Inquest into a cyclist killed by a 4X4 driver

A motorist who ran down and killed a cyclist after she 'fainted' at the wheel of her Range Rover sobbed as she told the victim's family she could not remember the tragedy.

Tracy Johnson, 36, was driving her £60,000 Range Rover Sport when she ploughed into Sharon Corless, a mother of three.

She was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and could have faced a maximum 14 years in jail if convicted.

But earlier this year Mrs Johnson walked free from court after medical experts ruled she may have suffered a sudden reflex syncope while driving.

[This possibility, for which there was not a scrap of evidence in Mrs Johnson’s medical history, should have been considered by a jury, not by a Crown Prosecution Service which bends over backwards not to prosecute drivers who kill cyclists.]

Asked by Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg whether, as she had no recollection of the crash, she may have been distracted by her phone or reached for a CD, Mrs Johnson said that had she done those things she would have reacted to the intial collision with Mrs Corless and either applied her brake or swerved away to avoid another collision

[But Mrs Corless, a driver who was alert to what was going on around her, was unable to react in time to Mrs Johnson’s 4X4 heading towards her, so Mrs Johnson’s explanation is unconvincing.]