Cumbrian taxi driver fined for delaying schoolboy accident report
Monday, 05 July 2010
A Cumbrian taxi driver has been fined after a boy’s bike accidentally got stuck in his car wheel as he was driving.
Gareth James Thomason, 24, of Cambridge Road, reported an incident to police hours later but did not realise that a child had been involved.
The boy suffered a broken collarbone and bruises.
Thomason admitted failing to report the accident at the earliest possible time.
Whitehaven magistrates ordered him to pay a £110 fine, with £85 court costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
Pamela Fee, prosecuting, said Ellis Moffitt, who is 12-years-old, dropped the front wheel of his bike onto the road at Esk Avenue, Corkickle, in October.
She said: “The car clipped him. The boy didn’t have any brakes on his bike and was listening to an ipod.”
The court heard that Thomason and passenger Morris Fell “heard a thud but did not know what had happened”.
“The defendant stopped the car for about five to 10 minutes,” she said.
Mrs Fee said the passenger and taxi driver looked behind them and saw a broken wing mirror.
“The defendant also saw a child sitting alongside a fence but he did not think that was what he had hit.”
The court heard that Thomason reported the incident to the taxi firm he worked for before returning to Esk Avenue. He then reported the incident to police.
Mrs Fee said that although the defendant had reported the incident to police, it was not at the earliest possible time.
Simon Ward, for Thomason, said: “It’s right to say that the accident was in no way my client’s fault. It was found that the boy’s front wheel got caught in the wheel and wheel arch of the car. In a split second the handle bar hit the taxi and he received his injuries.”
Mr Ward added: “It is significant that Mr Fell didn’t know what had happened either.
“It was two hours after the incident that my client called the police. He was in a state of shock which had caused the delay.”
Source; newsandstar.co.uk
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