A FORTY-nine year-old Hereford woman found guilty of causing the death of a cyclist by careless driving following a crash last year has been ordered to carry out 75 hours unpaid work for the community.

Jane Blake, of Siddons Road, Hampton Dene, Hereford, who had pleaded not guilty at Worcester Crown Court, was also ordered to pay £4,200 costs and was disqualified from driving for a year.

Judge Robert Juckes QC agreed that it could have been a momentary lapse of attention and there had been no intention on her part to drive carelessly. She bitterly regretted what had happened.

She had just left home to drive to work in her Kia Rio whern she was in collision with 54-year-old cyclist Martin Llewelyn-Jones.

The accident happened at a small roundabout at the junction of Hampton Dene Road and Gorsty Lane at around 7.30am on April 9 last year.

The jury heard that Mr Llewelyn-Jones, who was not wearing a helmet, hit the corner of the roof of the car, breaking the windscreen, and hit his head on the road after sliding down the bonnet. He died in hospital three weeks later.

When other motorists stopped at the scene, Blake directed them to her home to fetch her husband Stephen, a paramedic, and he was one of the first on the scene.

She denied careless driving and said she had looked to the right and seen no-one on the road or pavement. She had been taking the same route for over 12 years and she had not been distracted for any reason.

She had slowed down and remembered hearing a bang and saw a shadow across a window and the cyclist hit the rear offside door of her car.

Expert reports produced by the prosecution and defence indicated that the cyclist was struck by the front of the car, shattering the windscreen. She denied going too fast at the roundabout or not concentrating.