The Argus’s Savannah Nicholson recently reported (September 30) that “a road-rage driver left a motorcyclist with life-changing injuries after he deliberately pursued the rider and knocked him off his bike. Darren Kay was angry at the motorcyclist filtering in traffic on the A259 at Ferring, Worthing. He performed an undertake of vehicles in the outside lane to catch up with the rider during the incident on March 16 last year.
His vehicle then swerved towards the rider to knock him off. The motorcyclist, a 34-year-old man from Lancing, sustained life-changing injuries and was taken to hospital with a bleed on the brain.” Savannah reported that Kay, who admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, initially claimed that he had not seen the motorcycle passing on his inside but his own dashcam footage recorded how he had pursued the rider and said foul-mouthed abuse at the moment of impact.
He was sentenced to three years and two months in prison and was disqualified from driving for four years and seven months. Had his victim died, Kay would have been sentenced to between five and 14 years in prison for causing death by dangerous driving. He may have received a sentence at the higher end of the scale as there would be consideration of the injury, the intent to harm, the level of violence and what the previous offending history is of the accused.
However, a judge would consider mitigating factors in every case, including the defendant’s level of genuine remorse..