Truck driver fined pounds 2,000 after girl's death

An Austrian lorry driver who pleaded guilty to three motoring offences following the death of a newspaper delivery girl in Kent was yesterday fined a total of pounds 2,000.

Herbert Lagler, 25, from Brakrau, Austria, was fined pounds 750 for failing to stop after the accident last Thursday, pounds 750 for failing to report it and a further pounds 500 for careless driving.

The bench chairman at Canterbury Magistrates' Court , Tom Steele, said before passing sentence: "The brief of this bench was not to deal with the tragic consequences of what happened last week but with three charges Herr Lagler has admitted."

Mr Steele ruled Lagler, whose lorry was in collision with 15-year-old Amy Durling, was to be detained in custody until the fines were paid.

Amy, of Greenhill Road, Greenhill, near Herne Bay, Kent was killed when she was knocked off her bicycle on a roundabout on the A299 Thanet Way.

The court heard that Lagler was not aware that he had hit the cyclist or that there had been an accident.

Moments after the accident he pulled his lorry over to the side of the road after hearing what he thought was a mechanical fault.

He inspected his vehicle and found the bicycle underneath the trailer of his 40-ton lorry and removed it before continuing on his journey.

The maximum sentence Lagler faced for the most serious charges - of failing to stop and failing to report an accident - was six months' imprisonment.

Inspector Terry Gabriel, of Canterbury Police, who was in court when the decision was read out, said afterwards: "I think it's a very good sentence. I think it's the most we could have expected having regard to the circumstances.

"He did plead guilty to all the offences and that should be a credit to him.

"It is a tragedy but it's crucial for the drivers of heavy goods vehicles particularly to show that extra degree of care when driving vehicles of that size."