Fire engine driver on 999 call ‘crushed father-of-three, 58, to death as he walked to shops when vehicle toppled while going too fast on a roundabout’
- Mitchell Bailey was killed 75 metres from his home in Royston, Hertfordshire
- The father-of-three, 58, was hit by a fire engine driven by David Williams, 48
- Williams was between 37.5mph and 39mph when the truck toppled over
David Williams, 48, was driving the 12-tonne vehicle when it toppled over
A firefighter killed a grandfather in a ‘totally avoidable act’ when he overturned a fire engine on a roundabout while travelling ‘too fast’ to a 999 call, a court heard.
Father-of-three Mitchell Bailey, 58, was crushed to death just 75 metres from his home in Royston, Hertforshire, as he returned from a supermarket.
Driver David WIlliams, 48, is said to have been going ‘too fast’ when he lost control of the Scania vehicle and killed the electrician instantly.
Mr Bailey was killed instantly by the 12-tonne vehicle on January 18 last year.
Opening the trial at St Albans Crown Court today, prosecutor Peter Shaw told the court how Mr Bailey was ‘blameless’ in his death.
He said Williams had been travelling between 37.5mph and 39mph when entering the roundabout.
But a police investigation found this was over the ‘maximum speed of 21.6mph for the vehicle to safely negotiate the roundabout’.
Mitchell Bailey, 58, was crushed to death just 75 metres from his home in Royston, Hertforshire
He said: ‘[Emergency services] have no exemptions from the law and are subject to the same obligations as you and I when we get behind a motor vehicle.
‘This was a totally avoidable act. The defendant was working as a firefighter and was driving a fire engine responding to a 999 call when the vehicle as he went round a roundabout.
‘He crushed a pedestrian who had been on his way home from the shop where he bought groceries.
‘He was blameless in this event. He was not walking in the road. He was walking on the pavement a mere 75 metres from his house. It was a tragic accident but it was not a deliberate act.’
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All Hertfordshire Fire Service vehicles also have the words ‘drive to arrive alive’ printed on their backs.
Williams, who appeared in court in his firefighter’s uniform, faces one charge of causing death by dangerous driving and the alternative lesser charge of causing death by careless driving.
When interviewed Williams said as he made his way around the roundabout his recollections ‘were a vague vision of what I can only assume was a person going across in front of the windscreen.’
The prosecutor said a defence expert will claim that gravel on the road had an impact on the cause of the collision.
Mr Bailey with his wife Carol. He was returning home from the supermarket when he died
He previously denied the causing death by dangerous driving at a hearing at Stevenage Magistrates Court on February 7.
Judge Stephen Warner told the jury that the the nature of the ‘fatal accident’ means the case is particularly ‘sensitive’.
He added: ‘The defendant is a firefighter and he was driving and an emergency appliance. He was involved in a fatal accident with a pedestrian and this case by its nature is a sensitive one.’
Mr Bailey’s wife of 31 years Carol and their three children Charlotte, Alyce and George, described him as a ‘loving family man’ after his death.
The electrician, described an ‘an avid Spurs fan’, also worked as a school governor.
The trial, which is set to last three weeks, will continue tomorrow.
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