A DRIVER who went straight on at a bend, hitting a woman walking her dog and leaving her paralysed from the chest down, has been jailed for ten months.
Victim Sheila Vale was thrown onto the bonnet of Mark Davies’s car and into a hedge before landing on the road near her home in Sambourne.
And the severe brain and spinal injuries she suffered have left her in a wheelchair and ‘camping out’ in the dining room of her home, unable to get upstairs even to have a shower.
Davies, 56, of Ballard Way, Inkberrow, was jailed for ten months and disqualified for two years and five months after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Prosecutor Simon Hunka said that at 7.25am on October 25, 2019 Mrs Vale, then a 49-year-old maths teacher, was taking her dog for a walk along Jill Lane, Sambourne.
It was a regular route, and although it was light by then, she was wearing a high-vis jacket, had a torch attached to her, and the dog had a flashing collar to make them visible.
Davies was driving along Jill Lane, which has a 50mph speed limit, in the opposite direction in his Ford Ecosport SUV on his way to Studley swimming pool.
Mr Hunka said that Davies had suffered from Parkinson’s Disease since he was 30, and was allowed to keep his licence after informing the DVLA in 1999, but was subject to a renewal procedure every three years.
He was doing an estimated 47mph along a straight stretch of road as he approached a gradual left-hand bend.
Davies would have had an uninterrupted view of Mrs Vale, who was on the outside of the bend for some 250 metres.
Although she would have been visible for eight seconds, Davies appeared not to have seen her or the slight bend because, with his cruise control set, he went straight on without slowing.
Mrs Vale cannot recall what happened, but Davies told police he saw ‘a flash of a high-vis jacket on his bonnet,’ which then slid down.
He stopped to try to help the injured woman, who had been thrown into the hedge.
There was skin and hair on the damaged windscreen of his car.
As a result of the impact Mrs Vale suffered a traumatic brain injury and damage to her spine, and is now paralysed from the chest down.
Mrs Vale told the court she had always been an active person, and as well as being a teacher for 26 years had acted as a mentor for junior teachers.
She said: “This walk was one I have done with my grandson strapped to the front of me, a thought I don’t wish to reflect on now, given what happened to me that morning.”
She said she struggled to survive in the six weeks after the incident, and ‘had to learn to eat again, to chew and swallow without choking,’ and felt anger that, as a maths teacher, she found she could not count.
“Teaching was my vocation, to work with future generations, to make them believe they could aim for the moon, and if they missed, to still be with the stars.”
And Mrs Vale spoke of the pain of learning, in April last year, that she was paralysed – at a time when her family could not visit her because of Covid restrictions, when ‘all I needed was a hug from my husband and daughters.’
She added that since going home in June last year, she has been ‘camping out’ in the dining room because she is unable to get upstairs, and has had to rely on bed-baths.
Tim Pole, defending, said: “Mr Davies knows his actions caused that tragedy, and he has acknowledged that fact.
“His thoughts, as will everyone’s, remain firmly with Sheila Vale and her family. He has expressed his deep sorrow and remorse, and I publicly reiterate that sentiment.”
Mr Pole said that Davies, who suffers from advanced Parkinson’s Disease, faces ‘significant challenges,’ and has to take 18 different medications a day to control it.
Jailing Davies, Judge Anthony Potter told him: “Being in charge of a car is a privilege, and it comes with responsibilities, because the consequence of losing concentration when driving can be catastrophic.”
