Deadly driving charge for running out of fuel on M-way
A WOMAN who ran out of petrol before a fatal crash on a motorway went on trial yesterday accused of causing death by dangerous driving.
Tammy Langton, 32, was charged after her passenger Laura Cooper, 35, died in the m25 accident. The case is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.
Langton’s nissan note ran out of fuel and became stranded near junction 27 in Essex. miss Cooper, who was sitting in the back seat, was killed when their car was hit by a lorry pulling a trailer.
Prosecutors argued Langton was culpable as she knew the car did not have enough petrol yet still made the journey to London from Leicester.
‘The car being driven by Tammy Langton ran out of petrol on the m25,’ mark Halsey told the Chelmsford Crown Court jury. ‘we say she knew that was going to happen. The car was driving in a dangerous condition.
‘It was foreseeable it would run out of petrol and would be stranded in the nearside lane and the consequences of her driving the car in that condi- tion played a significant part in bringing about the fatal collision and causing the fatal collision.’
mr Halsey said that Langton had carried on driving when the fuel warning light was on, and she had said while still in Leicester to front seat passenger Yasmin Fry ‘there isn’t enough petrol to get back to London’.
The court was told there was no hard shoulder or lights at the point where the accident happened in the early hours of march 29, 2016.
Langton, from Blackheath in London, is on trial along with the driver of the lorry, Anthony Cheshire, 63, from Telford in Shropshire.
Both deny causing death by dangerous and careless driving, and causing serious injury to miss Fry by dangerous driving.
Cheshire was 30 seconds behind Langton’s nissan and at the wheel of an articulated lorry. Jurors were told Langton’s car was sticking into the slow lane when struck by the front nearside of his HGV. The impact caused the nissan to hit the crash barrier and bounce back, only to be struck again by the middle of the lorry’s trailer.
After the crash Cheshire said he had ‘suddenly’ seen the nissan in front of him. mr Halsey said his driving was far below the expected standard.
Cheshire further denies causing serious injury to Langton by dangerous driving. She has also denied causing death by careless driving when unfit through drugs. The trial continues.