Audi Driver Jailed for Over 10 Years After Killing Cyclist While Using Laughing Gas

Tiffany Treanor-Johnson, a 27-year-old motorist driving at 53mph in a 20mph zone while inhaling laughing gas, struck and killed 27-year-old music student Harry Webb in Hackney, east London.

The Fatal Crash on Kenworthy Road

Treanor-Johnson was travelling at more than twice the speed limit in her Audi and inhaling nitrous oxide, a class C drug, when she hit Mr Webb as he rode his bicycle. Her car mounted the pavement before colliding with another vehicle. Treanor-Johnson then fled the scene, leaving the musician seriously injured at the roadside.

Mr Webb, a London College of Contemporary Music student, had moved into new accommodation earlier that day and was speaking to his father, Mike Webb, by phone when he was struck. Prosecutor Fiona Robertson told Snaresbrook Crown Court that the phone call suddenly went silent as the victim was fatally injured on his way to an evening swim at London Fields Lido. A member of the public found Mr Webb’s mobile phone on the ground and informed his father of the crash.

Sentencing at Snaresbrook Crown Court

Judge Rosa Dean sentenced Treanor-Johnson to 10 years and nine months in prison on Friday after she pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving in April. The defendant, of Bramshaw Road, Hackney, was also disqualified from driving for 10 years. During the hearing, Judge Dean told Treanor-Johnson: You are solely to blame for the collision. I am sure that you were probably impaired due to taking balloons. Police found fragments of balloons used to inhale laughing gas inside the defendant’s Audi.

Mitigating defense counsel Stephanie Panchkowry told the court that Treanor-Johnson was in a state of shock and maintained she was not intentionally trying to evade responsibility. Brenton Henry, who was driving a red Citroen that the Audi subsequently struck, testified that he made eye contact with Treanor-Johnson, pulled forward to stop her on Ballance Road, and took her car keys to prevent her from leaving.

Family and Friends Demand Tougher Road Crime Laws

In victim impact statements read to the court, Mr Webb’s family and friends remembered him as a talented musician and scholar who held a maths and philosophy degree from Bristol University and a master’s in philosophy from the University of Amsterdam. His mother, Pat Webb, told the court that her life ended on the day she received the surgeon’s call, stating that watching someone you love die is an image you never forget. Mr Webb was posthumously awarded his master’s degree from the London College of Contemporary Music.

Nobody should be killed cycling within a 20mph area in London, it is totally unacceptable. Harry has been devastatingly missed by Pat and myself, his family and the many friends that he had made in his far too short 27 years.

Mike Webb

Outside the court, Mr Webb’s father called for lifetime driving bans for motorists who kill or seriously injure others through dangerous driving. He emphasized that road crime needs to be treated much more seriously in the United Kingdom, with increased public information and enforcement. A ghost bike memorial featuring a painted bicycle and a photograph of Mr Webb has been installed at the Hackney junction where he was struck.