Driver gets community order for M4 death crash
Published 12 May 2011 17:00
A MOTORIST who smashed into the back of a slow moving car on the M4, killing its 80-year-old Woodley driver, has been given a community service order and banned from the road for 18 months.
Pensioner Dennis Scott, from Warren Road, was with his wife in their Vauxhall Astra when the head gasket blew between junctions 12 and 13. As they rapidly lost speed, Christopher Scarle failed to react and smashed into them in his Audi at 76mph, ramming the Astra across the road into the central reservation.
Mr Scott was pronounced dead at the scene and his 84-year-old wife, Catherine, was seriously injured and still requires constant care.
Scarle, 53, of Wembdon Rise, Bridgewater, Somerset, was cleared of causing death by dangerous driving by a Reading Crown Court last month. But he admitted the lesser charge of death by careless driving and sentenced to 140 hours' community service, to be completed in 12 months. He was banned from driving for 18 months with £350 costs.
Following the hearing the Scotts' sons, Neil and Iain, released a statement, which said: "Nothing will compensate us for the tragic loss of our father or for the injuries sustained by our mother. After an active life, she is now effectively paralysed and totally reliant on others for all her daily needs, and it is unlikely that she will ever leave the nursing home.
"We would like to thank everyone who did their best for our mother at the scene of the accident, including the off-duty medical personnel who happened to be there at the time, the South Central Ambulance crews, the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance crew, staff at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, the staff at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading and the staff at her current nursing home in Reading.
"We would also like to thank the Roads Policing Unit at Thames Valley Police for all their support. This chapter is closed and we now need to continue to support our mother and look after her affairs."
Sgt Paul Coleman, from the Three Mile Cross police traffic unit, said: "In this case, as a result of the driver failing to react to events ahead, a family has lost their father, and their mother has suffered serious injuries which have changed her life and their lives forever."
This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 13 May 11
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