A professional football player who plays a married cyclist in a crash has been sentenced to 14 months in prison.
The email online reported that Lucas Akins of Mansfield Township, 36, hit Adrian Daniel, 33, for failing to see the biker because he exited the T-shaped after a gift sign that failed to stop.
Prosecutor Carmel Pearson told Leeds Crown Court that Mr Daniel suffered a “disastrous” head injury while pulling to Huddersfield Road, Netherton Village, West Yorkshire on Thursday, March 17, 2022.
The footballer was on the then-Mercedes G350 team wagon, when his seven-year-old and seven-year-old were taking piano lessons.
Mr. Daniel’s head video cassette bikes every day on the same commute route, showing Akins slowly pulling out of Crossland Factory Lane and going straight into Huddersfield Road, directly into his path, leaving cyclists “no time to brake.”
Ms. Pearson said Mr. Daniel, the quality controller of a local technology company, died 10 days later on March 27 because of “unsafe Manouevre”.
Akins, of Thongsbridge, near Homefit, died earlier due to carelessness or no consideration for driving.
“Traffic is obliged to give way to Huddersfield Road, which the defendant should have done. He said he intends to turn right into Huddersfield Road,” she said.
The defendant showed no sign of giving way. There are no stop signs or white lines at this junction, but there is an obligation to give way.
Akins’ father told police in an interview: “Obviously I stopped, looked right, left, right, left, no vehicles came. When I exited, I had just met a biker.
In her victim impact statement, Mrs. Daniel married the victim seven months before the fatal accident, describing him as an “adrenaline addict.”
“We met in August 2019 and got married in August 2021. He became the third round of my daughter Evie and I, and he became her father, and he had no obligation,” she told the court.
She described her life as “like hell and a nightmare where I didn’t wake up”.
She is undergoing treatment and has to work as a surgical theater practitioner at Oldham Royal Hospital because she can “no longer step on” by herself because she visits her husband in the ICU every day.
The court heard that Mr. Daniel’s father also passed away.
Tim Pole said Akins suffered a “short-term mistake of concentrating”.
To date, the town of Mansfield, the employer of Atkins, has been backing. Manager Nigel Clough wrote a reference judge for Akins.
However, he added: “The nature of his employment means that this belief may make it difficult to continue his career in the future.”
Judge Alex Menary said: “You failed to see Mr. Daniel and him colliding with him. The impact was devastating and he was thrown on a bicycle.
If you keep proper surveillance of all road users, not just motor vehicles, this accident won’t happen.
Judge Alex Menary told the football player: “It’s obvious to me that you are a person who is extremely unlikely to bother the court again.”
‘There are strong personal mitigations here. However, it seems that appropriate punishment can only be achieved through immediate custody. ”
Mr Daniel’s wife told the court: “Since that day, his wife and children don’t have to live our lives.
“We don’t need more lives to be destroyed.”
She continued: ‘Adrian survived a horrible accident 11 years ago. I’m not a spiritual person, but I believe he survived, found us, and showed Evie what dad is, what my true love is.
“I can say I have learned to live without him and be full of life, but it is not an excuse for Mr. Atkins’s actions. Today’s three years of hell, avoiding and further increasing my trauma, is finally over today.
But she criticized him for not pleading guilty at an early stage.
The defending Tim Pole told the judge: “I want to apologize publicly on his behalf. The fact that he led to Mr. Daniel’s death continues to rule his mind, a burden he will bear throughout his life.
Mr. Pohl said his client understood the “frustration and anger” expressed by Mrs. Daniels at the time he pleaded guilty and told the court that her words “had a profound impact on him.”
The collision occurred when Atkins encountered difficulties in his personal life and the marriage is now over, even though he continued to share his parents with three children.
“Basically, he is a decent, honest and hardworking man,” Mr. Pohl said.
Akins traveled through the Youth Academy in Huddersfield Town and made their debut in 2007.
His career has since brought him to North Victoria, Hamilton Academic, Partisan Thistle, Tranmill Rovers, Stephenchi, Burton Albion and later Mansfield, who joined in January 2022.
He also made four international appearances for the Caribbean country Grenada.
A spokesman for the current Akins club Mansfield Town said: “Mansfield Town Football Club acknowledged Leeds Crown Court’s decision today about Lucas Akins’s after a tragic road accident in March 2022.
Mansfield Town Football Club has expressed sincere and deepest condolences to Adrian Daniel’s family during this difficult time.
“The club is considering its position on Lucas and will not comment any more at this stage.”
