A lorry driver who killed a cyclist when he ploughed into his bicycle on the A40 three years ago has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing. 

Jurors took little more than three hours to find Tomas Mikalajunas, 32, not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by careless driving.

He was behind the wheel of his HGV on the A40 Witney bypass in the early hours of December 28, 2018, when he struck cyclist Arunn Niessan Marusaleen. 

The cyclist, who had a red rear light attached to his rucksack and worn over a hi-viz tabard, died at the scene - despite the efforts of trucker Mikalajunas and another motorist to perform CPR.

Thanking the jury for their attention during the five day trial at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Ian Pringle QC said: “These cases are never easy. They produce high feelings of emotion, quite understandably and I don’t think, as I think learned counsel said to you, there are no winners.”

Oxford Mail:

Damage to Tomas Mikalajunas' Renault lorry after the fatal crash Picture: CPS

Giving evidence in his own defence, Mikalajunas maintained that he had not seen Marusaleen. 

Prosecutors claimed the trucker was distracted by a Lithuanian telly show TV Pagalba, playing on his HTC mobile phone via YouTube - previously described as a 'Jeremy Kyle-type show'. 

A dashboard camera in his own cab captured audio from the show playing in the minutes leading up to the fatal crash, although the Crown was unable to say whether Mikalajunas was watching the programme or simply listening to the audio.

READ MORE: Prosecution opens case in A40 crash death trial

Putting his case to the defendant on Thursday, prosecutor Nigel Ogborne said: “Mr Mikalajunas, I suggest that the reason you didn’t see the deceased was because your attention was elsewhere and the reason you did not see him was because you were either distracted by the TV programme which was playing on your HTC phone or you were distracted by the nature of the TV programme you were listening to.”

He responded: “My attention was on the road, on the area that was lit by the lights of my car. I didn’t see [him]. [The TV show] was in my native language and I was not distracted.”

Oxford Mail:

Inside Tomas Mikalajunas' cab Picture: CPS 

The prosecution’s crash expert, Daniel Henderson, said the cyclist’s red light should have been visible to the driver up to 13 seconds before the collision and the hi-viz tabard would have been visible for ‘a number of seconds’. 

He added: “It is a matter for the court to determine at which point that cyclist is conspicuous as a cyclist.”

READ MORE: Lorry driver gives evidence to A40 fatal crash trial

Mr Henderson accepted that the law specified that a cyclist’s back light should be fixed to the bike. As the light was destroyed in the crash, it had not been possible to establish its make or model. The power - or lumens - of a red light used in a police reconstruction had not been recorded, the jury heard. 

The jury was told that Mikalajunas, of Baycliff Close, Barnsley, had no previous convictions, had been an HGV driver since 2013 and knew the stretch of the A40 where the crash took place well.