming in the sea as a kid and races me to signs on a bike and has grandchildren is just taken away because somebody's careless, because they used a mobile phone.

"Our legal system thinks that's OK, and it's wrong.

"I'm pretty certain that the death of my mother, which has been horrifically life-changing among all of our family, won't be enough to change that."

DRIVER WAS DISTRACTED BY PHONE BEFORE CRASH

Sentencing Rosney at Mold Crown Court, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: "This was an accident which could have easily been prevented and your contribution to that accident is significant in as much as you were distracted, the distraction being as a result of you using your mobile phone before the actual collision.

"Any accident which results in someone losing their life is the most appalling tragedy, the more so when the deceased, as here, was well loved and, as I have indicated already, a pretty remarkable woman."

Matthew Curtis, prosecuting, said: "It's clear he was speaking to his wife on the telephone four seconds before the fatal collision and he was, we submit, still distracted by the telephone call and mobile telephone handset."

Oliver Jarvis, defending, said Rosney did not "want to make any excuses for his behaviour".

Witness Kayleigh Anders had previously told the court Mr Rosney at first did not seem to realise he had hit the pensioner.

She said: "He was looking left and then down, and then left and then down. I think he was on his phone."

Rosney was also banned from driving for 18-and-a-half months.

The dad-of-two changed his plea to guilty on the morning of his scheduled trial in December last year.

Rosney and his wife were both cleared of attempting to pervert the course of justice in July.



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