A van driver on trial for causing death by careless driving told a jury he did not see a pedestrian before knocking her down. Jordan Reames-Williams accepts he caused the death of 65-year-old Kim Blake, also known as Kim Haile, but denies a charge of causing death by careless driving.
Ms Blake suffered non-life-threatening injuries when she was hit by the van but subsequently suffered a fatal heart attack. The trial is taking place at Newport Crown Court.
Rugby trip plan
Giving evidence, the 33-year-old defendant said that on Saturday, January 18, last year he was due to play rugby for Newbridge RFC in its away fixture against Neath. He told the court he left his house on Church Street in Blaina intending to drive his works van to the Newbridge ground to get the team bus to Neath, and planned to pick up the Newbridge coach on the way.
Reames-Williams said he put his kit bag in the van using the side door, checked Church Street for cars and pedestrians, checked there was nobody at the nearby bus stop, and checked there were no cars pulling out of Cross Street. He said his intention was to reverse his Ford Transit into Cross Street to turn the vehicle around, adding: "It was quiet; there was nobody around; it [Cross Street] was relatively close to where I was parked."
CCTV footage
The court heard that as the defendant prepared to move his van, Ms Blake was seen on CCTV walking up steps towards Church Street. At the top of the steps she turned left and walked along the pavement until moving into the road to step around a car blocking her way. She then took a diagonal route across Church Street before walking parallel with the road towards Cross Street.
Reames-Williams reversed his van, then pulled forward to "straighten up" the vehicle, then began to reverse down Church Street towards Cross Street. Moments later he struck the back of Ms Blake as she walked in the same direction, knocking her to the ground.
In response to questions, the defendant said he was looking in both his nearside and offside mirrors, but had "more focus" on the nearside as that was closest to the curb. The barrister said it was an agreed fact that Ms Blake had been in the "blind spot" behind the van when the collision occurred, and asked if he had seen her entering the road or walking diagonally across it. The defendant replied: "I did not see her at any point."
Collision aftermath
Asked about the first moments after the collision, the defendant said: "I started the van going back slowly - barely releasing the clutch... I felt a resistance and I was not sure what it was. Logically, I thought the gas board had been doing work and maybe a child had thrown a traffic cone up. I thought something was under the van so I pulled forward... I looked in the mirror and saw a pair of trainers and realised what had happened."
The defendant said when he spoke to Ms Blake she was conscious, and he said he got blankets off his bed to cover her while staff in the nearby hairdressers also provided blankets. The court heard that at 1.23pm, some two hours after the collision, Ms Blake was pronounced dead at the scene. Asked if he was still present when she died, the defendant said "I was, yes."
The tight-head prop was then cross-examined by Andrew Kendall for the prosecution. The defendant confirmed his works van was a long wheel base model without reversing cameras or parking sensors, and that the only view to the rear was provided by the wing mirrors. He agreed that when reversing a vehicle of that type and size, a driver would have to take more care than one would when reversing a smaller van or one fitted with cameras and sensors.
The barrister put it to the defendant that Ms Blake had been walking on the offside pavement for some 6.4 seconds and that the reason he had not seen her was because he was "focusing a bit too much" on the nearside mirror. The defendant replied: "I think I was concentrating more on the curb line but I was also checking my offside mirror." The barrister put it to him that he was not "checking the offside sufficiently, or at all," which the defendant denied.
The prosecution barrister then put it to the defendant that he hadn't needed to reverse the van along Church Street at all, and Reames-Williams said: "At the time I walked around the van there were no pedestrians... I considered it the most convenient way to turn the van." The barrister said: "That's what it was - convenient. Doing it wasn't a necessity, was it. It was all about what was convenient for you wasn't it." The defendant replied: "Yes."
The defendant confirmed he had been reversing against the direction of traffic flow on the street, and the barrister asked if he considered that a "risky thing to do" given the restricted rear view. The defendant said if a car had pulled onto the road from High Street or Cross Street he would have seen it in his mirrors. The barrister put it to him that he "should not have been reversing up that street at all," to which the defendant replied: "I didn't think I was breaking the law."
Jordan James Reames-Williams, of Church Street, Blaina, denies causing death by careless driving, and the trial continues.
