Death by dangerous driving charge dropped (From York Press)

Death by dangerous driving charge against lorry driver Nigel Robert Gibson is dropped

9:45am Friday 8th March 2013 in News

A LORRY driver from North Yorkshire has had charges of causing death by dangerous driving dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Nigel Robert Gibson, of Fieldside Court, Church Fenton, appeared before Leeds Combined Court this week, charged with causing the death of 46-year-old motorcyclist Paul Gibbons on the A162.

The court heard Mr Gibson was pulling out of a junction on to the A162 near South Milford, at about 6.15am on August 24, 2011, when the lorry he was driving was in collision with Mr Gibbons’ Yamaha motorcycle.

Mr Gibbons, who was from Barnsley, was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Monday, the CPS offered no evidence to support the charge against Mr Gibson of causing death by dangerous driving, following a long discussion between expert witnesses, which included evidence from the lorry’s tachygraph machine which showed it was travelling at a maximum speed of 6mph. A CPS spokesman said: “From that evidence, expert witnesses have been able to prepare a joint statement. Their conclusion is that whatever speed the deceased was travelling at, up to and including 100 miles per hour, he could have, and in fact should have, been able to stop, irrespective of whether the defendant was at fault in pulling out into the road with his vehicle.”

The court also heard Mr Gibson had been involved in a previous accident while driving a lorry in the same stretch of road several years earlier, where a motorist had lost their life, but was not prosecuted in that case.

Mr Gibson did not wish to speak to The Press, but his barrister Simon Bickler QC told the court: “It is difficult to consider that his actions were culpable and contributory towards this matter.”

The judge granted defence costs to Mr Gibson.