Truro Crown Court sentencing for Cornwall head on collision

Before Truro Crown Court for sentencing today (Friday) was Russell Hitchcock, who had previously pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving, and causing serious injury by careless driving. It was after his truck was involved in a fatal collision on April 27, 2023. The driver in the other car was 17-year-old Alisha Osman, who had only passed her driving test ten days earlier.

She was an agriculture student at Duchy College Stoke Climsland, near Callington, and on the day of the crash had returned to pick up a friend, as it was raining and she didn't want her to get wet. Both were in Alisha's Vauxhall Corsa as they travelled back to home in Okehampton. As they neared the village of Treburley, on the A388 between Callington and Launceston, the Ford Transit Flatbed truck being driven by Hitchcock crossed onto their side of the road, causing a head on collision.

Landscape architect Hitchcock had been travelling from Bude back home to Plymouth at the time. He later told police that he could not explain why his truck had veered onto the other side of the road, saying he remembered travelling up a slight incline and the next thing he remembered was being on the other side of the road. He was described as being "tearful and shaking," and appeared to be in shock.

Hitchcock did say he had started to feel "drowsy" earlier in the journey, but had opened his window for fresh air and felt fine again, so had continued driving. Blood tests showed an antihistamine that he had taken for hay fever, although the pathologist said this was unlikely to have had any effect on his ability to drive. In a police statement, the driver travelling directly behind Hitchcock said there was "nothing out of the ordinary" about his driving, or anything that caused concern prior to the collision.

She described the moment the truck went onto the other side of the road as "sudden and unexpected," causing her to apply emergency braking, which was followed by a "loud bang." Prosecutor Jason Beal said Alisha suffered an "unsurvivable head injury", while her passenger, who was 16 at the time, suffered serious chest injuries and spent three days in intensive care, undergoing a series of operations. Motorists travelling in both directions stopped to try and help, and emergency services were called, but there was nothing anyone could do to save Alisha.

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, Alisha's mum Angela said her daughter loved farming and in particular lambing, which she helped with at a local farm. She described the family's loss as "unimaginable", saying: "No parent thinks that when their child leaves for school that they will never return. You simply expect them to come back.

Alisha did not; she never came back." She went on to say that they were "stuck in endless grief," adding: "Where is our justice and why has this taken so long? I wish I had been there for her, and I wish it had been me.

"We will never come to terms with the loss of Alisha. We think about her every day. "We don't enjoy anything.

We don't celebrate anything. We just exist in a hollow body." Alisha's friend, who was the passenger in the car, also said in an impact statement that she suffered from flashbacks and post traumatic stress as a result of the crash.

"Over the last 18 months I've had to try and overcome many things that no 16-year-old should have to deal with," she added. Katie Church, representing Hitchcock, said the now 45-year-old had "deep and genuine remorse for what happened." She said there was "no suggestion he was driving with any excess speed or impairment at all" and he couldn't explain what happened.

"It seems fair to say on his behalf that he is haunted by what happened that day. He is punishing himself every day for what happened, re-living the events of that day, and continues to suffer flashbacks and nightmares," she added. Judge Simon Carr said Hitchcock had experienced a "momentary but catastrophic loss of control of the vehicle" that led to what happened, and he showed genuine remorse.

He sentenced Hitchcock to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered that he carried out 240 hours of unpaid work.

The judge also disqualified Hitchcock from driving for two years.