Judge’s hands-free phone warning after biker killed

Driver faces prison after she hit motorcyclist while talking to a friend and drifting across the road

A JUDGE has warned of the dangers of using hands-free mobile phones while driving, after a woman became distracted during a 20-minute, “in depth” conversation and killed a motorcyclist. Samantha Ayres was still mid-conversation with a friend when her Ford Fiesta drifted on to the wrong side of the road and smashed head-on into David Kirk, 26.

Ayres, 34, claimed she had lost control when she hit a pothole or verge on the rural Lincolnshire road. But a police investigation found no evidence to support her claim and detectives concluded she had probably become distracted by her hands-free call.

Ayres, who had denied causing death by dangerous driving, broke down in tears when the jury returned its guilty verdict after an hour at Lincoln Crown Court. The judge said a prison sentence was inevitable, as he warned of the dangers of using hands-free kits, which are legal, while driving.

Judge John Pini QC said: “There has to be an immediate custodial sentence. The fact that using a phone (handsfree) is lawful does not alter the fact it is an actual distraction. The guidelines make that clear.” Mr Kirk, a father of a two-year-old daughter, suffered catastrophic injuries in the accident, and died at the scene. His widow, Katie, was in court to see Ayres convicted.

Phone records showed that Ayres, a former admin worker, had made four “hands-free” voice calls during her journey home from work in Boston, Lincolnshire, on November 7 last year.

The court heard she was having a lengthy “in-depth” conversation with a male friend, Marc Lunn, in the lead up to the collision. In a moving statement issued after the verdict, Mr Kirk’s widow, Katie, a nursery worker, said: “That night changed my life and me. I learnt what a broken heart feels like and now understand when people talk about losing someone can cause physical pain. I couldn’t go back to our house in Lincoln, it hurt too much to be there. We stayed with my grandma, she cared for Alyssa while I couldn’t. I couldn’t look at Alyssa, she looks so much like Dave, it hurt to see her, it still does.

“She doesn’t understand what happened, she thinks her daddy went to work and hasn’t come back. After two days she woke up and shouted, ‘daddy.’

“She will have abandonment anxiety for years until she understands what happened and that her daddy was taken from us and that he would never have left her by choice. Alyssa now has to grow up without her father. She will always be the ‘girl whose father is dead.’

“Alyssa has a lot of milestones to pass now without her daddy, things that every dad should be able to do with their daughter, first day at school, first day at ballet, learning to swim, going to school prom, graduation and walking her down the aisle at her wedding.”