'Distracted' dentist avoids jail after killing cyclist

A "DISTRACTED" dentist who was told while she was driving that her father was dying, and then ploughed through a road junction killing a pensioner, has avoided a jail sentence.

- By PAT HURST

Lucinda Collins was on a hands-free call with her mother while behind the wheel of her BMW, taking her three-year-old daughter to a play date, Chester Crown Court heard.

Collins, 40, was distracted by news that nothing more could be done for her severely ill father, and missed 'stop' signs and that she was approaching a junction.

Travelling at around 40mph, she failed to brake, and then hit another BMW, pushing it into the path of cyclist, retired builder Roger Dutton, 75, a "much-loved" father and grandfather.

Mr Dutton, of Holywell, Flintshire, was killed in the collision, at the junction on Brown Heath Road between the villages of Waverton and Christleton in Cheshire.

Mother-of-one Collins, of Upton, Cheshire, admitted at an earlier hearing causing death by dangerous driving on August 25, 2022.