http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/l ... ared_jail/Quote:
A MOTORIST who caused a fatal accident when she pulled over on a road to read a map walked free from court yesterday.
Elizabeth Ann Parker feared she was lost as she headed north on the A68 in County Durham on her way to a business meeting, at about 9.30am on Saturday, July 11, last year.
Durham Crown Court heard that she pulled over to the side of the single carriageway road, 300 metres north of the Harperley Roundabout, between Crook and Tow Law, to look at a map.
Stephanie Donington, prosecuting, said vehicles had to pull up behind the stationary Astra to wait for a gap in oncoming traffic to overtake.
As a vehicle waited to pull out, a motorcycle hit its rear corner, throwing rider Alison Wendy Maughan into the road, where she was hit by an oncoming van.
Mrs Maughan, 47, from Chilton, County Durham, who was travelling to an event in the Scottish Borders, died at the scene.
The hearing was told her widower, Clifford, and son Paul, 19, were in court with other family members.
Ms Donington said they have expressed their wish that Parker should not be jailed.
When questioned by police, Parker said she was unfamiliar with the road, and did realise she should not have stopped there.
Parker, 55, of Northumberland Street, Darlington, admitted causing death by driving without due care and attention.
A formal not guilty verdict was recorded on a charge of death by dangerous driving, which Parker denied.
Paul Reid, for Parker, said she had no previous convictions but had lost her job as a result of an automatic driving disqualification, and was now on disability allowance.
He said: “This is clearly an unusual case and the family of the deceased have behaved with great courtesy, grace and magnanimity to this defendant.
“This is a lady who has said on many occasions, ‘I will have to live with this for the rest of my life’.”
She was given a 12-month community order with probation service supervision and banned from driving for a year.
This seems a strange ruling on the face of it suggesting that parked motorists are now being held responsible for the incorrect choices of other drivers. Other drivers could have called the police or waited until oncoming drivers let them through safely. If the motorcyclist had been paying attention they wouldn't have hit the other car waiting to pull round the astra. They were unable to stop in the distance they could see to be clear so why is the astra driver being held responsible as the motorcyclist should have been paying more attention or been riding more slowly! Something about this really doesn't add up. Yes, she could have found somewhere better to pull over but it was a long straight and not on a bend and she could have easily broken down there rather than chose to stop. The consequences would have been identical. It is rammed home continually that you must be able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear and yet somehow a motorcyclist that fails to do this doesn't get the blame but a driver of a parked vehicle does and a vehicle pulling out that clearly caused the motorcyclist to swerve in the first place also gets off scot free!
If this sets a precedent that if someone is hurt or killed taking risks around you does this not mean that HGV drivers should be prosecuted when following motorists hurt themselves overtaking too?
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