Andy Coles, 56, and Damien Natale, 52, were enjoying a bike ride on the A40 near High Wycombe on a sunny summer afternoon when they were both struck by Clifford Rennie, a company manager by trade, driving his VW Golf.
In the accident, Coles was thrown over a guardrail and down a hill, his mangled bike getting caught in a tree. Natale’s body was found more than 50 meters from the accident site, on the opposite road.
In October 2021, Rennie, from Wallingford, Oxfordshire, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving at High Wycombe Magistrates Court. However, a month later, the judge suspended his two-year sentence, leaving him with a driving ban for only five years, needing to pass a new extended test and pay £475 in prosecution costs.
Now widowed Tracey Natale and Coles’ partner Helen Atherton are suing Rennie in High Court following the tragedy. daily mail reports.
Ms Natale said she felt she was serving a life sentence and Ms Atherton told the court she had lost her world and the fatal date was seared into her memory as “beyond tragedy, beyond horrible, beyond anything you can imagine.”
Coles and Natale had run the events company Allez Sportives, organizing sporting challenges and holidays around the world, raising thousands of pounds for charities.
Natale’s son, Brady, told the court in 2021: “At that time you didn’t look, you took some calm from our family. You took stability from our family, you took a loving husband, you took a dedicated father, you took a caring son, you took an excited grandfather.”
Family members expressed frustration that Rennie had not been charged with manslaughter and the delays in the case getting to court.
Rennie initially responded “no comment” in an interview with police, but later gave a prepared statement expressing his condolences to the families of the bikers.
Rennie, who claimed to be a cyclist himself, was unable to explain why he had not seen the two men. In a letter to the judge, the defendant reiterated his apology and his ‘pain’ for what happened.
Another motorist watched the horrific scene unfold and told Oxford Crown Court that he saw Rennie holding her head in her hands and saying: “That’s two.”
At the packed hearing in November, Judge Michael Gledhill QC gave his reasons for suspending Rennie’s sentence as he was not speeding, was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs and had not been distracted by anything “in as far as how he knows.”
Judge Gledhill said: “I just hadn’t seen them. It may well have been that along that road where there are trees on both sides of the road and in other places there are no trees leaving shade and bright light that in those shadows and light bright just missed them.
“I should have seen them. Other people had reached the two men without any problem. They were able to see them and they were able to reach them safely.”
“Mr. Coles and Mr. Natale were traveling perfectly. They were not traveling side by side, blocking one of the two carriageways on that road. One was slightly ahead of the other, leaving plenty of room to pass and there was no reason in That time, everything Mr. Rennie shouldn’t have seen them and this accident shouldn’t have happened.”
He added: “There was no such thing as the crime of causing death by negligent driving and that would have been even worse from their point of view, when the maximum sentence would have been reckoned in pound terms rather than imprisonment.”
“But parliament recognized that there are rare cases where people die as a result of drivers’ careless driving (and) these new offenses were created.
“Both parties in this case agree that the offense does not fall into the higher category of negligent driving death offenses, that is, that the defendant’s driving was not far short of dangerous driving. But it was not.” dangerous driving, so you are not far from dangerous driving.
“Just as Mr. Coles and Mr. Natale went out for a perfectly normal afternoon walk, this defendant left work that night simply to drive home and spend that afternoon at home on a nice summer night. He did not go out to kill to anyone. His driving was not dangerous, his inattention that led to the death of these two men would be counted in seconds. The consequences for him are nothing, nothing, like the consequences for these poor men, their families and friends. But they are serious consequences.”
He concluded: “(I am) dealing with a man whose life has not been destroyed like the lives of Mr. Coles and Mr. Natale, but has been completely negatively altered probably for the rest of his life.
“Shall I suspend your sentence? Although it will disappoint many, I think I have been able to explain why I am suspending your sentence. This will be on your mind for the rest of your life.”
However, a police accident investigator had previously told the court that Rennie should have been able to see the cyclists.
Senior Investigating Officer, Sergeant Darren Brown, from Thames Valley Police’s Major Collision Investigation Unit, said: “This was an absolute tragedy that didn’t have to have happened.
“Because of the way Mr Rennie was driving that early summer afternoon last year, two men who had simply gone for a bike ride did not return home to their loved ones.
“This tragic case underscores the fact that motorists need to be fully aware of their surroundings and other more vulnerable road users, especially when driving within national speed limits.”