A 96-year-old driver killed a pedestrian as he crossed the road after refusing to give up driving despite suffering from deteriorating vision. The 84-year-old victim was declared dead at the scene after being run down by the driver's Peugeot 208.
William Beer was suffering with bilateral cataracts and wet macular degeneration when he hit Illtyd Morgan in Caerphilly on April 6, 2021. He had been advised by an optician in March 2019 to give up driving, but the defendant renewed his licence after his wife was diagnosed with dementia.
A sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court on Friday heard Mr Morgan was crossing Bedwas Road at 12.15pm on a "straight and level" stretch of road. There was nothing obstructing Beer's view of the road or his victim, who had been in the road for seven seconds prior to impact.
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Following the collision, Beer was asked to read a number plate but was unable to accurately read it until he was seven metres away. The legal requirement is 20 metres. He told police Mr Morgan had run out into the road but CCTV showed the victim using a walker to cross the road.
Sentencing, Judge Richard Williams said: "At no time has medical practitioner or healthcare professional rescinded the advice you were given not to drive. At no point did you ask a medical professional or healthcare practitioner between March 2019 and the collision whether the effect of treatment was such you would be able to take up driving again.
"I am sure you have known since that visit to the opticians that you eyesight was not good enough to allow you to drive and it must have been obvious to you at all times it wasn't. This was borne out when you couldn't read the number plated until you were seven metres from it. I don't think you were truthful when you said you saw an improvement. You may have felt you were obliged to drive because you were devoted to your wife and determined to look after her yourself."
Mr Morgan, in contrast, had voluntarily given up his driving licence because of his failing eyesight. Judge Williams described the "devastating loss and devastating effect" Mr Morgan's death had had upon his wife Hazel and son Gareth, as a result of Beer's "selfish" decision to drive.
He added: "The victim's family and friend may feel cold and dispassionate discussion has taken place in court about a person loved by many who has died as a direct result of a criminal offence. The court is aware offences such as this directly involve the death of a person much loved by family and friends. Nothing the court can do can bring him back or reduce the distress family and friends have suffered."
In mitigation, defence barrister Malcolm Galloway said his client's wife died just at Christmas last year, which had left the defendant and his family in grief. He said Beer was of "impeccable" character and had been driving for 76 years prior to the collision without incident. He said Beer had worked as a driver for blood transfusion services and had worked as a coal miner during the Second World War. Since the collision, he voluntarily revoked his driving licence.
The defendant was briefly called to give evidence about his knowledge of the deterioration of his eyesight. He said he was receiving injections which he believed had improved his eyesight, but hospital records stated the treatment was to stabilise the condition, which could not improve. He said: "I thought the injections were for the purpose of healing my eyes.... That was what I thought they were doing and that was the impression it gave me when I started the injections. They didn't say at the time they were to stabilise my eyes."
Beer, of School Street, Llanbradach, was sentenced to 28 months imprisonment and disqualified from driving for six years and two months. He had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving. He will serve half the sentence in custody before being released on licence.
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