Bowles directors escape jail for fatal negligence
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• by Chfcerrespondent
Two haulage bosses who overworked a driver in the lead-up to a horrific motorway pile up which left two motorists dead narrowly escaped prison last week after a test case at the Old Bailey.
Stephen Bowles, 45, and his sister Julie Bowles, 41, both directors of Berkshire-based Roy Bowles Transport, were given suspended sentences for manslaughter after failing to prevent driver Andrew Cox from working dangerously excessive hours.
Cox dozed off on the M25 near Ockenden, Essex on 16 October 1997. He smashed into a skip truck, causing a seven-vehicle pile-up which left two men
dead. During the trial Cox was described as "an accident waiting to happen' after being made to drive up to 60 hours a week.
After hearing that Stephen Bowles had considered suicide and had suffered mental problems since the accident, the Recorder of London, Judge Michael Hyam, gave him a 15month jail sentence, suspended for two years.
The court was read a letter from Julie Bowles' husband, pleading for mercy to allow her to return to her two young children for Christmas. She received a 12-month prison term, which was also suspended for two years.
After the trial the investigating officer in the case, Detective Superintendent Jim Boakes, said: "If this case has done anything it has made the road haulage industry consider carefully the setting of standards and management of drivers' working hours in order to reduce death and injury on the roads.
"I note that defence counsel says Roy Bowles has now installed a necessary system. It is a pity it did not do so before two innocent human beings lost their lives in a needless road crash."
This is the first time company directors have been successfully prosecuted for manslaughter arising out of a fatal road traffic accident.
During the six-week trial Cox, of Colhe Brook, near Slough, Berks, initially denied charges of causing the deaths of Barry Davies, a former Royal Marine sergeant, and Peter Morgan, a Quality engineer, t)y dangerous driving. He changed his plea to guilty at the end of the prosecution case and was jailed for 30 months.
Outside the court Morgan's widow Avril Morgan said: "I think the directors should have been jailed and the driver should have got more as well. It's awful...it could have been anyone's husband or parents. Our daughter was 11 when her dad was killed."
• Roy Bowles Transport was set up by Royston Bowles and his wife. Bowles senior was former chairman of the Ealing magistrate's bench and had been awarded an OBE for his services to road haulage although he did not take part in the day-to-day running of his company.
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