A REDDITCH 4×4 driver who prioritised drinking coffee over keeping his eye on the road smashed head-on into an elderly couple’s car after going onto the off-side of the road on a bend.
It took fire crews an hour-and-a-half to cut 74-year-old Kenneth Alder out of the wreckage – and he suffered a fatal heart attack while later undergoing the third in a series of operations.
And because of her own devastating injuries, his wife Maureen never got to see him before he died, a judge at Warwick Crown Court heard.
The other driver, Philip Griffin, pleaded guilty to causing Mr Alder’s death in December 2019 by dangerous driving and causing serious injury to Mrs Alder.
Griffin, 32 of Himbleton Close, Lodge Park, who was drinking coffee in the cab of his Nissan Navara truck as he was driving, was jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Judge Anthony Potter, who also banned him from driving for six years and eight months, said: “He chose to prioritise his cup of coffee over keeping his eyes on the road.”
The charges follow a collision on the A4189 Henley Road near Ullenhall on December 11, 2019 when the Alders’ Ford Focus was hit by Griffin’s heavy Nissan.
Prosecutor Sharon Bahia said a couple who were behind Griffin had a dashcam which recorded his driving.
It showed the Navara crossing the central white line on no fewer than six occasions and almost hitting the nearside kerb on three occasions, as well as twice braking unnecessarily.
The couple saw a small white car ahead of Griffin pulling over, and thought the driver ‘must have been frightened’ by the driving.
There was then ‘an almighty bang’ as the Navara went close to the kerb on a left-hand bend, then onto the off-side of the road – head-on into the Alders’ Ford Focus without braking.
Mr and Mrs Alder, from Wootton Wawen, who had been married for 50 years and had been on their way home from visiting their daughter in Redditch, were both severely injured.
Mr Alder suffered devastating injuries to his pelvis, hip, chest, feet and legs, one of which had to be amputated above the knee, and while undergoing a further operation on Christmas Eve he suffered a heart attack and died.
Tragically Mrs Alder suffered such serious injuries she never got to see him before he died.
At the scene Griffin repeatedly said: “Oh my God, it’ all my fault, I could have killed them.”
And he admitted: “I took my eye off the road to look at the centre console where I had a coffee.”
Makhan Shoker, defending, said: “This is not a case of a tearaway driver who had been drinking or taking drugs, this is a man who made a major mistake on a drive home and took his eyes off the road for no more than two or three seconds.”
