Lollipop man almost hit by out of control learner

7:40am Thursday 5th July 2012 in News

Lollipop man almost hit by out of control learner Lollipop man almost hit by out of control learner

A DRIVER who had no valid licence nearly mowed down a lollipop man as he was helping school children to cross the road.

Darren Burns, aged 39, of Shepherds Close, Droitwich, appeared before Worcester Magistrates where he was convicted of driving without an appropriate licence – he had an expired provisional licence, driving without insurance and driving without reasonable consideration for other road users. The court heard how the incident happened in Oldbury Road, St John’s, Worcester, on October 4 last year while Burns was driving his wife’s black Chrysler Grand Voyager.

Kate Price, prosecuting, said lollipop man Michael Dowling and Tracie Marlow-Jones and Sarah Smith, mothers of children at the local school, witnessed the incident.

Mr Dowling had his back towards Comer Road and was helping a group of children to cross when he heard someone shout in anger, Mrs Price said.

“The driver sped up the road and missed him by about six inches. Sarah Smith was with Tracie and they were helping their children to cross the road.

“She heard someone shout come on mate. She heard the wheels spin and saw Mr Dowling jump onto the pavement.”

Burns was arrested by police who discovered that he had an expired provisional driving licence and no insurance to drive the vehicle.

He told police that he had been attempting to put the car in first gear, but did not succeed, which caused the car to wheel spin and bunny hop along the road.

Brian O’Connell, defending, said Burns had not realised that his provisional licence had expired and said there were L-plates on the car.

“His wife was in the vehicle as well. He assumed he could drive with her insurance but, if you don’t have a licence, the whole thing falls flat. He apologises for his behaviour.”

Burns was fined £304 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

He was disqualified from driving for six months.

Comments(28)

one94 says...
8:56am Thu 5 Jul 12

He was disqualified from driving for six months.
.
How is that even a punishment for people that drive with no licence anyway?

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Guy66 says...
9:03am Thu 5 Jul 12

Should have the car impounded immediately and either sold or crushed

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zrxstreetfighter says...
10:43am Thu 5 Jul 12

I quite agree with the above comments anybody driving without a license should have the car taken away BUT was this the drivers fault I think the WN should speak to the council and the school and ask them about all the complaints they have had about this particular lollipop man as I know from personal experience that he will step out infront of cars when they are less than 4ft away I have even witnessed him hit a car with his lollipop because it didn't stop I was actualy following the car and he had no chance of stopping he may be a church warden but he's not God

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jb says...
11:39am Thu 5 Jul 12

Difficult to see how his wife hasn't been charged with allowing him to drive the vehicle, she would have known he wasn't insured whatever excuse he came up with.

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Guy66 says...
10:04pm Thu 5 Jul 12

zrxstreetfighter wrote:
I quite agree with the above comments anybody driving without a license should have the car taken away BUT was this the drivers fault I think the WN should speak to the council and the school and ask them about all the complaints they have had about this particular lollipop man as I know from personal experience that he will step out infront of cars when they are less than 4ft away I have even witnessed him hit a car with his lollipop because it didn't stop I was actualy following the car and he had no chance of stopping he may be a church warden but he's not God
Good points raised. Drivers need to complain about this behaviour to the local authority and the Police.

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zrxstreetfighter says...
6:41am Fri 6 Jul 12

Guy66
I complained about this man to the school and when I spoke to the headmistress of Oldbury Park primary her first words were whats he done now say's it all really but couldn't belive the council when I spoke to them they said they would send a supervisor out to watch him which they did but he was stood right next to him they should have sat in a car doen the road as I explained to her on the phone (if you worked in a office and co-workers complained about you because you were on facebook instead of doing your work and your boss came to sit with you, you wouldn't do it would you) so that was a complete waste of time. I also spoke to the police and they are waiting to catch him unfortunatly he is a charmer and the parents of the school will back him all the way, but when he turn's up at church on a Thursday morning laughing and boasting that he had another this morning so he look's big infront of all the women I think he should be sacked WN you really should follow this up everything I have written is true fact from personel experience

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said driver says...
9:24pm Fri 6 Jul 12

just to put you all in the picture, what the worcester news printed about me was blowen out of size and i will be logging a formal complaint. how could i have almost mowed him down if i was trying to get in to 1st gear? the fact was my wife who is a qualified driver who is fully insured in a car that is taxed and has m.o.t. was giving me a driving lession.I had L plates on the car, I was unaware that my licence had expired or if i had I would have never drove the car. Maybe you should read the statements of the idiot lilly pop man and of the witnesses before adding your stupid comments

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said driver says...
9:30pm Fri 6 Jul 12

one94 wrote:
He was disqualified from driving for six months.
.
How is that even a punishment for people that drive with no licence anyway?
if i had almost mowed him down why was the lolly pop man happy to accept an apology and the only reason he decided to take it further was because i didnt say sorry as all i had done was almost stall my car during a driving lesson and then kangaroo it in first......

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said driver says...
9:31pm Fri 6 Jul 12

one94 wrote:
He was disqualified from driving for six months.
.
How is that even a punishment for people that drive with no licence anyway?
if i had almost mowed him down why was the lolly pop man happy to accept an apology and the only reason he decided to take it further was because i didnt say sorry as all i had done was almost stall my car during a driving lesson and then kangaroo it in first......

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Saturn V says...
10:29pm Fri 6 Jul 12

Very illuminating comments... for a change.

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said driver says...
11:11pm Fri 6 Jul 12

jb wrote:
Difficult to see how his wife hasn't been charged with allowing him to drive the vehicle, she would have known he wasn't insured whatever excuse he came up with.
the reason my wife wasn't charged or the car taken and crushed was because I was unaware my licence had expired. she put me on her insurance as a named drive with the licence I had in my wallet, the reason I was charged with no insurance was because the expired licence voided the insurance.

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onelifeliveit says...
4:52pm Sat 7 Jul 12

All still illegal though.If you had crashed into someone and written off their car then you would have had no insurance,and they would have been left out of pocket.Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.But I bet you will not do it again !

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spider666 says...
4:58pm Sat 7 Jul 12

It's two different storys going on here ---first is about driving offences being committed when the learners license had ran out --and lets be honest here we all could of done that,a lot of people will have probably done the same with their M.O.T or Insurance and possibly even their own provisional driving license---secondly is the attitude of the lollipop person,if he is leaving it till the last few seconds to walk in front of a moving vehicle then he is stupid and a danger to himself and children he is helping to cross the road as well as drivers---this needs urgently looking into before someone is killed or badly hurt

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said driver says...
9:33am Mon 9 Jul 12

onelifeliveit wrote:
All still illegal though.If you had crashed into someone and written off their car then you would have had no insurance,and they would have been left out of pocket.Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.But I bet you will not do it again !
this is true but had I known my license had expired I wouldn't have drove the family car, I don't take risks with my kids and I wouldn't put other kids at risk either and NO I wont do it again!!!!

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julie allsopp says...
1:11pm Mon 9 Jul 12

A series of unfortunate events here for the driver.......I was personally told by DVLA that a provisional licence does not expire when I came to replace my son's provisional that he had lost. All he had to do was tell DVLA his details etc and a new one came through. After reading all the comments here, I do think the lollipop man needs investigating though..........

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ushmush83 says...
2:48pm Mon 9 Jul 12

I think you should probably give up on driving anyway mate. Probably for the best this happened.

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School Parent says...
9:02pm Mon 9 Jul 12

Although I am a parent of children at this school and I also get irritated by the lollipop staff when driving past them every day on my way to work, they are there to protect the children from drivers like this!

Why is the driver on here lying about having L plates and his wife being with him? Several witnesses saw him on his own that day and there were no L plates on the car!!!

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School Parent says...
9:02pm Mon 9 Jul 12

Although I am a parent of children at this school and I also get irritated by the lollipop staff when driving past them every day on my way to work, they are there to protect the children from drivers like this!

Why is the driver on here lying about having L plates and his wife being with him? Several witnesses saw him on his own that day and there were no L plates on the car!!!

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said driver says...
10:26pm Mon 9 Jul 12

you see its all hear say and if you weren't there how would you know. The L plates were on the car, as the car has a slope front it was on the lower right bumper and in the rear window which are tinted, on inspection of the car the police man said to me although it wasn't illegal to have it in the tinted window nxt time we were to move it to the rear bumper. Fact the police man saw them on the car that's why I didn't get done for not displaying L plates another fact my wife's car isn't black it's blue metallic more info than I need to prove that what ppl see and say are two different things (school parent)

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ushmush83 says...
9:11am Tue 10 Jul 12

said driver wrote:
you see its all hear say and if you weren't there how would you know. The L plates were on the car, as the car has a slope front it was on the lower right bumper and in the rear window which are tinted, on inspection of the car the police man said to me although it wasn't illegal to have it in the tinted window nxt time we were to move it to the rear bumper. Fact the police man saw them on the car that's why I didn't get done for not displaying L plates another fact my wife's car isn't black it's blue metallic more info than I need to prove that what ppl see and say are two different things (school parent)
Yeah, but you're still a rubbish driver.

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julie allsopp says...
10:54am Tue 10 Jul 12

I think the car driver has suffered enough and learned the hard way. Why is no one investigating the lollipop man if his behaviour is as stated by some comments here?

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said driver says...
2:53pm Tue 10 Jul 12

ushmush83 wrote:
said driver wrote:
you see its all hear say and if you weren't there how would you know. The L plates were on the car, as the car has a slope front it was on the lower right bumper and in the rear window which are tinted, on inspection of the car the police man said to me although it wasn't illegal to have it in the tinted window nxt time we were to move it to the rear bumper. Fact the police man saw them on the car that's why I didn't get done for not displaying L plates another fact my wife's car isn't black it's blue metallic more info than I need to prove that what ppl see and say are two different things (school parent)
Yeah, but you're still a rubbish driver.
Durrrr that why I'm called a learner, if I was perfect I wouldn't need to learn ushmush83 Einstein you aint

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Whhaasaap says...
4:51pm Tue 10 Jul 12

I do think that the lollipop man should have been aware of a learner driver approaching after all he is a learner and may make a mistake, I would be angry if it was one of my kids put in danger because he is not doing his job of being observant of vehicles, particularly if he heard shouting and wheels spinning, don’t know about anyone else, but it would make me stop with my children when crossing the road...your common sense would tell you this.
Was it a mistake or was he driving too fast, only witnesses would really know the truth, ether way the lollypop person should not be crossing the road until all cars have stopped, after all he is supposed to be trying to keep the kids safe.
He is a learner and made a serious mistake and I’m sure he has learned a very good lesson, he’s taken his punishment, but the lollipop man should be under investigation too, as he seems to be blind and deaf!
Anyway aim for a traffic warden next time ya numpty……

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said driver says...
8:41am Wed 11 Jul 12

yet another two disciples of the lollipop man, I came on and said my bit to put my side across like I did in court. schoolparent1977 i had stopped for the lollipop man like I was ment to, done what my wife said and that was to put the hand break on and take it out of gear while he was infront of me. when he was crossing bk to his position I thought I had engaged the gear but didn't, i wasn't travelling too fast. I also did what millions of other learner drivers have done and that's almost stalled the car but I admitted to panicking which caused me to wheel spin the car whiched also cause me to kangaroo the car. I mean i wasn't drunk, I wasn't checking my make up in the mirror or using my mobile phone, I was taking a driving lesson yes maybe at the wrong time of the day but it was a driving lesson by a driver who told me the correct thing to do. So wind ya necks in and go worship ya lollipop man who again was happy just to accept a sorry ( goes to show it wasn't as bad as it's made out to be) but because I didn't changed his mind if that isn't some one with a god complex I don't know what is .

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ushmush83 says...
11:24am Wed 11 Jul 12

said driver wrote:
ushmush83 wrote:
said driver wrote:
you see its all hear say and if you weren't there how would you know. The L plates were on the car, as the car has a slope front it was on the lower right bumper and in the rear window which are tinted, on inspection of the car the police man said to me although it wasn't illegal to have it in the tinted window nxt time we were to move it to the rear bumper. Fact the police man saw them on the car that's why I didn't get done for not displaying L plates another fact my wife's car isn't black it's blue metallic more info than I need to prove that what ppl see and say are two different things (school parent)
Yeah, but you're still a rubbish driver.
Durrrr that why I'm called a learner, if I was perfect I wouldn't need to learn ushmush83 Einstein you aint
Einstein, you are not.

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said driver says...
11:30am Wed 11 Jul 12

ushmush83 wrote:
said driver wrote:
ushmush83 wrote:
said driver wrote:
you see its all hear say and if you weren't there how would you know. The L plates were on the car, as the car has a slope front it was on the lower right bumper and in the rear window which are tinted, on inspection of the car the police man said to me although it wasn't illegal to have it in the tinted window nxt time we were to move it to the rear bumper. Fact the police man saw them on the car that's why I didn't get done for not displaying L plates another fact my wife's car isn't black it's blue metallic more info than I need to prove that what ppl see and say are two different things (school parent)
Yeah, but you're still a rubbish driver.
Durrrr that why I'm called a learner, if I was perfect I wouldn't need to learn ushmush83 Einstein you aint
Einstein, you are not.
ushmush83 I love it when peoples views go to " I know you are but what am I " like a cheap fire work, all fizzle and no bang.

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Vox populi says...
12:54pm Wed 11 Jul 12

This comments section was so much better when people were giving their factual versions of events with dignity and respect.

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cassie250 says...
2:24am Sat 14 Jul 12

Everybody makes mistakes how else are people supposed to learn from them, nobody is perfect and it doesn't matter if its from driving or from any other sort of circumstance. I bet this newspaper didn't ask the driver if it was OK to print this article and give out not only his name but his address too. The whole idea of having L plates is to warn other drivers that the person is learning and will make mistakes same goes for anyone who has past there test and if they choose to display green L plates or the P plates it is to warn other drivers or pedestrians. A driver of 30 years can still make mistakes as driving is always a learning curve, roads change laws changes. It has been known for drivers to also intimidate learners by being on there back bumper which can panic learners but you don't seen this always being printed in papers. I have put my car into the wrong gear myself after changing my car and have panicked because of holding other drivers up doesn't mean I'm a bad driver just means I'm not used to my car and I don't want to annoy other drivers because some can be very in your face (i.e road rage). If the lollipop man chooses to jump out at a moments notice then sooner or later he will get hurt and it will be his own fault the idea is for him to judge a safe distance for a driver (learner or Not) can stop in time and allow children to safely cross the road. If he can't do this then maybe its time he gives up his job as from the bit I have read on here that more than one person has seen him do this then I wouldn't trust him to allow my children to cross the road. I'm just another person at end of day with another view which in one respect everyone is entitled to but don't be so quick to judge others.

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