PC found guilty of careless driving after injuring woman in on-duty crash
However, firearms officer Pc Dean Dobson[1] was found guilty of careless driving at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Thursday. Stafford-based Dobson was in tears in the dock as he told the jury he had “made a huge mistake”. Judge Simon Ward fined Dobson GBP300 and put seven points on his driving licence.
Pc Dobson was responding to a call about men with machetes in a pub at 11.45pm on April 7 last year when he crashed in Penn, Wolverhampton. Hyundai driver Chantel Jassi suffered a broken leg and bruising as a result of the crash, which happened at the Penn Road[2] and Rookery Lane junction. Ms Jassi had been on her way to collect a relative when her car was struck while travelling correctly on green lights before the junction.
Judge Ward said no sentence could make up for the injuries sustained by Ms Jassi who was treated at New Cross Hospital after the crash. Dobson could not be found guilty of causing injury by careless driving as this law was created after the incident happened. So the jury found him guilty of careless driving.
He had denied the charge of causing injury by dangerous driving but did admit on the stand he was driving carelessly.
The officer said the unmarked response car’s sirens along with the blue lights were switched on at the time of the collision and that he did not notice the red light which was closer to him as he was focussed on the green light at the Coalway Road junction further up the road.
References
- ^ Dean Dobson (www.expressandstar.com)
- ^ Penn Road (www.expressandstar.com)