I have of course been following this story, which now concludes thusly:
Julian Lawford, 49, pleaded guilty at Exeter Crown Court to causing the death of Harold Lee by careless driving at his trial in December.
Mr Lee, 75, was killed as he walked the cows along a country road near his home in Burtle, Somerset, in August 2009.
Lawford, from Glastonbury, was given a four-month suspended sentence. He was also banned from driving for 12 months.
At his trial the judge, Mr Justice Roderick Evans, told the fireman he was not considering an immediate custodial sentence and released him on conditional bail.
This still seems a bit of a harsh punishment for merely turning on his siren (we never found out whether Mr Lawford was er route to a fire or just turned them on to try and get the cows out of his way, which makes a difference on a moral level, I suppose).
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UPDATE: The court of public opinion has spoken (see comments), Mr Lawford got off far too lightly. But at least we know.
PS, I never, ever blow my horn ever, it is the height of rudeness, and if I were driving a fire engine, I would only turn on the siren in a real emergency.
Pondering assassination
1 hour ago
25 comments:
Harsh? You are kidding. What did he think the cattle were going to do when he sounded his deafening siren? His actions were totally reckless and resulted in the death of a man going about his lawful business. He is lucky to have avoided a custodial sentence but the driving ban is far too short. He should never drive a fire appliance again.
What he did was tantamount to murder or at least manslaughter. He must have realised that starting a siren behind a herd of cattle would cause a stampede and the stampeding herd would trample the farmer at the front. Which they did and killed him. The impatient, reckless bastard should be locked up.
Maybe he was en route to rescue children from the judges secret Illuminati Satanist rites out on the moor and this upset the judge.
It was a grossly reckless and inconsiderate thing to do, it was bound to upset the cattle who are edgy at the best of times.
Could he not have asked the farmer for his help instead of blasting his siren, invariably leading to a stampede.
This fat head should have had a custodial sentence.
I suspect if he'd been an ordinary motorist who did something that had a similar effect (sounding horn repeatedly?) he'd be looking forays to porridge tomorrow morning, and rightly so...
I never ever blow my horn either MW, but I do get a young filly to blow it for me - eh?
I do however blow my own trumpet!
MW, if you never blow your horn, how do you know it works? You might need it one day not potentially to cause, but to try and prevent an accident!
(I test my horn regularly by scaring small children, cats and cows. Old ladies carrying dogs are the best fun.)
P.S. not really
Ed P, I have hit the big fat button on the middle of the steering wheel by accident once or twice, and it works.
For all you idiots who do not actually know what you are talking about......
This firefighter was on enroute to rescue a 7 year old boy severely trapped in a vehicle. He also DID NOT sound the horn whilst trying to proceed through the herd of cows. This has been proved by black box evidence on the appliance and shows he only had the lights on.
I hope that none of you ever need to be cut out of a vehicle or saved from a burning building whilst the firemen have to 'sit and wait' just in case something maybe around a corner - which these cows were and no signs had been placed warning oncoming traffic.
Think before you write such vile comments about a man trying to save people.
Anon, thanks, that was the missing bit of the jigsaw (if he didn't turn on the sirens, this was never reported in the press). My sympathies were always tentatively with the fireman, but the Court of Public Opinion speaks differently.
Do you have a link to any of this?
The 'court of public opinion' have not been privvy to the facts and have made up what they didn't know. I know the facts and have stated them to fill in the jigsaw for you. The press throughout this have misquoted and badly reported this incident. I find it amazing that comments can be embelished and repeated. As I have stated, black box evidence states NO SIREN WAS SOUNDED when Mr Lawford drove over the bridge. He has never disputed driving over the bridge, which was around a very sharp bend in the road. It is sad to think that many 999drivers are now considering whether to continue being designated drivers if they are to be held responsible in this manner. As I said, if it were your (or the 'court of public opinion's) family trapped, would you want them to sit and wait, especially when the obstruction was around a corner? Every sympathy is with the farmers family but Mr Lawford will have to live with this, when he has dedicated his life to saving people.
So what made the cows stampede?
Anon, can you please reserve your ire for The Court of Public Opinion and not direct it at me? Ta muchly.
JJ, cows are vicious animals who enjoy kicking people is all.
My apologies Mark....nothing directed at you personally! It's just the idiots following your blog who make such outrageous statements without any knowledge who make me cross, not you.
JJ - There was a young calf in a ditch prior to the appliance arriving, as stated in a witness statement. Cows become very protective should anybody go near to their offspring. The farmer had been trying to get the calf out of the ditch. The prosecution decided not to use this statement!
Thanks Anon for supplying a few more details. But I must have an answer to my question.
Let me explain.
As a boy growing up in the fifties and living on a farm I can tell you that cows do not act aggressively towards the farmer whom they know and trust, even if he is attempting to help a calf out of a ditch.
This alone would not cause cows to stampede. The chances are he would have delivered the calf, therefore he is thoroughly trusted by the mother, and if trusted by the mother would also be trusted by the matriarch of the herd, if the mother is not the matriarch.
They would not simply rampage because the farmer was helping a calf.
Therefore if the reports are true that the herd stampeded – then what made the herd stampede?
JJ - May I refer to your previously posted comment "cows who are edgy at the best of times" so I really don't think I need expand on my previous note apart from to tell you there was a badger sett very close. Also your comment "could he not have asked the farmer for help instead of blasting his siren..." again, you have made up what you didn't know. As for your attempt at humour "young fillys to blow your horn" I find it really offensive to joke about this when a person has regretably lost their life.
JJ, I have reported dozens of cases where cows have attacked their own farmer. Clearly things have moved on since you were a lad.
Anon, I'd like to do a post on this, but you are the expert. Could you summarise all the background and email it to me (using widget at top of blog) and I will post it? The "Julian Lawforde Is Innocent" campaign starts here!
Thank you for your comments Mark. At present legal matters are still being dealt with. I just hope from these few posts, people become aware that there was alot more to this case.
Anon Why did you refer to my earlier comments? What have they to do with my question, which you didn’t answer? You don’t help your cause by calling people idiots either. Everyone is entitled to an opinion whether you like it or not.
According to the judge Julian Lawford’s decision to drive through the cows was a
“fatal error of judgement”. The fire engine driver drove through the cows – right or wrong?
Whatever I say will not bring this farmer back…and if you don’t like my comments then tough!
If you don’t like them Mark then delete them and ban me from the site – OK?
More important question: if cows are so dangerous that someone trying to drive a fire engine to an emergency will provoke them into a fatal stampede, why the bloody hell are they allowed in the road - or anywhere unfenced?
Since agriculture in the UK is a completely frivolous leisure activity (we'd be far better off if we imported all primary food from overseas and put the resources to more sensible use, just as we've done for other low-margin, low-skilled primary industries), I don't see any reason why we should treat the presence in unfenced public areas of these animals any different from transport of dangerous animals that happen to be less delicious.
I'm reasonably convinced that if someone were trying to lead a tiger down the street, the tiger was spooked by a passing vehicle, and then ate its keeper, that the inquest would conclude "death by own utter bloody stupidity", and nobody would blame the driver. Why not apply the same rules here?
"I hope that none of you ever need to be cut out of a vehicle or saved from a burning building whilst the firemen have to 'sit and wait' just in case something maybe around a corner"
Oh, well, in that case, I hope he drives recklessly, fast, and smashes everything out of the way. What's a few more casualties, if he's trying to 'save people', eh?
/facepalm
"It is sad to think that many 999drivers are now considering whether to continue being designated drivers if they are to be held responsible in this manner."
Or to paraphrase: 'Waaaah! No fair! We're taking our ball home & just not playing any more!'
I seem to remember the armed police threatening the same thing, after they'd been criticised for being a bit too trigger happy.
And it seems johhn b not only believes farming to be 'frivolous', preferential to import all food (the ecoloons are probably having apoplexy right now...) but doesn't understand the difference between a wild captive animal and a domesticated one...
"we'd be far better off if we imported all primary food from overseas and put the resources to more sensible use"
And what, in your opinion, is a more sensible and profitable use for agricultural land than the production of food?
Julia: I don't see the relevance of the distinction. Tigers can be tamed, and then sometimes 'go tiger' (copyright C. Rock); cows are mostly domesticated, but also sometimes kill people, as Mark chronicles. Neither should be allowed on public roads.
And yes, I imagine it'd piss off the green movement. This is a benefit not a cost in my book. If it's cheaper to ship wheat from Canada and lamb from New Zealand than to grow them at home, then it's a better use of resources - anyone who doesn't understand that, whether they're agrarian-conservative or far-left-green or anywhere in between, is silly.
Bayard - since most agriculture in the UK is actively lossmaking (even after receiving large subsidies, most farmers still barely make an income amounting to the minimum wage), *absolutely anything, including leaving it as wasteland* would be a more sensible and profitable use for the vast majority of agricultural land in the UK than the production of food. There are a few exceptions, but any farm which would be unprofitable without agricultural subsidies represents net destruction of wealth.
"..I don't see the relevance of the distinction. Tigers can be tamed..."
Well, that's the distinction. They can't.
And yes, cows do kill people, because they are animals, and unpredictable. That's why humans need to take care around them. Or suffer the consequences.
There were no physical consequences for the fireman, safe in his truck. But there were legal ones.
"Neither should be allowed on public roads."
Farmers would probably be delighted if they didn't have to cross roads, but you do realise the fields were there first, don't you?
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