Driver ‘was on phone seconds before fatal crash’

A DRIVER who ran over and killed the mother of Olympic medallist Chris Boardman was on the phone to his wife seconds before the crash, a court has heard.

Liam and Victoria Rosney, both 32, deny perverting the course of justice by deleting records of the calls, made seconds before Carol Boardman was hit by Mr Rosney’s car on July 16, 2016.

Mr Rosney, of Welland Drive in Connah’s Quay, North Wales, denies causing her death by dangerous driving, as well as an alternative count of causing death by careless driving.

Mold Crown Court heard Mrs Boardman, 75, suffered multiple injuries when she was hit by Mr Rosney’s Mitsubishi pick-up truck after falling from her bike.

John Philpotts, prosecuting, said Mrs Boardman was hit by the vehicle on a mini-roundabout at the junction of Mold Road and Ffordd Llanarth in Connah’s Quay. Mr Philpotts said: “It’s the prosecution case that Liam Rosney had time to see Mrs Boardman and to stop in time to avoid driving over her as he did, but he clearly did neither of those things.”

The court heard that phone provider records showed four calls between Mr Rosney and his wife in the run-up to the crash, with the last one terminated four seconds before the crash is calculated to have happened.

The calls did not appear on the log of his phone, which was recovered by police from Mrs Rosney at the scene after the crash. When Mrs Rosney’s phone was seized by police, all calls from the date of the collision and before had been deleted from the call log.

Mr Philpotts said: “As I’ve told you more than once, Liam Rosney’s speed leading up to the collision was perfectly reasonable.

“There’s no suggestion, I repeat, that he was under the influence of drink or drugs.”

The trial is expected to last a week.