A small-time drug dealer received an eight-year and three-month prison sentence after fatally injuring a grandfather while performing stunts on an e-bike.
Dylan Green, 20, was caught on video swerving along Accrington Road in Burnley, Lancashire, on March 22, with his girlfriend as a passenger, before performing a wheelie and accidentally hitting 86-year-old Bart O’Hare, who was crossing the road.
Mr. O’Hare, who was heading out to buy fish and chips for dinner, suffered a fractured skull, a broken collarbone, multiple broken ribs, and extensive bruises and cuts from the collision.
He survived eight days in hospital with his family praying by his bedside before succumbing to his injuries.
Green made no attempt to help his victim and instead ran off with the girl and got rid of the Surron e-bike. It has never been recovered.
His daughter Marika Mausolf, in a victim impact statement, described her father as ‘the glue which held the family together.’
Addressing Green directly, she said: ‘My dad never spent a night in hospital until that day when his granddaughter took the call.’
She continued: ‘We went to the hospital, and we have to live with our final memories remembering him by the injuries you caused.’
Dylan Green (pictured), 20, was filmed weaving across Accrington Road in Burnley, Lancashire, on March 22, with his girlfriend riding pillion
He then did a wheelie and ploughed into pensioner Bart O’Hare (pictured), 86, who was trying to cross the road
Mr O’Hare, who was on his way to buy fish and chips for his tea, was sent flying by the impact. Pictured: File photo of Accrington Road
She added: ‘Your selfish attitude was to try and diminish your actions by leaving my dad to suffer so you could get rid of the bike.
‘If you had rung an ambulance instead, today may hold a different outcome for us all.
‘You have taken the glue to our family, the man in our lives who would guide us whenever we needed.
‘He was a man of the community. This is not just our loss, people looked up to my dad.
‘My father had so much life left to live but we have now been left with just memories because of the injuries you caused.
‘You have no idea what it was like for us to watch him die. Not once have you shown any remorse.
‘You have broken my family in so many ways I cannot even begin to explain.’
At Preston Crown Court, it was revealed that neither Green nor his girlfriend wore helmets, he was without insurance, and he had not completed the necessary tests to legally ride the e-bike, which could reach speeds of up to 50mph.
Green did not assist Mr. O’Hare after the incident; instead, he fled with his girlfriend and disposed of the Surron e-bike (shown in a file photo of a similar model), which remains unrecovered.
He admitted to charges of causing death by dangerous driving, driving without insurance, and supplying MDMA—a charge for which he was already on bail at the time of the incident.
Phil Astbury, prosecuting, said Mr O’Hare could be seen on video footage looking up and down the road before deciding to cross.
‘He was a tall gentleman who should have been clearly visible but the defendant pulling a wheelie would have restricted his view.
‘It is clear from tyre marks that the e-bike was back on the road when it hit Mr O’Hare who was 2.9 metres into the carriageway.
‘The bike has never been recovered.’
Judge Robert Altham, who also disqualified Green from driving for 12 years and four months, told him: ‘No sentence I could impose could ever put right what you did on that day.
‘When you pulled that wheelie it meant you had a restricted view of what lay ahead and you ploughed into him with such force he was sent flying into the air.
‘Your only concern was to look after yourself.’
Sergeant Paul McCurrie, of Lancashire Police’s Roads Policing Unit, said: ‘Bart was clearly a much-loved dad and grandad and was well respected in his community.
‘Dylan Green rode his e-bike without a care for those around him. He was driving recklessly and showing off, performing a wheelie just before he collided with Bart.
‘He didn’t stay at the scene, call for help, or identify himself to police.
‘Instead, he fled, continuing to drive dangerously as he did so, in attempt to cover up his actions.
‘It was only when he told his family what he had done that he returned to the scene.
‘Driving in the way Green did is not and never will be acceptable.
‘When the worst-case scenario happens, as did on that day last year, it leaves behind a wake of devastation to more people than you would imagine.
‘My thoughts remain with Bart’s loved ones.
‘No sentence will bring him back, but I hope they can feel some sense of justice today, that the man responsible for his death has been brought to justice.’
