Chilling warning to drivers with air fresheners and fluffy dice on rear view mirrors after devastating death
A JUDGE has issued a chilling warning to drivers who decorate their rear view mirrors after a 65-year-old man killed a pedestrian when his vision was blocked.
Christopher Hardy, made a left hand turn at a junction in Manchester, but failed to spot 85-year old Maria Clayton who was stood in the road.
Miss Clayton who had been a shopping errand in the run up to Christmas 2022 suffered multiple fatal injuries in the ensuing impact and died 13 days later in hospital on Boxing Day.
Cops said that a reconstruction of the tragic accident showed that Hardy’s view would have been obstructed by the air fresher and the toy dangling from the mirror.
Judge Bernadette Baxter condemned motorists who hang air freshers and fluffy dice from the rear view mirrors of their cars after he horror incident.
She told Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, that such toys were ”unhelpful” when driving.
Officers also concluded Christopher was only checking for traffic coming from his right and failed to do one last check to his left before setting off.
Grandfather Hardy, from Mossley, Greater Manchester faced up to three years jail under sentencing guidelines after he admitted causing death by careless driving.
He was sentenced to eight months imprisonment suspended for two years after Judge Baxter said his daughter and grandchild would be “impacted” if he went to prison.
She told Hardy: ”This is a tragic case because the long life of Mrs Clayton was ended in a violent way without the opportunity for her family and friends to say goodbye or prepare themselves for that loss.
”Equally your life has been blighted because I have no no doubt the enormity of what you have done weighs very heavily upon you.
”You undertook an unsafe manoevre in which you were looking for oncoming traffic and before you moved off you failed to look in the direction you were going to travel and as a consequence you collided with Mrs Clayton.
”Its the sort of manoevre that is seen the roads on an almost daily basis and wasn’t helped by the fact that you had obstruction dangling from your rear view mirror which are never helpful to any driver.”
The judge added: “Once you realises you had struck Mrs Clayton you stopped and did what you could to help her and assist police and medical teams and when arrested you did not equivocate and accepted your responsibility.
”You have led an ordinary decent adult life and there would be an impact on your daughter and grandchild if you were sent to be sent to custody.
“No sentence that I can pass today will assuage the grief of Mrs Clayton’s family or alleviate the sense of guilt you must feel and live with forever about what you have done.”
Hardy also banned from driving for two years and was ordered to complete 150 hours unpaid work.
The accident occurred at 3pm on December 13, 2022 when Hardy who had been to his local shop was driving his Nissan Juke car towards the junction of Cheshire Street and Egmont Street in Mossley.
Mrs Clayton sustained fatal injuries including broken ankles, two broken tibias, two broken fibulas and a shattered pelvis.
She passed away in hospital on December 26, 2022 as a result of her injuries.
No sentence that I can pass today will assuage the grief of Mrs Clayton’s family or alleviate the sense of guilt you must feel and live with forever.”
Judge Baxter
Miss Jane Dagnall prosecuting said: “Maria Clayton was independently mobile bit walked with the aid of a stick. She had left the same shop walked across the road before coming to a stop at the end of the road just at the mouth of the junction.
“Mr Hardy himself said he paused at the junction to see if the road was clear for him to pull out
“He said there was no traffic so he pulled out as he put it ‘nice and slow like I’ve always done.'”
He said he knew the area well and always took care as this was a particularly busy junction.
She continued: ”However as he turned left the nearside of his car collided with Mrs Clayton and unfortunately travelled over her.
”He said he didn’t see anybody but felt a thud and didn’t know what had happened. He stopped straight away looked underneath his car at which point he says ‘his whole world collapsed’.”
The traffic collision report states that she was on the road for 21 seconds and stationary for five seconds before she was hit by the Nissan.
Miss Dagnall added: ”The conclusion of the road traffic investigation is that Mr Hardy would have had an unrestricted view of Mrs Clayton however his view was restricted to some degree by an air freshener and a soft toy hanging fern the mirror.
”The investigator concluded that either Mr Hardy failed to look in the direction he was travelling or Mrs Clayton could not easily be identified due to the hanging items.
“If these items were not present it is more likely Mr Hardy would have seen her and as he was driving at a low speed there would be sufficient time to avoid a collision.”
‘GENUINE REMORSE’
For Hardy defence counsel Mark Fireman said: “He didn’t see Mrs Clayton and for a few seconds didn’t realise there was somebody under his car. he has a good driving record and this was his first accident for 40 years.
“There has been genuine remorse for him causing the death of someone else.
“It is an extremely tragic case. It is highly unlikely this man will ever trouble the courts again.”
While not actually illegal to drive with dirty windscreens or large air fresheners, according to the Highway Code and the Road Traffic Act, drivers are breaking the law if their view of the road is obstructed in any way.
Road Traffic Law states: “No person shall drive or cause or permit any other person to drive a motor vehicle on a road if he is in such a position that he cannot have proper control of the vehicle or have a full view of the road and traffic ahead.”
The Highway Code says: “Windscreens and windows must be kept clean and free from obstructions to vision.”
Police have reportedly been clamping down on drivers whose vision of the road is obscured by objects placed on or around their windscreen.
According to the RAC an air freshener hanging from your rear-view mirror could be enough to land the driver with a £1,000 fine and 3 points on their driving licence.
Insurers may refuse to pay out if a driver is involved in an accident while driving with obstructed vision.