Off-duty Penrith ambulance driver caused death crash on M6
Jesse Rees, 27, who was driving home after finishing his shift, claimed that the tragedy happened when he tried to retrieve his phone after dropping it.
But an analysis showed that the defendant was actively using the phone for at least 76 seconds in the run-up to the collision with motorcyclist John Stanley, 76, who was gravely injured when Rees’s van ran into his Honda 90cc motorbike.
His injuries were so severe doctors could not save him and he died in a Newcastle hospital the next after his life-support machine was turned off.
His family hope the tragedy will highlight the grave dangers of drivers using phones behind he wheel.
The defendant, of Brougham Street, Penrith, who was described in court as a paramedic, pleaded guilty on June 27 to causing the pensioner’s death by dangerous driving.
At Carlisle[1] Crown Court, prosecutor Tim Evans described what happened.
The defendant was driving his Peugeot Bipper van southwards towards Penrith where he lives on Sunday, April 23, on the inside lane of the M6 shortly after 8pm, having finished his shift working as a “paramedic”.
Mr Stanley was riding his Honda Cub 90cc in the same direction but ahead of Rees. The events leading up to the crash were witnessed by a woman who was also driving south with her husband.
She recalled seeing the defendant’s white van, and ahead of it “an old motorbike.”
She told police: “What caught my eye was how close the van was from the back of the motorbike. I looked at the pair and wondered if the van was about to pull out and overtake.”
But the van kept getting closer.
She then saw the tragedy unfold, shouting to her husband: “Oh my God: I think he’s going to hit him” and then: “He’s hit him.”
Mr Evans outlined how an expert who analysed the defendant’s phone concluded that he had deliberately unlocked his phone and, for around 76 seconds, had accessed, opening and closing, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and YouTube.
He sent no messages but the expert said the apps concerned are generally viewed. The expert rejected Rees’s claim that he simply dropped and fumbled to retrieve his phone because he feared it would go under the van’s pedals.
A number of “positive steps” were needed to open and close the apps, he said. The defendant, who has no previous convictions, tried to help the victim after the crash.
The court then heard a victim impact statement from Mr Stanley’s son Geoff, speaking on behalf of the entire family. Mr Stanley was a husband, a dad, a grandfather, and a dear friend to all, and loved by all who knew him, he said.
On the weekend of his death, he was returning from a classic motorcycle convention in Scotland, where he pursued both that interest and his passion for photography.
Woken by a call at midnight on April 23, Geoff Stanley said he was told his father had been in a collision, and in a “serious way and unlikely to survive.”
He and other family members were with him when Mr Stanley’s life support machine was switched off the following day at 2.50pm.
“Dad was simply our world,” he said. Mr Stanley senior’s wife – always a strong independent woman – was left fearful of driving and worried when family members were driving. Her husband had been her world and life would never again be the same.
He added: “Whatever sentence the judge passes, it will never make it right for our family; we have already been given a life sentence – life without our dad.”
Anthony Parkinson, defending, said the defendant (pictured below) had been a man of positive previous good character, as shown by character references from his employer.
The author of his pre-sentence report said Rees found it hard to come to terms with his offence given that his job was helping those who are ill and saving lives.
The tragedy had a “significant impact” on Rees and he had expressed a “high level of remorse.”
Noting the defendant’s manipulation of his phone while driving, when he accessed the apps Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and YouTube, Judge Nicholas Barker told Rees: “Your attention should have been focused on the road.”
That was why he had not seen Mr Stanley and why there was no braking. His job with the ambulance service would have made him aware of the dangers of drivers using their phones.
Mr Stanley had been living his retirement to the full, and was a person who was central to the life of his family, said the judge, noting that his relatives were inconsolable. Judge Barker also noted the defendant’s remorse and his two and a half years with the ambulance service.
But he added: “The message must be clear to all road users that using a mobile phone while driving is a highly dangerous action and puts others at grave risk. Here, I am satisfied that it caused the death of John Stanley.”
He jailed Rees for 40 months and imposed a 92 month ban. The defendant must pass an extended test before driving independently again.
After the case, Geoff Stanley thanked Cumbria Police for their work and support, saying: “We hope this conviction will act as a stark reminder of the importance of not using a mobile phone while driving and help prevent other families from going through the heartache we are experiencing.”
The Stanley family hail from the village of Idle, near Bradford. Mr John Stanley always regarded himself as a “proud Yorkshireman,” added his son.