Driver killed teen while using app to track down wife
Kenneth Wallace was using a mobile phone to find his ‘cheating’ partner when he struck a moped rider
A DRIVER killed a teenage moped rider after he was distracted by using his mobile phone to track down his “cheating” wife, a court heard.
Kenneth Wallace, 53, was continu- ously looking down at a tracking app which he had fitted on his phone as he sped north on the A1 to confront his wife, Sarah.
The PR consultant was also sending text messages and searching Google shortly before his E-Class MercedesBenz struck moped rider Calum Dowers, 17, near Grantham, Lincs.
Lincoln Crown Court heard Wallace, who believed his wife was meeting a man at a pub in Southwell, Notts, had fitted a tracking device to her car and was heading up the A1 from the cou- ple’s Cambridgeshire home to find her. Calum, who was waiting to join the RAF after passing his entry exams, was returning to his home in Stapleton, Leics, after visiting his girlfriend when witnesses described seeing Wallace “speed off ” following the collision.
The court heard that Calum was riding safely on the inside lane of the A1 when Wallace sped past other traffic at 90mph and knocked the teenager from his bike after failing to indicate that he was changing lanes. Moments later Calum was struck by a lorry and he died on the way to hospital in an ambulance. The court heard that one police investigator believed that if Wallace had stopped and helped Calum when the collision happened at 10.30pm he may not have died.
When police in Northamptonshire arrested Wallace the following morning he was significantly over the drink drive limit. The court was told that he later admitted placing a tracker on his wife’s car after discovering she had been having an affair for two years.
In a victim impact statement read out in court, Calum’s mother, Kerry Dowers, said: “We all miss him terribly. His death will haunt us for the rest of our lives.”
Wallace, now of Stamford, Lincs, admitted causing death by dangerous driving on September 13 last year. He was yesterday jailed for four-and-half years and banned from driving for nine years and three months.
Passing sentence, Judge John Pini QC said other recent cases had highlighted the problems of using mobile phones behind the wheel.
“The public should have got the message,” he added.