A 79-YEAR-OLD man was killed when an inexperienced young driver on the wrong side of the road collided with his car head-on in what was described as ‘a tragic set of circumstances’.
Appearing at Llanelli Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (Sept 20) 18-year-old Hanna Siriol Lewis of Llandovery pleaded guilty to one charge of causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving.
The court heard that on August 29 last year, Lewis had visited Llansteffan beach with friends, and was driving her Audi A1 on the B4312 to Johnstown when she went round a bend on the wrong side of the road, colliding head on with Bryan Smithers’ Rover 400.
Mr Smithers, a popular member of the Llanybri community, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 65-page forensic accident report failed to determine the speed at which the vehicles were travelling on the road, which has a 60mph speed limit, but defence solicitor Gareth Walters noted that re-enactments had shown that the bend became unsafe at speeds of around 52mph.
A passenger in Lewis’ car also suffered serious injuries in the collision, including a broken wrist, punctured lung, and fractured vertebrate. A victim impact statement said that she was unable to work for six months and didn’t qualify for sick pay because of her age.
District Judge Christopher James noted that Lewis had only been 17 when the collision happened, and due to the nature of the offence, the time it had taken to come to court meant that she had crossed ‘a significant age threshold’.
The court heard that Lewis had only passed her test in May of that year, and it was suggested by prosecutor Sian Vaughan that she could have been distracted by her passengers.
Mr Walters agreed that Lewis’ lack of driving experience and previous clean character were mitigating factors, but the aggravating factors were the very nature of the offence and the injuries suffered by her passenger.
District Judge James deemed that his sentencing powers were likely to be insufficient, and Lewis will appear at Swansea Crown Court on October 12 for sentencing. She was released on unconditional bail until then.
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