Driver killed gran when she ignored mini-roundabout and while turning right
A grandmother was killed while out posting her Christmas cards when a driver ploughed into her after taking a shortcut over a mini-roundabout.
Sandra Chamberlain, 67, suffered catastrophic brain injuries after being hit by Charlotte Symons’ Nissan Navara as she neared the opposite pavement in Markham, Caerphilly, on December 9, 2022.
Cardiff Crown Court heard Symons, 40, told passers-by ‘I didn’t see her’, having taken a sharp right instead of following the road clockwise around.
She initially denied cutting across the roundabout but admitted doing so regularly when confronted with the CCTV, telling officers she lived nearby and had become ‘complacent’.
Prosecutor Gareth James said Mrs Chamberlain was rushed to hospital with serious head injuries but died eight days later on December 17.
He added: ‘Had the defendant driven the correct way around the roundabout this collision would not have happened.’
Symons, of Blackwood, Gwent, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for four years and eight months.
Mr James told the court Mrs Chamberlain ‘was wearing a bright red jacket she would have been clearly visible to other road users’.
He went on: ‘She walked beyond the mini roundabout before crossing over the road. She had almost crossed to the other side of the road when she was struck by the defendant’s vehicle and run over.’
The prosecutor said of Symons: ‘Instead of going the right way around mini roundabout she cut across the road and entered the mini roundabout on the wrong side of it.
‘She then struck and ran down Mrs Chamberlain who was in the opposite carriageway to the one the defendant should have been in had she have been driving on the right side of the road.’
In a victim impact statement, Mrs Chamberlain’s daughter Stacey Hoskin said: ‘We know the defendant didn’t set out to hurt anyone that day but as drivers it is our responsibility to ensure the road is clear before we manoeuvre.
‘There are lots of ifs and buts about that day but the biggest one is if she had followed the basic rules of driving we wouldn’t be here today and my mam still would.
‘She went to the shop and to post some Christmas cards. Six weeks and four days later she came back to us in a coffin.’
James Findon, defending, said: ‘If the defendant could turn back the clock she would.’
Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke told Symons she had been ‘paying so little attention to the road ahead that you didn’t even see the victim immediately before your vehicle struck her’.
She added: ‘Anyone viewing the recordings of what happened on that day will be at a loss to understand why you failed to see Mrs Chamberlain.
‘Your dangerous driving, brief though it was, has caused the death of a much loved wife, mother and grandmother.’
Symons was also banned from driving for nine years and two months.
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