The Examiner reported yesterday that driver Timothy Wayne Yole, 26, was jailed for four months, wholly suspended for two years, after he pleaded guilty to having caused Mr Hendey's death by negligent driving.

Yole was also disqualified from driving for 18 months.

Cycling Tasmania has demanded tougher penalties for drivers who kill other road users and said the state government was yet to take action.

The maximum penalty for a first offence of negligent driving causing death is a $1400 fine and 12 months' jail, while a subsequent offence has a maximum $2800 fine and two years' jail.

On Facebook yesterday, the cyclist who was riding with Mr Hendey when he was killed, stated that the sentence sent "no message to the public whatsoever".

"I can't help but wonder what the outcome would have been if he had taken us both!" he posted.

"Would the court have laid a proper sentence or would he still get a slap on the wrist."

The officer-in-charge of Northern Prosecution Services, Senior Sergeant John Parker, said the sentence was in accordance with the Sentencing Act and he had no intention to appeal.

University of Tasmania Faculty of Law Professor Kate Warner said that, in theory, if a harsher sentence was imposed which went beyond the usual range, it could be appealed for being excessive.

Professor Warner said it was understandable that people who were close to victims of such cases were upset with sentences, but studies showed that the more people knew about the facts of the case, the more likely they were to agree with the judge or magistrate.

The Tasmanian Jury Sentencing Study found that more than half the jurors surveyed suggested a more lenient sentence than the trial judge imposed, while 90 per cent said that the actual sentence was very or fairly appropriate.

The study was released in February 2011 and surveyed 698 jurors from 138 trials where a guilty verdict was returned.