Woman driving Range Rover smashed into cyclist after drinking Bacardi and Coke, court hears

A woman driving a Range Rover allegedly struck a cyclist after drinking Bacardi and Coke, a court has heard. After knocking the female cyclist 'off her bike’, Janice McVicar, 57, momentarily stopped in the middle of the road, in Swinton, whilst she attempted to remove the deployed airbag from the windscreen, it was said.

Jurors at Manchester Crown Court heard that after hitting the cyclist, Ms McVicar then got back into the white Range Rover Evoque before continuing down Moorside Road, before allegedly colliding with a parked car and rolling onto its side. The cyclist was found laid on the ground and suffered from significant injuries including a partial loss of sight in one eye, the court heard.

At an earlier hearing, a judge decided that Ms McVicar was unfit to stand trial. The jury will not return a verdict of guilty or not guilty in the normal way, but will instead have to determine ‘whether she simply did the acts she is charged with’, namely whether she drove dangerously and whether or not she caused serious injury by driving dangerously.

READ MORE: Family man unmasked as big-time drugs boss in Manchester's criminal underworld

Ms McVicar, of Grange Drive, Eccles, was not required to be in the dock and so wasn’t present at the opening of the case.

Opening the case to the jury in a 'trial of the facts', prosecutor Helena Williams said the incident occurred on June 7 2020 at around 6.15pm, when the woman was cycling up Moorside Road. The road, which is governed by a 30 mile per hour speed limit, has two lanes with one lane of traffic in each direction, and has an incline, she said.

“At the top of the road there is a sharp bend. The woman was cycling up, and the defendant was driving down the road,” Ms Williams