BIKER DAD KILLED BY CAR’S U-TURN
Driver spared jail for unexpected manoeuvre on busy city route
A DAD of two was killed when he crashed into a car performing an unexpected U-turn on a busy dual carriageway. Biker Paul Jones was unable to brake in time or swerve away.
A DAD of two was killed when he crashed into a car performing an unexpected U-turn on a busy dual carriageway.
Biker Paul Jones was unable to brake in time or swerve out of the way as the people carrier he was about to overtake suddenly turned across his path.
He slammed into the side of the car and was thrown through the open driver’s window.
Despite the best efforts of passers-by who rushed to the motorcyclist’s aid, as well as ambulance staff, the 50-year-old could not be saved.
Swansea Crown Court heard the driver of the people carrier, Arron William Parker, was visiting Swansea with his family at the time, and may have been distracted by loud music and a barking dog in his Ford Galaxy.
The court also heard that Mr Jones was travelling over the speed limit on his bike at the time of the crash, and had he not been doing so the collision may not have been fatal.
Paul Hobson, prosecuting, said the incident happened on Saturday, August 24, near the Recreational ground on Mumbles Road. He said Parker was visiting Swansea with his wife, three children, and pet dog on the day in question, and at around 5.20pm the family left the Rec car park in their Galaxy with the intention of going to Mumbles.
He said there was a sign at the exit indicating that traffic should turn left onto the Mumbles Road dual carriageway, with a line of bollards in the middle of the road to reinforce that message.
Parker did turn left towards town but then almost immediately swung across the road to go around the bollards and perform a U-turn to head to Mumbles.
The court heard riding along Mumbles Road towards the city centre was Mr Jones on his Kawaski motorbike.
Mr Hobson said crash investigators concluded that Mr Jones had seen the Galaxy pulling out of the car park and responded by moving across to the outside lane but the Ford unexpectedly “turned across his path, leaving him nowhere to go”. The biker carried out emergency braking and tried to swerve to the right but collided with the driver’s door, and was thrown through the partially open window.
Mr Jones, from Port Tennant, could not be saved, and he was pronounced dead at 5.50pm. The cause of death was later given as blunt head injury.
Mr Hobson said the best estimation from investigators was that the biker was travelling at 61mph at the the time of the crash - the speed limit on that stretch of Mumbles Road is 40mph. However, the experts also found that weather conditions were good, and Mr Jones on his green bike, which had its dipped headlight illuminated, “was there to be seen” by Parker had he been paying attention. They also said that there were factors which could have distracted the Ford driver including a dog barking in the vehicle, loud music playing, and the unplanned U-turn manoeuvre.
It emerged following the crash that Parker did not have a licence having been banned for six months in 2017 for failing to provide information about the driver of a vehicle. He had not applied to the DVLA to get the licence back at the end of that period.
In a statement from Mr Jones’ brother, Michael, which was read to court, he described his former bus driver sibling as a “working class, happy-golucky gentleman” with a “larger-than-life personality” who loved his family.
Parker, of Pritchard Way, Yate, Gloucestershire, had previously pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving, and to causing death while driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Jon Tarrant, for Parker, said the defendant’s remorse was “palpable” and he said his client lived every day with the knowledge that those few seconds in Swansea when he took the decision to perform a U-turn had changed the lives of many people irrevocably.
Judge Geraint Walters told Parker he had “extinguished” the life of the motorcyclist, and that impatience on the part of the driver in performing the U-turn had undoubtedly played its part.
Receiving the required one-third discount for his guilty pleas, Parker was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for two years, and was banned from driving for two years. He must pass an extended test before he can get his licence back.