Lady Crawshay fined over crash (From Free Press Series)

Lady Crawshay fined over crash

12:00pm Monday 13th July 2009

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AN 82-YEAR-OLD woman was found guilty of driving without due care and attention, following an incident linked to the death of an Abergavenny couple.

Lady Elizabeth Crawshay was driving along the B4598 near Usk on April 20 last year when she realised she had forgotten something and so turned right into a layby by the Hardwick pub to turn around. When she was three quarters of the way into the layby she felt a bang on the rear side of her car but said she thought the car which had hit her had carried on.

After this collision though, the Subaru Impreza which had hit Crawshay’s Rover went on to hit a Saab. Abergavenny couple Nicholas Fermor, 49 and wife Susan, 52, who were in the Saab were killed.

Last month a judge directed that Samantha Mead of Penpergwm, who was driving the Subaru was not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

Crawshay, of Merthyr Road, described how she saw “a moving shadow” before she turned right but did not consider it to be a danger to her. After her collision she said she heard some kind of bang which must have been the accident between Mead and the Fermors but said she could not recall exactly when she had heard it.

Crawshay then continued driving, passing through the major accident, she said she did not connect it with the collision she had just had.

It was only when she saw an appeal for witnesses to the accident that she went to the police four days later. She was arrested when officers matched paintwork on her car to paint which was on Mead’s car.

Forensic collision investigator Michael Handy said he could determine that the accident involving the Fermors happened 11m away from the junction where Crawshay had turned. He calculated that as Samantha Mead was travelling at 40 metres per second, the accident would have happened just a quarter of a second after the collision with Crawshay.

Magistrate Val Willie said: “A careful and prudent driver in the defendant’s position would not have commenced with the manoeuvre across the carriageway.”

Crawshay was fined £700, ordered to pay £600 costs and a £15 victim surcharge. She also had five penalty points endorsed on her driving license.

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