HGV driver Shane Gibbs, 37, of Millside in Carshalton, pleaded guilty to causing her death by careless driving.
On Thursday, September 4, he was given a one-year sentence suspended for 18 months and was disqualified from driving for two years.
Prosecutor William Martin told Kingston Crown Court that there was slow moving traffic on the bridge on the morning of the crash.
Gibbs was stationary in a 32-tonne lorry when Ms Dos Santos cycled up the inside of his vehicle, “effectively undertaking”.
“Just as the deceased went past the front of the lorry Mr Gibbs accelerated to catch up with the stationary traffic ahead of him,” Mr Martin said.
Ms Dos Santos’ bike and Gibbs’ lorry “made contact”, causing the cyclist to fall and sustain her fatal injuries.
Mr Martin said: “We are not and cannot say that he drove into her. The best we can say is that they came into contact. She may have driven into him, it’s not surprising that being that close to a moving HGV might have spooked her.”
Ms Dos Santos would have been visible in his left mirror but footage from inside the cab showed that Gibbs only checked his right before moving off.
He was also distracted by trying to find something in the central console and by the fact that he was in the middle of a hands-free phone call, Mr Martin said.
Gibbs didn’t realise the collision took place until he was stopped by police 15 minutes later.
Defending Gibbs, Michael Walinson said his client took responsibility for his failure to properly check his nearside mirrors as he moved off.
“He has described this as a living nightmare,” Mr Walinson said. “He talks about serving his own life sentence, he’s going to have to live with the consequences of what he did for the rest of his life.”
Judge Peter Lodder KC said: “I am more than satisfied that you did not know what you did on this day. Equally, I’m satisfied that the realisation that you took another person’s life is something which will haunt you, probably for the rest of your life.
“The reason you will continue to have such a reaction is because your crime, and crime it is, has had such a serious effect and it is for that, even when the offence is one of carelessness, that the sentence suggested is one involving prison because it must be marked in all case when someone loses their life.
“You were not paying sufficient attention, you did not look into the appropriate mirrors on your vehicle, and had you done so you would have seen this young lady and she would still be alive.
“I accept that because she was undertaking you she sadly contributed to her own death, but the fact is, and I dare say there are many people who this, you were not paying sufficient attention.”
But after hearing Gibbs’ mitigation, including about his duties as a dad, Judge Lodder concluded that “no good” would come of sending him to prison.
He suspended the prison sentence and ordered Gibbs to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
Gibbs will be required to pass an extended retest if he wishes to drive again.
The court heard that he intends never to drive a lorry again.
