By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 14:46, Friday, 23 July 2010

A veteran trucker who caused a brilliant young Cumbrian scientist’s death in a road accident has had his driving ban cut.

Kate Furneaux

Peter McCurry was described in London’s Appeal Court as a lorry driver with an impeccable driving record since his teens.

That was until his tipper truck ploughed into 27-year-old Dr Kate Furneaux, from Brampton, as she cycled on Stanningley Road, in Bramley, Leeds, in July last year.

McCurry, 60, failed to notice Dr Furneaux as she came past on his inside lane, dragging her bike for 100 feet along the road after it became “tangled up in the wheels” He had no inkling of the accident until he was pulled up by an eye-witness in the next street, Judge Francis Gilbert said yesterday.

McCurry never shirked guilt for his crime, the court heard, “accepting full responsibility for what occurred”.

Judge Gilbert, sitting with Lord Justice Moore-Bick and Mr Justice McCombe, said McCurry’s victim had just completed a science doctorate at Leeds University and was on the cusp of a “full life and career”.

Her mother, Beth, had written an agonising victim impact statement, speaking of the “terrible loss” caused by the death of her and her husband’s only child.

McCurry, of Oakroyd Road, Bradford, was jailed for 24 weeks at Leeds Crown Court in March after admitting causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving. He was also banned from driving for three years. His case reached the Appeal Court as McCurry challenged his driving ban. He has already been released from his prison sentence.

His lawyers argued the ban was excessive and would have a devastating effect on his livelihood.

Judge Gilbert noted McCurry’s previous clean driving record, although observing that his crime involved more than a “momentary lapse of judgment”.

He cut the driving ban to 12 months, also scrapping an order that McCurry retake his driving test before being allowed back behind the wheel.

Dr Furneaux’s father Phil, a science teacher at Brampton’s William Howard School, and mother Beth, a former Labour Carlisle city councillor, live in Tree Road, Brampton. They described her as their “perfect daughter”.

First published at 14:14, Friday, 23 July 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk