Safe Speed Forums

Justice or Joke?

This is another example of typical British Justice A JOKE!

On Monday 4th July 2005 Stephen Jackson aged 21 was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for causing death by dangerous driving.

Outline

Stephen was seen to leave Festival Park, Hanley, Stoke on Trent at a known time as his vehicle was recorded on a CCTV camera in his white Nissan 200SX. He proceeded on his way home taking the normal route he would take on the A500 dual carriageway. On the dual carriageway he was passed by another vehicle a Red Ford Fiesta at high speed. He continued his route along the dual carriageway and over took 3 other vehicles in his journey. It is important to note that the drivers of 2 of the 3 vehicles gave witness statements and stopped at the scene of the accident. Both witnesses stated that although both vehicles passed them at high speed there was a 2 to 3 second gap between them and that the red car was at all times followed by the white car. The 3rd vehicle the lorry did not stop and has not been traced.

After passing all 3 vehicles Stephen still behind the Fiesta slowed as he was approaching a bend in the road, which was a known local “accident black spot”. He noticed the Fiesta continue to pull away from him indicating it had not reduced its speed. He then saw the Fiesta hit a bump in the road and loose control crashing into trees next to a lay-by. Stephen braked and pulled into the lay-by safely and got out of the car and instructed his brother who was a passenger in his car to call the emergency services (second recorded time). He approached the crashed Fiesta to assess the situation it appeared that 2 of the 3 people in the vehicle had died and one was still alive. Stephen proceeded to flag down the 2 witnesses as described above to assist at the scene. The emergency services then arrived and cut the survivor free who was rushed to hospital.

Take into consideration there was no contact whatsoever between the vehicles. Also that it was proven by the Police accident investigator that the nearside rear tyre of the Fiesta was under inflated (10psi) at the time of the accident.

The Law

As the law stands there are guidelines for obtaining a conviction of Death by dangerous driving. Here follows the description of those guidelines and it must be stressed that only ONE of these factors has to be met to make a conviction. In addition it is important to appreciate that the significance of the factors can differ. There can be cases with three or more aggravating factors, which are not as serious as a case providing a bad example of one factor. They are as follows:
(a) The consumption of drugs (including legal medication known to cause drowsiness) or of alcohol, ranging from a couple of drinks to a motorised pub crawl?
(b) Greatly excessive speed; racing; competitive driving against another vehicle; showing off?
(c) disregard of warnings from fellow passengers
(d) a prolonged, persistent and deliberate course of very bad driving
(e) aggressive driving (such as driving much too close to the vehicle in front, persistent inappropriate attempts to overtake, or cutting in after overtaking)
(f) driving while the driver’s attention is avoidably distracted, e.g. by reading or by use of a mobile phone (especially if hand-held)
(g) driving when knowingly suffering from a medical condition which significantly impairs the offender’s driving skills
(h) driving when knowingly deprived of adequate sleep or rest
(i) driving a poorly maintained or dangerously loaded vehicle, especially where this has been motivated by commercial concerns
(j) other offences committed at the same time, such as driving without ever having held a licence; driving while disqualified; driving without insurance; driving while a learner without supervision; taking a vehicle without consent; driving a stolen vehicle
(k) previous convictions for motoring offences, particularly offences which involve bad driving or the consumption of excessive alcohol before driving
Journey time
Stephens Journey time was calculated between the CCTV footage and the time stamp from the emergency 999 call. This showed that the journey time was 273 seconds and 5.3 miles long giving an average speed of 69.89mph. As 1 mile of that journey is a 30 mph zone it was deduced that Stephen at some time was speeding (he admitted this).
Barrister’s advice
Stephen was advised by his Barrister to plead guilty which he did. The 2 reasons given for this were that the court were going to convict him based solely on his speed and the fact that he had 1 previous speeding offence.
Conclusion
Stephen was convicted of causing Death by dangerous driving given a 3 year driving ban and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. We feel that this is a gross injustice that he has been convicted based on a previous speeding offence and his speed during the minutes prior to witnessing the accident. We also feel that Stephen has been used to “set an example” as an escape goat by the local authorities because he drives a sports car.
If Stephen had not stopped at the scene of the accident and instructed hi brother to call 999, the third passenger would also have died. This conviction therefore sends out the wrong message to drivers, it raises the following question.

Should anyone ever stop at the scene of an accident in fear that they may get convicted for something they did not cause?

We believe that Stephen should be punished for the offence he has committed which is speeding. The offence of speeding does not carry a custodial sentence, in fact the greatest percentage of drivers probably do it every day without thinking? This petition has been put together to demonstrate public awareness that some of the factors that are being used to gain convictions for Death by dangerous driving are totally inappropriate. If this is the law it could happen to anyone at any time. This needs to be brought to the attention of our local MP who we wish to help us in our appeal against the conviction. The petition will be handed to our local MP upon successfully getting a meeting with him.

To: Everyone...
On the 4th July 2005 Stephen Jackson was sentenced for 5 years in prison and further 3 years ban for his part in a crash on the A500 in Stoke-on-Trent. Stephen originally pleaded not guilty but later changed his plea to guilty in order to receive light sentence, however the judge decided to penalise him with five year jail sentence.

We don't believe Stephen deserved this and we want you to help us get him out of jail.

Below are details of the night in question.

On the night of the incident with absolutely appallingly wet conditions Stephen left Festival Park in his Nissan 200SX and joined the A500 where Leon Hughes along with his two passengers John Hancock and Lee Scarlett were in a 'chipped' 1.6 Ford Fiesta Zetec S. Stephen has been accused of racing Mr Hughes along the A500, when in actual fact the Fiesta was no match for the 200SX that Stephen was in control of. I'll explain why the cars weren't a match a little further down.


The Fiesta with a under inflated rear tyre careered out of control as it hit a well known dip in the road in a speed excess of national speed limit. The driver Leon Hughes and his front seat passenger died on impact, Lee scarlett the third person in the car survived the crash. Stephen who was far enough behind to witness the Fiesta crash stopped at the scene, got his brother to call the emergency services for help on his phone, provided CPR to the survivor of the crash Lee Scarlett and flagged down on coming cars as the Fiesta was so far off road it barely visible to passing motorists.

For this brave act of helping the injured passenger Stephen now in Shrewsbury prison with a 5 year sentence sitting on his shoulders and 3 year driving ban awaits him when he finally get's out. Surely this passes on the wrong message to follow motorists. I know for a fact I would now think twice about stopping at a crash scene to help. I like my freedom like anyone else. If Stephen hadn't shown maturity and compassion he would surely be a free man right now.

It has been proven from video evidence and timing of a phone call that Stephens brother made, who was a passenger in the Nissan along with his fiancé Louise Johnson that the Nissan was travelling at an average speed of 90mph. Which is a valid point, however we are not disputing that both cars were speeding. We're disputing that both cars were racing. It's near impossible that a Fiesta with the weight of 3 people in, with around 75bhp less than the Nissan would be any match for the Nissan.

How could these two cars be truly racing? A Ford Fiesta Zetec S with around 115bhp would stand absolutely no chance on god's green earth of keeping up with the high powered 200SX pushing around 200bhp. The Nissan was even behind the Fiesta during the supposed race.

Stephen is accused of causing the deaths of the two young men that died. We don't believe that and we don't think you do either. Stephen is currently locked up 23 hours a day in Shrewsbury prison, he and his family are in despair and need your help. Please help us get our friend out of jail for an offence he did not commit by signing this petition.

If you would like to help further you can express your feelings and beliefs in a letter to the following address, please send it recorded delivery so it has to be signed for.

Paul Farrelly
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Thank you.

This is the root problem with a system that punishes innocent people by giving a more severe punishment if you contest a charge but are still found guilty. Genuinely guilty people face no such problem. One should surely always be allowed to argue one's case in court with no negative consequences, how else can we have justice.

My comments was based on his pleading guilty when accused of racing

IMHO tragic as this case surely is , the decision taken to race (assuming they were racing) is a personal one , either party at any time could have made the decision to stop.

Stephen met his legal aid appointed defence barrister 15 minutes before the trial. It's during this 15 minutes that advice to plead guilty was given "in order to mitigate the sentence".
...

I'm inclined to believe that this is a gross miscarriage of justice brought about by faulty legal advice. I advised the relative to contact the law society PDQ.

the offence, I believe, is "Causing death by dangerous driving" not "Contributing to death by dangerous driving". One could argue that racing (if indeed he were doing so) contributed to the accident, but I don't see how it can be said that it caused the accident, surely the cause of the accident was the driver of the vehicle that crashed not negotiating the corner properly.

... keeping up with another vehicle that was definitely driving in a fatally dangerous manner.

I agree that he really shouldn't have accepted the advice to plead guilty to a charge that he wasn't guilty of. If nobody in his car thought they were racing, then why should you agree to the charge?

But if he didn't admit to the charge, then they couldn't have convicted him of Death by Dangerous Driving, unless they had evidence that proved beyond doubt that they were Racing. The gap that was large enough to allow him to stop when he saw the accident is enough to demonstrate to me that they were certainly not close enough on the road for him to have been directly involved in the accident, and any such conviction would be unsound.

The guy must be a complete muppet: "You have been charged with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, because you were speeding, you will be automatically convicted, so I suggest that you plead guilty as charged"