Taxi Driver Online

Pair To Face Trial Over Taxi Driver Death

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Two men have pleaded not guilty to causing the death of a Swansea cabbie by dangerous driving.

Martin Leigh Griffiths died when his black Fiat Scudo taxi was in collision with a car on the westbound carriageway of the A483 — Fabian Way — shortly before midnight on February 7.

Mr Griffiths was an active and popular member of Swansea Yacht and Sub-Aqua Club.

He was a keen diver and had a cabin cruiser moored on the river.

The two motorists accused of causing his death are Michael Davies, aged 20, of Heol y Fran, Morriston, Swansea, and Nathan Hunt, aged 23, of The Meadows, Cimla, Neath.

They are due to stand trial in six weeks' time.

The prosecution case is that Davies was driving a Citroen Saxo dangerously and Hunt was driving a Peugeot 106 dangerously.

Both the Saxo and the Peugeot had been travelling along the eastbound carriageway.

Davies and Hunt each pleaded not guilty when they were formally arraigned yesterday at Swansea Crown Court.

Judge John Diehl QC then discussed legal and administrative matters with barristers for the prosecution and the defence.

Both defendants are on unconditional bail.

Adjourning, the judge told them: "Your trial is likely to start on November 23.

"You are duty bound to surrender to the custody of the court on that date."

The trial is expected to last four to five days.

Mr Griffiths, aged 52, of Brunswick Street, Swansea, was pronounced dead at the scene.

He had been a taxi driver for about 18 months, having previously worked as a vending machine engineer.

Source; thisissouthwales.co.uk

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Two guilty over taxi driver death in Swansea

Monday, 1st March, 2010

Two men have been warned they face lengthy prison sentences after a jury convicted them of causing the death of a taxi driver by dangerous driving.

A jury at Swansea Crown Court heard Nathan Hunt, 23, and Michael Davies, 21, were racing each other when Hunt's car hit Martin Griffiths's taxi.

Both were granted bail but Judge Huw Davies said both would go to prison.

Mr Griffiths, 52, died as a result of the crash on the Fabian Way entrance to Swansea in February last year.

During the trial the jury heard how Hunt's Peugeot 106 became airborne after hitting the central reservation and crashed head-on into the taxi.

The defendants, who had denied the charge, had been heading out of the city at high speed with one witness stating their cars were just five yards apart just before the collision.

During the two-week trial, both men insisted that they were not speeding and both blamed the other for the fatal collision.

The judge said: "The custodial terms will be significant.

"Both of you must understand with the utmost clarity that each will go to prison. Those are the unavoidable consequences of conviction."

He delayed sentencing to allow probation officers to prepare reports into their backgrounds.

Hunt, of Cimla, Neath, and Davies, of Morriston, Swansea, were granted bail meanwhile.

The court heard that Davies had two convictions for speeding and had been fined for using a mobile telephone while driving only the day before the fatal crash.

Source; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/8544171.stm

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Prison sentences are too good for these absolute [edited by admin].....
Bring back the rope........

Two jailed for Swansea taxi driver death

Two men have both been jailed for five years for causing the death of a taxi driver by dangerous driving. A judge at Swansea Crown Court told Nathan Hunt, 23, and Michael Davies, 21, they had shown "a lack of maturity" by racing each other at over 50mph.

Martin Griffiths, 52, died when Hunt's car hit his taxi in Fabian Way in the city in February last year. In a statement his family said they bore no resentment to the men but hoped they had "learned a lesson."

Both had denied causing death by dangerous driving but were convicted by a jury last month. During the trial the jury heard how Hunt's Peugeot 106 became airborne after hitting the central reservation and crashed head-on into the taxi.

The defendants had been heading out of the city at high speed with one witness stating their cars were just five yards apart just before the collision. During the two-week trial, Hunt, of Cimla, Neath, and Davies, of Morriston, Swansea, insisted that they were not speeding and both blamed the other for the fatal collision. They had never met before.

Sentencing the pair judge Huw Davies QC told them: "The truth is that as you drove you were racing in excess of the 50 mph speed limit on Fabian Way. "You were young men in the souped up versions of your cars, or at least cars made to look like souped up versions.

"You experienced a sudden rush of blood to the head and a lack of maturity meant you gave into that impulse to race." Hunt and Davies were also banned from driving for five years and ordered to take an extended driving test before regaining their licences.

In a statement the family of Mr Griffiths said: "We would like to thank everyone involved in the trial of Nathan Hunt and Michael Davies. "While we are pleased with the result of guilty at the trial, we bear no resentment to Nathan Hunt and Michael Davies or to their respective families.

"We just hope that both young men will have learned a lesson from this and that it serves as an example to others and that it doesn't ever happen again.

"We know that it will be difficult for both families when their sons go to prison but at the end of their sentence their sons will return home, we sadly don't have that prospect to look forward to. "We would also like to thank the police for doing a very difficult job to the best of their abilities".

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