A PENRITH woman has wept in court after she was acquitted of a charge which had alleged her careless driving caused the death of a pensioner following a collision at a town road junction.

Susan Strong, 49, went on trial at Carlisle Crown Court this week after being prosecuted following a tragedy which occurred on October 14, 2019.

Mrs Strong, a woman of good character with a clean driving licence, was travelling south along Penrith’s Victoria Road in a white Alfa Romeo.

She slowed when approaching red traffic lights, continued moving after they changed to green and then later told police she briefly “glanced left” to check a northbound access road she knew was often used by motorists as a “cut through”.

But as she began her turn into Southend Road, 77-year-old pedestrian Kathleen Boddy was stepping on to a pedestrian crossing.

Two collision investigators concluded by that point, a collision captured on leisure centre CCTV was “almost inevitable”.

Shocked eyewitnesses described seeing the impact, at which point Mrs Strong was travelling at a speed of around 21mph, which was deemed appropriate by the collision experts.

Mrs Boddy was taken to hospital, underwent brain surgery but died four days later as a result of her injuries.

Mrs Strong, of Pearson Court, Penrith, denied causing her death by careless driving.

She told police: “If I’d been aware of Mrs Boddy, if she’d been in my sight, in my vision, I would have stopped. But there was nothing, no warning that I could see her. I couldn’t see her.”

She added: “To the lady’s family, I’m absolutely devastated, I really am.”

Jurors heard how, following the incident, changes were made to the pedestrian lights’ set-up at that particular junction as it was felt they had the potential to be “confusing” and “misleading” to those on foot.

The police collision expert accepted there were “a number of hazards” for drivers to assess when approaching the junction.

But a driver’s priority, he concluded, should be the pedestrian crossing.

A defence expert, meanwhile, felt that finding was “over-simplifying” the incident. He concluded Strong was faced with a considerable “driver workload” and a “plethora” of things to deal with at a junction that might, he said, be deemed a “forest of traffic lights and signs”.

After the prosecution closed their case, defence barrister Kim Whittlestone submitted to Judge Nicholas Barker that there was insufficient evidence on which a jury could find Mrs Strong guilty.

After taking a short break, Judge Barker agreed and announced his ruling was that there was insufficient evidence.

At the judge’s direction, a jury foreman formally returned a verdict of not guilty and an emotional Mrs Strong was told she could leave the dock.

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