A VAN driver went through a red light and was breaking the speed limit just before he hit and killed a 70-year-old woman, York Crown Court heard.
Accident investigator PC Stephen Kirkbright claimed painter and decorator Trevor Blythe was averaging nearly ten miles above the 30mph speed limit as he drove along Fulford Road in York towards its junction with Broadway.
Corisande Hewitt was walking from a bus stop in Broadway towards her home in St Oswald’s Road when she was knocked down, the jury heard.
Bus passenger Anthony Reed, said in a statement: “I heard a bump and heard a scream. I saw a mass of brake lights and a body falling on to the road.”
PC Kirkbright alleged he would not have allowed Blythe to drive the van had he stopped it for a routine roadside check because its front tyres were so threadbare.
Car driver Barry Mountner, told the jury he started to turn right into Fulford Road from Broadway when the lights turned green for him. As he did, he had to stop because a white van drove across the junction in front of him.
He said: “I said a few choice words. I saw a lady in a blue dress coat. She was standing there. She took a step into the road and then the vehicle hit her.”
Matthew Henry Codling, in a Toyota Avensis, was following Blythe’s van heading south along Fulford Road. He said he stopped his vehicle just past the collision scene, got out, and went up to Blythe.
“I said to him: ‘That light was well red when you went through it.’”
“He said: ‘It had only just gone.’”
Mr Codling, a driver for 45 years, claimed Blythe had speeded up after the lights turned amber and told the jury: “In my view, he had sufficient time to stop.”
Blythe, of Linden Way, Thorpe Willoughby, denies causing Mrs Hewitt’s death by dangerous driving. He has pleaded guilty to causing her death by careless driving.
The accident happened at about 9.30pm on January 28, last year. Mrs Hewitt died in hospital a few days after the collision.
Mr Codling claimed Blythe could have been distracted by the contents of his van while driving Rucksacks were loose on the van’s dashboard and other objects in the vehicle, including a child seat on the front passenger seat, moved when the vehicle was steered other than in a straight line. A CD called The Best Of Tina Turner was turned on loud in the vehicle’s CD player. After studying CCTV images of the van’s progress southward along Fulford Road, the officer calculated Blythe had averaged 39mph between Hospital Fields Road and Broadway, and was doing between 35mph and 37mph when the van hit Mrs Hewitt. The speed limit was 30mph.
The trial continues tomorrow
