A British engineer who killed a motorcyclist after driving too slowly on a motorway fought back tears as he was jailed on Thursday.
Preston Crown Court in Lancashire heard that Mark Walsh, 43, ‘invited catastrophe’ when he braked suddenly to take an off-ramp.
He was travelling at less than 16km/h in rush-hour traffic when Peter Sarchet, 41, who was riding behind Walsh, tried to stop to avoid a collision but lost control of his Yamaha. The father of three fell off his bike and slid under Walsh’s Vauxhall Insignia, where he was trapped.
A passing RAC recovery driver stopped and jacked up the car to try and free Sarchet, but he had suffered catastrophic injuries and was pronounced dead in hospital.
When questioned by police, Walsh offered no explanation as to why he had ‘all but stopped’.
He was not using his cellphone and had simply slowed down on the M65 in Lancashire to take the turn-off for the M61, he said.
Walsh did not give evidence in his defence during the four-day trial when he was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving, sentenced to 20 months imprisonment and banned from driving for three years.
Robert Elias, prosecuting, told the court that at 7am on November 1, 2011, Walsh, from Hapton, near Burnley, was driving along the M65, near Walton-Le-Dale, to his office in Warrington.
Elias said: “For no reason, the defendant slowed down very quickly. “He all but stopped and was inviting catastrophe. No competent driver would consciously drive at less than 16km/h on the motorway. There was no good reason for him to brake heavily. If someone is driving at less than 16km/h on a motorway, he is an accident waiting to happen.”
Sarchet, a retail manager, was travelling at between 60 and 70 km/h, the jury was told.
Walsh told police he had been travelling at 110km/h, keeping up with the flow of traffic, but moved to the left to take the exit onto the M61. He said he heard a loud bang at the back of the vehicle, but did not remember feeling any impact. His car stalled and when he started it, a man came running along the hard shoulder shouting to him not to drive it, he claimed.
Alistair MacDonald, QC, defending, told the court Walsh was a hard-working ‘family man’. “This was the briefest of moments giving rise to this offence,” he added.
But, passing sentence, Judge Robert Altham told Walsh: “You gratuitously braked hard and veered to the left while in the slow lane with such suddenness that you came to a rapid halt at what was a fairly busy time.
“The life that was lost as a result was a fine life. You never accepted responsibility for that day.’
Sarchet’s widow, Jill, said: “Peter was a devoted family man and lived for his children. Our loss cannot be described.”
Later, a personal injury expert said it was a ‘very unusual case’.
Navdip Gill, a partner at Geoffrey Leaver Solicitors, said rear-end crashes were almost always the fault of the driver behind.
“The law says motorists should always heed the presence of the vehicle in front and be aware of their surroundings, so the rule of thumb is that the driver who hits the rear of the vehicle in front is almost always the responsible party.
“It is only in exceptional circumstances that the driver travelling behind is not held responsible, or partially responsible.”
He said exceptional circumstances included a car deliberately pulling out in front of another driver and reckless braking. - Daily Mail