Farmer left cyclist with 'catastrophic' injuries

A FARMER has admitted injuring a cyclist who suffered “catastrophic” injuries, after he overtook him while towing a trailer.

- DAVID POWELL

Tractor driver Osian Storey-Williams overtook the cyclist on a rural road near Denbigh two years ago.

While the trailer didn’t hit the cyclist, the overtaking manoeuvre caused the cyclist to fall off his bike and smash his head, leaving him with a brain injury.

Alwyn Hughes-Jones was airlifted to Ysbyty Gwynedd then the Royal Stoke University Hospital with life-changing injuries. He spent three months in hospitals in total.

He will never ride or drive again and he insisted although he bears no “malice” to Williams he wanted to pursue the case to highlight the “vulnerability” of cyclists.

Williams, 56, pleaded guilty at Caernarfon Crown Court to causing serious injury by careless driving in the incident on the A543 Mold Road, as he carried maize from Sychdyn to Llansannan in Conwy on October 6, 2023.

Prosecutor Elen Owen said the defendant had been driving a John Deere tractor towing a large trailer. He came upon a cyclist who gestured with his arm for it to overtake him.