A driving instructor has been convicted after his dashcam-marked car struck a cyclist from behind at 55mph in Lincolnshire, leaving her with catastrophic and permanent injuries. Rebecca Tanton, then in her late 50s, was thrown into the air and onto the tarmac while cycling on Manby Road, and says Jon Dick has never personally apologised despite being found guilty in November of causing serious injury by careless driving. The case matters because it highlights the devastating, life-altering harm careless driving can inflict on vulnerable road users, and the lasting anger felt by victims when they perceive a lack of accountability from those responsible.

Dick, in his mid-50s, was driving a Ford Puma marked as a training vehicle when he failed to spot Ms Tanton and collided with her on 7 October 2024; he received a suspended prison sentence and a two-year driving ban, ending his instructor career. Ms Tanton, a mother of three and previously an active cyclist, swimmer and horse rider, needed seven metal plates screwed into her bones, emergency surgery for a fractured eye socket, and later developed sepsis requiring further operations. Compounding her ordeal, her 33-year-old son died from brain cancer shortly after one of her surgeries, forcing her to plan his funeral from a hospital bed while she says she credits her helmet with saving her life.