Taxi driver who ran over man on Kidderminster ring road in the early hours given suspended prison sentence A taxi driver who ran over a partially-drunk man on Kidderminster ring road in the early hours has been given a suspended prison sentence at Worcester Crown Court.
Simon Robinson, aged 43, of Steatite Way, Stourport, was also disqualified for 12 months, ordered to do 250 unpaid hours work and pay £530 costs.
After reading a sheaf of references, Judge Robert Juckes QC imposed eight months jail but suspended it for 12 months.
Robinson, who had been a taxi driver for 14 years, pleaded guilty to causing the death of Jason Westcott by driving without due care and attention.
Adam Western, mitigating, said: "This really was a tragic accident. Simon Robinson is full of remorse and wishes he could change places with this young man."
The court was told by Madhu Rai, prosecuting, that 22-year-old Mr Westcott, of Weston-super-Mare, had been involved with another group of young men at The Tribe nightclub before trying to cross the ring road. He had twice the drink-drive level of alcohol in his blood and he fell into the nearside lane. He was taken to hospital with head and abdominal and died later.
Miss Rai said he was struck by the taxi at about 5am on November 15, 2015, and it was calculated that the driver would have had about six seconds to see the body, which was in his path.
Robinson, who was driving at a legal 40mph, stopped momentarily but then drove on. He went to a garage to see if his vehicle was damaged and had it washed. "He could well have stopped to have seen what had happened," said Miss Rai. His excuse for not seeing anything on the road was that he could have been turning off his meter.
Mr Western said Robinson had pleaded guilty immediately the case came to trial. He appreciated the loss to the Westcott family but had been trying to
build up his business in providing a public service for Kidderminster. Customers spoke of his kindness to them.
Judge Juckes spoke of the loss to a family when a much-loved son was taken from them. But there was no question that Robinson had been distracted by a mobile phone or telephone call. The aggravating feature was that he had tried to get away from the site of an accident which had been caused by his momentary lack of attention.
source:
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/146 ... _sentence/
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