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Company boss jailed for two-and-a-half years over death crash
By Coventry Telegraph 22 May 2013 08:17

Company boss jailed for two-and-a-half years over death crash

Anthony Wells found guilty for causing the deaths of Adam Trueman and Hayley Walton by dangerous driving

(photo) Scene of the crash on London Rad Scene of the crash on London Rad

A company boss has been jailed after his ‘‘sparring’’ with another driver led to the tragic deaths of two young people.

Anthony Wells was jailed for two-and-half years for causing the deaths of Adam Trueman and Hayley Walton by dangerous driving.

BMW driver Wells, aged 52, of Hearsall Lane, Coventry, had denied the two charges, but after considering the case for four hours, the jury found him guilty by unanimous verdicts.

But before jailing Wells, who was also banned from driving for three years, Judge Marten Coates commented that he and Fiesta driver Mr Trueman ‘‘were both as bad as each-other’’.

During the trial prosecutor James Dunstan described the incident as ‘a bit of road-rage in the interaction between the two drivers, with both of them being at fault.’

He said if Mr Trueman had survived, he would also have been in court on trial for causing the death of 22-year-old Miss Walton.

The court heard that on the afternoon of December 10, 2011, 20-year-old Mr Trueman, with Miss Walton in the passenger seat of his Fiesta, had cut up Wells on Coventry ring-road.

Wells reacted by driving so close to the Fiesta as they turned onto London Road that witnesses thought the two cars were touching before he pulled up alongside Mr Trueman at a light-controlled pedestrian crossing.

Shortly after, Wells then overtook the Fiesta and pulled across in front of it before there was ‘‘some application of his brakes’’.
The Fiesta began to ‘‘fishtail’’ and clipped the offside kerb before going into a spin and crashing sideways into a tree.
Wells was traced two days later through the car registered to his wife.

After the jury returned its verdicts, Judge Coates said: “I take the view that they were both as bad as each-other, and that any sensible man would have just slowed down or ignored it in the first place.”

Martin Taylor, for Wells, said: “He has been devastated. His life has been overturned by what happened. His whole life will stop. But the part played by the other driver is itself significant or substantial.”
He said Wells is the sole director of a successful building firm which has been going for 23 years and employs three of his five children and his brother.
Judge Coates told Wells: “I am very sorry to see a man of your age and your background in this court, but we must not forget you played your part in causing the deaths of those two people.’’

The fiesta must have been going at some pace to wrap itself around a tree to such an extreme that its front and rear of the car were nearly touching!