Driver, 71, hit and killed man after losing attention for ‘a second or two’

A 71-year-old driver killed a man after knocking him from his bike, causing a broken back and a blood clot.

Joan Martino was driving her new Toyota Rav 4, when she hit Christopher Holt in the early hours of May 11, 2016.

Martino and Christopher, 58, were both travelling in Essex when the fatal collision occured.

Mr Holt, from nearby Hornchurch, was wearing a high-visibility vest and had been only 150 metres from work when Martino's Toyota was seen to "drift" towards the kerb.

The car knocked Mr Holt off his bike, sending him flying into the air before he hit the bonnet and rolled into the road, the court was told.

The defendant stopped at the scene and appeared to be "shaky and in shock".

Prosecutor Ben Temple had said: "As a result of the collision, Christopher Holt suffered a fracture to his spine. As a result of that injury, he suffered a pulmonary embolism and died."

Martino, 71, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, denied causing the death of Mr Holt by careless driving, saying she did not see him until he hit the bonnet.

She told jurors she had been at the house of her recently deceased aunt, Rose, before the collision.

She went to bed early and set off home to Lowestoft, on the Suffolk coast, at around 4am to avoid the traffic, driving a Rav 4 she had got just a week earlier.

Describing the collision, the mother-of-five – who has fostered another 35 children, said: "It was just a split second and that man was on my bonnet."

A jury found her guilty of causing death by careless driving.

Judge Sarah Munro QC told jurors that the victim's family had attended court throughout the trial and "from their perspective this is an absolute tragedy".

She indicated that she would not jail the defendant when she sentenced her later.

She told the court the offence resulted from "a second or two moments" inattention from a lady with an impeccable driving record" and there was no dispute it fell into the lowest category.

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