Lorry driver faces charge of causing a woman’s death
ALORRY driver is on trial accused of causing the death of a woman in Rochdale.
Jordan Devine, 29, denies causing the death of 60-year-old Sheila Duffy by careless driving, following a collision on Milnrow Road.
Mr Devine was working as a driver for Howarth Timber and Building Supplies, and was turning into one of the company’s depots.
Ms Duffy was walking on the pavement and was hit as she crossed the entrance to the depot.
Prosecutors allege he ‘wholly failed to notice’ Ms Duffy.
They also claim the mirrors on his lorry were not set up correctly.
Ms Duffy suffered serious injuries to her abdomen and died about two weeks later.
Mr Devine, from Tameside, says Ms Duffy walked in front of his lorry and that she was in his blind spot.
“He seems to have wholly failed to notice and account for the presence of this pedestrian on the pavement that he was driving alongside, as he approached the entrance to the yard,” prosecutor Henry Blackshaw told jurors at Manchester Crown Court.
“The mirrors on his lorry were not set up correctly, in the way that they could and should have been, which would have contributed in his failure to notice her.”
Jurors were told Mr Devine says the cause of the collision was not ‘through his failure to accommodate her, but her failure to realise that his lorry was moving and turning into the yard, causing her to walk out in front of it’.
The court heard Mr Devine was driving a 10 metre long lorry, which requires ‘significant training’ to use.
Mr Blackshaw said driving such lorries are ‘significantly different’ to driving a car and require drivers to be vigilant about vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists being in their blind spots.
Mr Devine, of Marlborough Street, AshtonUnder-lyne, started work at 7.20am on August 6, 2019 and was approaching the Rochdale depot at about 11am.
Ms Duffy was walking on the pavement at the side of Mr Devine’s lorry, as he turned left into the depot.
She was hit then run over by the lorry.
After suffering serious injuries, she died on August 20.
When interviewed by police, Mr Devine said he hadn’t seen Ms Duffy before the collision, and said she ‘must have been in his blind spot’.
Mr Blackshaw said prosecutors rejected Mr Devine’s account, telling jurors: “Any vehicle should be aware of giving way to a pedestrian in these circumstances.”
Jurors were told that toxicology results showed there was evidence of amphetamine and cannabis in Ms Duffy’s system.
Mr Blackshaw added: “The prosecution say had she been affected by it, and to a degree in a world of her own.
“It doesn’t change anything or affect the defendant’s responsibility towards her as a pedestrian.”
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