Woman on trial over A4 collision which killed two
Court hears how crash led to deaths of officer and pensioner
An undercover police officer has described the ‘unbelievable’ moment he watched his friend and colleague PC James Dixon crash on his motorbike on the A4 in Hare Hatch.
Agne Jasulaitiene, 36, of Talavera Close, Crowthorne, has denied two charges of causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving after PC Dixon and 91-year-old Gladys Goodwin died in a traffic collision on December 5, 2017.
Jasulaitiene was driving a Toyota Aygo and turning right into Blakes Lane at 1.50pm when PC Dixon, driving a motorbike, was in collision with her vehicle. Mrs Goodwin was a passenger in the Toyota.
PC Dixon was taking part in a training exercise with Thames Valley Police and HMRC, and on Tuesday, Reading Crown Court heard how he was travelling at least 70mph on a 50mph section of the road.
An undercover police officer who was also taking part in the exercise, designed to train an HMRC officer in countersurveillance, was on foot on the A4 when he witnessed the crash.
Speaking from behind a screen, the officer, identified only as R21, said: “The car [the Toyota] turned right into Blakes Lane without stopping.
“I was transfixed on what was happening in front of me, I couldn’t see any reason why it wouldn’t see the bike coming.
“It was just unbelievable, I thought it can’t be happening. “I was shouting ‘no, no, no’. “The bike almost disappeared into the car, it seemed to wrap around the bike and James Dixon went up in the air.
“The car landed on its roof and I was just sprinting towards it.”
Officer R21 explained how he and a team of undercover officers, including PC Dixon, were following a car that had just pulled out of the Ladds Garden Village car park and started travelling towards Maidenhead.
R21 had been on foot but other officers were in vehicles.
The subject of their surveillance, an HMRC officer known only as ‘L’, was being trained to do undercover work overseas.
He added that both PC Dixon’s blue sirens and headlights had not been on, but there was good visibility at the time of the crash.
Defence barrister Ian Bridge told the jury that analysis showed that PC Dixon was travelling at least 70mph, 20mph over the speed limit.
He added: “That bike is a fast bike, I think it's one of the fastest production bikes.
“It’s a stealth bike, it’s designed to be hidden.”
In response, R21 said: “The idea of the bike is to not be seen.”
Later, he added: “I’d be surprised if he was not trying to catch up with the subject.”
Another witness, Karen Sutton, had been driving along the A4 to a Pilates class in Wokingham when she heard the collision.
She said: “I thought it was a bomb going off and I put my head down. I stopped and all I could hear were fragments in the air landing on the top of my car.
“I saw the car on its roof and I saw a black lump in front of it.”
She added that she didn’t remember seeing any stationary vehicles before the crash.
“I was just looking at the road ahead of me,” she said.
The trial continues.