A road safety officer has admitted pulling into the path of an oncoming motorcycle, causing a collision which resulted in the death of the rider.

Jeremy Harris, 43, turned right across the path of Michael Frost’s Kawasaki ZX-7R, later claiming that he had not seen the bike. The incident happened on the B4058 Iron Acton bypass at Iron Acton on April 23. Frost suffered severe injuries and died later at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol.

Bristol deputy coroner Brian Whitehouse recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Harris, who admitted to having two bald front tyres on his Vauxhall Vectra at the time of the accident, was working for South Gloucestershire Council. His role was to investigate road accidents and make remedial recommendations.

Harris received six penalty points for driving without due care and attention from North Avon magistrates. He was also fined £170, with a further £150 for the tyre offences.

You wonder if his job made any difference in court, in these situations. Someones life is only worth £20 more than two baldy tyres.

Surely a road safety officer, should have seen enough accidents with cars pulling out on bikes to know better. He should also be aware of the dangers of baldy tyres. If this bloke can't be safe on the roads, what chances are there for the rest of the people on the roads around the country.

should've had a jail sentance at least, poor bikers life aint worth much is it?
did he lose his job as a result?

Unfortunately we are not presented with the full facts here,
How fast was the bike going?
and how close was he to the junction before the driver pulled out?
Did he have any lights on?
Did the accident occur at night or during the day?
and so forth.
The rider could have caused his own death simply by travelling too fast.
Alright, no consolation for the poor guys family i know and drivers pulling out on bikes with the old adage "sorry mate i never saw you"
Is an all too familiar story.

But as TC says magistrates have to stay impartial and look at all the facts.
However a road safety officer should know better than to drive around with two bald tyres so what does this say about the guy?

Admittedly a person can only be dealt with according to the charge against them. It doesnt however explain how some knob hit me up the arris a few years back and got a £400 fine even though he was only charged and convicted of careless driving.

i think there should be another offence of 'causing death by careless driving' where the driving itself is only 'careless' ( as the cps seems to have deemed in this case) but which causes death as a result. This should carry a muchheavier penalty and allow for a bit of bird for the offender.
After all, if I threw a brick over my garden wall coz i couldnt be bothered to move it to somewhere tidier and it hit you on the head and killed you would it be fair that 'carelssness' was seen as an excuse for my actions?
We can be careless and if only minor things happen due to that carelessness then only minor penalties should ensue, however, if our carelessness results in major concequenses then surely major penalties should ensue?

So yeah, 'causing death by careless driving' should be made an offence.

This scenario hits us all a lot harder because of the fact that the killed person was a biker and part of the whole biking ethos.

This makes us empathise all too easily, but rightly so, for all of us.

As bike riders and lovers we are hyper sensitive to anything of this nature and our endemic radars seem to be honed to the whole condition of biking....making it all the more infuriating and sad.

Just to explain, my incredulity was at this moron's apparent stupidity and do as I say not as I do attitude to road safety rather than the sentence. Nothing surprises me about the sentence.

i hope he lost his job - what does he know about road safety anyway, not a lot it would seem.