Three-month ban for driver seen 'air drumming' before hitting motorcyclist
Witness described driver as 'furiously playing drums' moments before crash
A DRIVER said to have been air drumming moments before hitting and seriously injuring a motorcyclist has been banned from the road for three months.
A witness described Jon Brydon, 45, as “furiously playing drums” with both hands off the wheel as he approached the QEII Bridge at Dartford Crossing on July 8 last year.
Crossing the bridge, Brydon’s Volkswagen Caddy van moved across two lanes before hitting motorcyclist Christopher Williams, who was thrown into the roadside barrier.
Williams was airlifted to hospital with a separated left shoulder, sprained ribs, tendon damage to his ankle and a bruised pelvis, groin and thigh. He can no longer ride and was still on painkillers as of November.
Brydon, of Redhill in Surrey, initially pleaded not guilty to careless driving at a hearing in December. He changed his plea to guilty at Southend Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
Coral Fitzgerald, defending, said: “Mr Brydon doesn’t accept he was air drumming or that his attention was taken away from his driving.
“I would like to say I completely understand why Mr Brydon has struggled to accept responsibility.
“You do not have to do much wrong to be guilty of this offence.
“The traffic across the bridge was going incredibly slowly that day.
“The reason Mr Brydon has entered his guilty plea is he accepts there is a weight of evidence against him.”
As well as the three-month ban, Brydon, who owns an aquarium shop in Brentwood, was ordered to pay a £500 fine, £300 costs and a £50 victim surcharge.
He told a local newspaper afterwards that the air drumming claim was “bulls***” and he hadn’t been listening to music at the time of the incident.
Brydon escaped a driving ban in April 2012 on grounds of exceptional hardship after accumulating 12 points on his licence for failing to identify the driver.
