Driver who struck jogger 'not careless'

A TEENAGE motorist who hit a jogger on a zebra crossing has been cleared of driving without due care and attention. Hannah-Marie Slann told the Magistrate's Court that Diana Fox 'came from nowhere' into the path of her Toyota Rav 4, which was travelling at no more than 25mph.

The woman was thrown through the air and landed about 12 metres away from the crossing, across which she was jogging.

She suffered a fractured shoulder, broken wrist, broken femur, torn ligaments to her knee and a bump to the back of her head.

The accident happened at 7.45am on 19 September last year at the crossing outside Ogier's in Grande Rue, St Martin's.

Miss Fox was still on crutches when she appeared in court to give evidence against the driver.

Miss Slann, of The Hollies, Rue de la Mare, St Sampson's, pleaded not guilty.

She said it was the jogger's fault.

'She ran straight in front of me; I didn't have time to stop,' she said.

Unusually, her evidence was corroborated by two of the prosecution witnesses. In a statement read to the court, Andrew Reynolds laid the blame with the jogger.

'I don't think she gave the driver of the silver car any opportunity to avoid her,' he said.

Retired policeman Robert Welsh said he was 'surprised' to see a woman running across the zebra crossing. 'I think had she been walking, she would have seen the car,' said Mr Welsh.

At the time of the accident there were stationary cars either side of the crossing on the shop side of the road, where Miss Fox was jogging. Miss Slann was heading in the opposite direction, from Senners Bakery towards Rue Maze. The road in front of her was clear.

Her sight of the pavement on the shop side was obscured, but she slowed down and did not see the jogger.

Miss Fox told the court that she jogged halfway across the crossing and then stopped to look up. She saw the silver car coming but thought she had time to cross.

Under cross-examination she questioned why she should be looking for vehicles when she was on the zebra crossing, because motorists should be looking for her.

Advocate Mark Ferbrache said that there was a straight conflict of evidence in the prosecution's case.

Two independent witnesses had blamed the jogger, he said.

Magistrate Russell Finch said that based on the evidence heard, he could not be sure that Miss Slann was driving carelessly. Finding her not guilty, he noted that different standards of proof would apply in a civil case.