I’LL CARRY ON DRIVING
93-year-old cleared of causing crash:
A93-YEAR-OLD farmer who has been driving since before World War II says he intends to stay behind the wheel after being cleared of causing an accident that left a motorcyclist badly injured.
Albert Owen, who first drove in 1937, collided with the biker as he pulled out onto the A5 at Rhostrehwfa, Anglesey, in his Vauxhall Frontera.
Witnesses said they had seen Mr Owen enter the road and nearly stop. But Mr Owen said he was accelerating in low gear and had only driven a few yards when he heard a noise and saw the motorcyclist fly over the car.
Quizzed by his barrister, Austin Welch, he said he approached the junction normally and looked in both directions: “I had to stop to allow another car to go past. I looked left and right and there was no car whatsoever so I set off in low gear.
“I had only gone 20 yards when I heard a loud bang. I thought the fuel tank was exploding and saw something being thrown through the air.”
He stopped and went to the rider’s aid. A breath test proved negative, and Mr Owen also passed an eyesight test.
Biker Jamie Thomas Jones was taken to hospital, and he told Caernarfon magistrates how he suffered two broken wrists and injured his elbow. Mr Jones said he had little recollection of the collision but agreed with Mr Welch the Frontera could have been on the A5 before he saw it. “You may not have been concentrating,” suggested Mr Welch. “It could well be,” he said. Bench chairman Sue Wynn Jones said: “There is no clear evidence the motorbike was in view at the time Mr Owen set off from the junction and we find him not guilty.”
After the hearing Mr Owen, of Bodffordd, near Llangefni, said he was relieved the case was over. “It has been hanging over me for a long time. I’m not planning to give up driving. I’ll be going to Gaerwen tomorrow to fetch feed for the sheep.”