Death-crash driver, 89, facing prison
DEVOTED DAD IN ROAD HORROR
AN 89-YEAR-OLD driver faces jail after ploughing into and killing a father who had pushed his daughter out of harm’s way – before crashing his car into a young mother pushing her toddler son in a buggy.
Paul John, 47, died two days after being struck by a Kia Picanto driven by pensioner Edward Whalen in Wythenshawe.
Whalen, of Carrgreen Close, Burnage, has admitted responsibility for the death and injury caused at a Manchester Crown Court hearing.
Witnesses reported seeing Mr John desperately push his daughter, Angela, then nine, out of the way of the car during the incident. Moments later the Kia struck Stephanie Kendal, 27, and her two-year-old son who was in a pushchair.
Ms Kendal was treated for a broken wrist and the toddler was uninjured. Mr John’s daughter escaped the March 14 incident – at Woodhouse Lane at the junction of Hollyhedge Road in Benchill – with minor cuts and injuries.
Following Mr John’s death, all of his organs were donated.
Whalen pleaded guilty to two counts, one of causing death by dangerous driving and another of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, at Manchester Crown Court. Whalen, who stood in the dock to enter his pleas and confirm his details, is due to be sentenced next month.
Granting him unconditional bail until the sentencing hearing, Judge Timothy Smith said: “The court will have to consider whether it is appropriate to pass a custodial sentence. That will be in the forefront of the court’s mind because offences of this nature clearly pass the custodial threshold.
“You must be expecting to receive a custodial sentence.”
Last year the M.E.N. reported how airport worker Mr John moved to Manchester from Kerala in southern India in 2001 and was an active member of St Elizabeth’s RC Church in Wythenshawe. His wife, Mini Paul, works as a staff nurse at Wythenshawe Hospital.
In a tribute to the father-of-two last year Sajan Chacko, president of the Manchester Knanaya Catholic Association, said: “Paul was very involved in church activities, and was a very active member – we are like a family at the church.
“He was a lovely man, he always had a nice smile on his face. He was never rude, and was always very friendly. He was very religious. He spent most of his time with the family, looking after the kids. That was his life. He would go to work, then go back and look after his family.”