Clews, R. v

A custodial sentence may be justified for causing death by careless driving where the driver proceeds at a constant speed through a narrowed road and passes child pedestrians dangerously closely. The sentencing assessment must nevertheless reflect all material evidence bearing on culpability, including evidence of an unsuccessful late attempt to avoid the collision. In an anxious sentencing appeal, the proper custodial category and the rejection of suspension may remain justified, but the term must not be excessive when the whole of the driving evidence is considered.

The appellant pleaded guilty at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court to causing death by careless driving after a hired van struck and killed a 14-year-old pedestrian on a narrow residential road. She was acquitted, after trial, of the alternative count of causing death by dangerous driving arising from the same incident.

The sentencing judge imposed two years’ imprisonment. The appellant accepted that the driving was serious and warranted custody, but contended that evidence of the van’s angle showed a late, unsuccessful attempt to avoid the collision. She submitted that this omitted feature reduced culpability and that the sentence could have been suspended.

1. The appeal was allowed to the extent of sentence. The sentence of two years’ imprisonment was quashed and replaced with one year’s imprisonment.

2. The judge’s principal findings on culpability were accurate and justified. The appellant drove at a constant speed of about 20 mph through a restricted part of the road, despite a group of child pedestrians ahead. She did not slow down, although she sounded her horn, and narrowly missed another pedestrian before striking Hannah Davies.

3. The driving was properly placed within the sentencing category requiring immediate custody. In particular, it involved driving inappropriately close to a child pedestrian. The Court rejected the submission that the custodial sentence should be suspended, notwithstanding the appellant’s personal mitigation.

4. However, the sentencing remarks omitted material evidence that the van was angled to the right when the collision occurred. That evidence supported a finding of a late and unsuccessful attempt to avoid the child. It did not excuse the driving, because the appellant had already made the serious error of attempting to pass the group at constant speed and then wrongly believing that a late manoeuvre and the horn would suffice. Taken with the full evidence, it made a two-year term excessive.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): Allowed the appeal against sentence and substituted one year’s imprisonment for the two-year sentence.

• Crown Court at Merthyr Tydfil: The appellant pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. She was acquitted after trial of the alternative count of causing death by dangerous driving.