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Jail for smashing into a standing ambulance
Page 16
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David Harris reports on the jail sentence handed down to a trucker who hit a parked ambulance, killing its occupant.
A TRUCK DRIVER who killed a man after ploughing into the back of a stationary ambulance on a motorway hard shoulder was jailed for three-and-a-half years last week.
Sentence on James Kelly, from Pontypool, had been adjourned at Bristol Crown Court for pre-sentence reports.
Kelly. who originally pleaded not guilty to causing death by dangerous driving,changed his plea on the second day of his trial. The court heard that he had crashed his flatbed into an ambulance on the M4 in broad daylight; the ambulance had its lights flashing and two-tone horn sounding.
Mark Jenkins from Swindon was being checked over by paramedics after stopping his car and calling them because he felt unwell. The collision happened as the paramedics were arranging for someone to collect Jenkins' car.
The court heard that just before the accident witnesses saw Kelly's truck drifting across the two inside lanes and the hard shoulder of the motorway. The prosecution said that -the overwhelming likelihood" was that Kelly had fallen asleep at the wheel.
Kelly's defence team said he might have suffered a minor stroke while driving, but cardiologist Professor John Vann Jones said that the likelihood of this happening was only 1-2%. It was after this evidence that Kelly switched his plea to guilty. In mitigation,Kelly's lawyers that he had not been drinking.1 not knowingly sleep-deprived was not speeding.
In addition to the jail sentei Kelly was banned from driving four years. The judge said the e was as clear an example as th could be of the dangers of drib and falling asleep at the wheel.