Judge blasts reckless riders

After gunmen, the motorcycle stunt riders are the next greatest hazard to Barbadian society.

That was declared by Justice Carlisle Greaves who warned them that should they cause injury or death to innocent citizens, they should expect “a stiff period of a custodial sentence”.

He was dealing recently with a cyclist, a police constable, who, according to one eyewitness, was performing stunts when he knocked down a pedestrian who was on a zebra crossing six years ago.

“This is a scourge that has to be eradicated. The reckless, uncaring and dangerous acts of riding a motorbike all over the road, without insurance that would compensate persons who are injured by your careless and reckless actions. To ride around without registration so that one can’t be traced when one puts others to injury, damage and loss and to be unlicensed and unqualified to ride these bikes,” he said.

“Persons should expect a stiff period of a custodial sentence, particularly when causing injury, serious injury, to innocent citizens or death,” he declared.

Constable Renaldo Jerome Goodman, of Glebe Land, St George, was back in the No 3 Supreme Court. He had admitted causing the death of Owen Ricardo Stuart, on May 26, 2018, by driving motorcycle G1305 on the St Barnabas road in St Michael, on the ABC Highway, in a manner and at a speed dangerous to the public.

He was ordered to pay $15 000 in compensation to Stuart’s family.

 “This case is annoying me,” Justice Greaves said.

“I don’t understand how you can say there was no recklessness, unless you’re saying it was his first day on the road,” he told defence counsel Alvan Babb.

“So you’re unlicensed, uninsured, unregistered, non-plates, all that kind of thing. You want anything more reckless than that?

“And given the environment in which we are in this country, with motorbikes persecuting this whole country, unregistered, uninsured, unlicensed, men driving ‘pon one foot, people wheelie-ing, these things scare the daylights out of the citizenry of this country. And real noise.

“After the gunmen in this country, after the men that shooting up the place, it is the motorcycles that terrorise the country,” he said.

Justice Greaves said the only factor that stopped him from imprisoning Goodman was the length of the delay in the matter.

“It is true life cannot be brought back. But it is also true, after such a tragic incident, when an accused has gone on and lived a fruitful and lawful life, that it can sometimes be draconian to interrupt that with a sentence of imprisonment,” he noted.

“This type of case demonstrates why justice should be swift. The real beneficiary of a delay is the defendant. Six years pass and we begin to find sympathy for him and sometimes it is not fair to the victim.”

The judge said he believed Stuart had lost his life “in circumstances that he should not have”.

He said he considered the aggravating factors relating to the offence, which include that Goodman had no licence or insurance for any bike; that the bike was not registered so the plates were fraudulent; and that Goodman did not have a learner’s indication on the bike.

He added he had considered the evidence that suggested Goodman “was swerving between traffic downhill” and that he was overtaking vehicles “at some speed” which “resulted in the death of an innocent civilian in the area of the pedestrian crossing”.

“I am not in possession of the statistics of the police nor from the Licensing Authority indicating the number of unlicensed motorbikes, uninsured motorbikes that are trespassing upon our highways on a daily basis. But I am a citizen of this country who is driven every day and it would be difficult not to acknowledge the dozens, scores or hundreds of them,” he said.

“I’m not saying he is part of the pack riders, the wheelie-ers and them, but he is part of the group that is not insured, false plates and scaring the daylights out of us.”

In the end, the judge said he considered the submissions by both Principal State Counsel Neville Watson and attorney Babb who had argued for a compensation order of $15 000.

Justice Greaves, however, stressed he “did not wish it to be thought, by any offender, that you can do what you like and just get a fine when you come here”.

He then ordered Goodman to pay $15 000 in compensation to Stuart’s family. He told the lawman to pay $7 000 forthwith or spend 12 months in prison.

The judge further told Goodman to pay $5 000 in five months and the remaining $3 000 in seven months or spend 12 months in jail.

Goodman had earlier apologised to the deceased’s family “for the pain I have caused you”.

“I wish I could take it all back. I’m sorry for disobeying with regards to the law. I just wish I could take everything back,” he said.

Prosecutor Watson, in outlining the facts, said it was around midnight when a line of cars, going in the direction of the JTC Ramsay Circle, had stopped at the red light on the highway.

Stuart, who was wearing a white T-shirt, started to cross.

Motorists then spoke of hearing a motorcycle approaching from behind at a fast rate of speed. The driver, Goodman, was swerving between the vehicles. One motorist said she saw the cyclist with his legs open and sitting sideways.

He then collided with Stuart, who was on the crossing.

That motorist said she heard a loud bang and saw pieces of the bike in the air.

Stuart succumbed to his injuries at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Goodman was also hospitalised.

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