Driver tracking wife on app killed teenage moped rider
Wallace destroyed all our lives that night, said mum
A TEENAGE moped rider from Stapleton was killed moments after a speeding driver was distracted using his phone to track his wife.
Calum Warrilow, aka Dowers, was returning home after seeing his girlfriend when he was knocked from his bike along the A1 in Lincolnshire.
Kenneth Wallace, 53, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving.
The PR consultant had been driving at 90mph along the dual carriageway in his E-Class Mercedes Benz, continuously looking down at a tracking app, sending text messages and searching on Google shortly before the smash near Grantham, Lincolnshire.
Wallace, who believed his wife was meeting a man at a pub in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, had fitted a tracking device to her car after discovering she had been having a two-year long affair.
He was heading up the A1 from the couple’s Cambridgeshire home to find her, Lincoln Crown Court heard while Calum was returning home after visiting his sweetheart in Grantham.
The court heard Calum was riding safely on the inside lane of the A1 when Wallace sped past other traffic and knocked the teenager from his bike after failing to indicate that he was changing lanes.
Witnesses described seeing Wallace “speed off” after the collision.
Moments later Calum was struck by an articulated lorry and he died on the way to hospital in an ambulance.
The court heard one police investigator believed that if Wallace had stopped and helped Calum when the collision happened at 10.30pm on Tuesday September 13 he may not have died.
Alex Wolfson, prosecuting, said: “Witnesses described the Mercedes’ brake lights flashing twice before watching that vehicle speed off from the scene.
“The impact on the wing mirror must have been substantial. We do not accept he did not know the collision had taken place.”
A speed camera triggered shortly after the collision estimated Wallace was still driving at 81mph.
When police in Northamptonshire arrested Wallace the following morning he was significantly over the drink-drive limit.
In a victim impact statement which was read out in court, Calum’s mother, Kerry Dowers, said his death had forced her to give up work and significantly harmed his younger sister.
She said Calum was a “great son” who wanted to be an RAF medic. He had been accepted to join the service when he was 17.
“That won’t happen now,” Kerry said.
“We all miss him terribly. His death will haunt us for the rest our lives. Wallace did not just destroy Callum that night, he destroyed all our lives.”
Calum left behind sisters Kia, 19, Lili-Maye Dowers, seven, and two older brothers.
Liam Muir, mitigating, said Wallace was a functioning alcoholic.
Mr Muir told the court: “He was married for 18 years but they are now separated. He is a man who was plagued by alcohol abuse.” Wallace, formerly of Stibbington, Cambridgeshire, now of Barn Hill, Stamford, Lincolnshire, admitted causing Calum’s death by dangerous driving on 13 September last year.
He was also banned from driving for nine years and three months and must take an extended driving test.
Passing sentence Judge John Pini QC told Wallace his domestic difficulties were the reason he was so dangerous on the roads.
“You should not have taken your personal problems on to the A1,” Judge Pini said.
The judge said that other recent cases had highlighted the problems of using mobile phones behind the wheel.
“Parliament is so concerned it is considering further legislation,” he added. “The public should have got the message.”