A young driver who was speeding while delivering a pizza and killed a pedestrian has avoided an immediate jail sentence. Rosie Hanson, 21, was handed a 16-month prison term, suspended for two years, at Maidstone Crown Court on Thursday for causing the death by careless driving of Ryan Phillips on January 17 2024.
The 27-year-old victim was walking to a nearby restaurant with his girlfriend Sophie Rowe to celebrate passing his apprenticeship as an IT technician. At around 6.40pm, while “chatting and laughing” on the pavement along Marine Parade in Sheerness, Kent, they were struck by Hanson’s VW Golf.
Details of the incident
Prosecutor Tom Nicholson told the court that Ms Rowe was hit in her legs, then ran over to Mr Phillips and saw blood coming from his mouth. A post-mortem examination revealed a strike to his head on the car’s windshield, described as a “completely unsurviveable head injury from the outset”.
Hanson got out of her car and called 999, saying she had hit someone while delivering pizza and thought a cat had run into the road, “causing her to swerve up onto the curb”. Mr Nicholson said evidence from Hanson’s iPhone showed she was travelling in excess of the 40mph speed limit, reaching approximately 54 to 68mph moments before losing control. He added that her account of seeing an animal was “difficult to confirm or negate”.
“At the speed Ms Hanson was travelling, combined with the abrupt steering response, led to the vehicle becoming unstable, and resulted in her overreacting to the situation, and instigating a clockwise rotation, crossing the opposing lane, mounting the pavement and colliding with Mr Phillips and Ms Rowe,” he said.
Court proceedings and sentence
The court heard Hanson worked for her father in an admin job and also worked for a pizza company on an ad hoc basis. Sentencing her, Judge Julian Smith found Hanson was driving at around 60mph following expert analysis. “The reason for tragic loss is failure in Rosie Hanson’s driving,” he said. “Speeding to get a job done to deliver pizzas is stupid, but it is not of itself malicious… it should not happen.”
Hanson was also sentenced to nine months’ concurrently for driving while uninsured, as her cover did not include business or professional use for her second job. The judge emphasised her sentence is “no measure” of a man’s life but of her culpability, and adjusted it to reflect her young age of 19 at the time. “There is to my mind a realistic prospect of rehabilitation. I accept she is a low risk of re-offending and is in no way a danger,” the judge added.
Judge Smith acknowledged the impact of Mr Phillips’ death is “extraordinary and ongoing”, with a statement from Ms Rowe painting a picture of a “warm, enthusiastic and generous man”.
Victim impact statements
In victim impact statements read to court by Ms Rowe, she said the couple had been together for nearly four years and were planning to move in together. Mr Phillips was “very, very excited” about his new dream job working in IT in a prison. “The night before he passed away he said he planned to save for an engagement ring and this made me so happy,” she said. “We’d been waiting for that extra step in Ryan’s life, (he’d) finally achieved something he wanted to do.”
She described her partner as a “gentle giant who would do anything for anyone”, adding: “Losing Ryan has ruined my life. I intended to spend the rest of my life with him. I feel like I cannot do this anymore because he was everything to me.”
Mr Phillips’ mother Catherine Phillips said he was not just her son, but “best friend”, and one of the most “selfless people” you could ever meet. “All that future has been taken away in an instant,” she said. “My life has fallen apart. I struggle every day just to get through. Grief is constant and overwhelming, the silence he has left behind is unbearable. I will carry this pain, this loss for the rest of my life.”
She also expressed frustration that Hanson was allowed to go home the night Mr Phillips died rather than being arrested at the scene, and that she was charged by email.
Defence and remorse
Hanson’s lawyer, Allan Goh, said the sentencing was the first opportunity for Hanson to express her feelings towards Mr Phillips’ family and she indicates genuine remorse. In a letter read to the judge, Hanson said: “I am writing you this letter to express my deepest apologies to you, Ryan’s family and friends. I can’t put it into words how sorry I am this ever happened and if I could go back and change it, I would in seconds. For what I have seen social media, Ryan you sounded like a lovely man which haunts me.”
The defendant, of Mimosa Avenue, Minster-on-Sea, Sheerness, had previously denied causing death by careless driving, before changing her plea and admitting causing death while uninsured in May. The judge also ordered her to complete 220 hours of unpaid work and disqualified her from driving for three years, subject to passing an extended driving test.
