Bland v Morris

Hearing dates: 12–19 January 2005

Approved Judgment

I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.

THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE JACK

Introduction

On 21 August 2000 a tragic accident occurred on the A1 a little to the north of the Wittering Service Station near Thornhaugh in Cambridgeshire. An articulated lorry struck the rear of a stationary coach. The coach was carrying forty RAF cadets and six adults returning from a day's orienteering in Wakerly Woods to RAF Wittering. Three of the cadets were killed and a number of them were injured, one very seriously. I was told that an agreement has been reached which provides for compensation to all those who were injured and to the estates of those who died. These proceedings by the lorry driver and his employers, Mr Simon Bland and Rathbones Bakeries Limited, have been brought so that the court may determine responsibility between them and the coach driver and her employers, Mrs Jeanette Morris and the Ministry of Defence. In the particulars of claim the claimants admit liability to all injured in the collision and claim a contribution from the defendants. It was made clear at the hearing that the court was concerned only with the claims for personal injuries made against the claimants and not with any claims for damages to the lorry or to the coach. There are also Part 20 proceedings brought by the defendants. In those proceedings Mrs Morris and the MoD claim a contribution from Mr Jose Tomas Penarrubia-Serrano. He was the driver of an articulated lorry which was emerging from the service station when there was a collision between its trailer and the nearside mirror of the coach. That was the reason why the coach was stationary some hundred metres beyond the exit slip road from the service station. There is no claim by the claimants against Mr Penarrubia.

In November 2001 Mrs Morris and Mr Bland were tried at the Peterborough Crown Court on three counts of causing death by dangerous driving. Mrs Morris was convicted and sentenced to 8 months imprisonment. Her appeals against conviction and sentence were dismissed by the Court of Appeal. Mr Bland was acquitted of causing death by dangerous driving but convicted of driving without due care and attention. He had accepted at the trial that he was guilty of that lesser offence. He was fined £750. Mrs Morris was disqualified from driving for 6 months, and Mr Bland for 12 months.

A further description of what occurred is as follows. The relevant part of the A1 is dual carriageway in each direction and was constructed some time ago when speeds were less and traffic less. There is a central reservation with a crash barrier. There is no hard shoulder. It is subject to speed limits of 70 mph for cars, 60 mph for coaches and 50 mph for heavy goods vehicles. The accidents occurred a little before 9.30 p.m. with a few minutes between them. It was then not quite fully dark. The road did not have lights. The service station was lit. The service station is on the left of the north bound carriageway and is situated shortly after the commencement of a gradual left hand bend. This stretch of road has a mild uphill gradient. There is a café with a large parking area for vehicles immediately to the north of the service station, sharing the same access slip roads to the A1. The slip road leading off the A1 is approximately 100 metres in length. The slip road leading back on is only half as long being only 40 metres if it is measured from where the left hand kerb begins to where the kerb joins the main carriageway. Mrs Morris was driving a Dennis Javelin 55 seater coach with 46 passengers including some adults and was going north. Mr Penarrubia was driving a left-hand drive articulated Volvo lorry. He had come from Spain and was heading for Spalding in Lincolnshire. He had pulled into the service station to ask for directions. As he recommenced his journey Mrs Morris was coming up behind him. She saw him adjacent to the carriageway at the exit from the service station moving very slowly. She saw that a part of his vehicle was protruding into the carriageway. She also saw that she was being overtaken by an articulated vehicle in the right-hand lane. As she passed, the nearside mirror of the coach struck the curtain of the offside of Mr Penarrubia's trailer close to its front. That front corner of the trailer was protruding into the carriageway because as he turned his lorry with the cab wheels adjacent to but not on the carriageway it stuck out beyond the line of the cab wheels by reason of the angle between the cab and the trailer. The mirror was pushed back into the coach door smashing the glass. There was a loud bang and glass showered into the coach. As Mrs Morris slowed to stop she asked if any one was hurt: no one was. She stopped about 100 metres beyond the point at which the collision had occurred. At that point there is a low and angled kerb to the road edge, then a grass strip and then an asphalt footpath. She may have put her nearside wheels off the road. She put the hazard warning lights on. It took a short while to open the coach door. Then she got out and went back to find the lorry driver. She met him walking back up the footpath towards her. He did not speak English and she did not speak Spanish. They walked back to the coach together. She said that everybody should get off, making a remark to the effect that they were sitting ducks on the coach. Traffic was light for the road in question but vehicles were passing regularly. Mr Bland was driving a Mercedes Actros articulated lorry going north on a daily run to deliver bread. According to him he saw an articulated vehicle in the exit from the service station protruding into the carriageway, and he also saw Mr Penarrubia's vehicle parked at the end of the exit slip road. After he had gone by, he looked back at them in his mirror and also at a car which was then coming up outside him in the off-side lane. He did not see the coach until he was very close to it. He tried to swerve past it. His cab shaved the off-side corner but the trailer following behind caught it more fully and did terrible damage. A few cadets had got off but those at the rear were still in their seats. After scraping along the central reservation Mr Bland regained control of his vehicle. He drove on to a lay-by and walked back to the coach. The lay-by in question is indicated by a sign with a large 'P' and underneath it '1/4 m'. That sign was approximately 190 metres from where Mrs Morris stopped the coach.

The eye-witnesses

In so far as it is ascertainable I will take these in the order in which they drove along the A1 going north. Mr Penarrubia attended court at the start of the trial with an interpreter but early on the decision was made by Mr Alan Jeffreys Q.C. that he would not call him to give evidence and he did not attend after the start of the second day.

Mr Anthony New was in an Iveco tractor unit parked for the night facing the exit slip road about 50 yards from it. But the café was between it and him. He saw Mr Penarrubia making his exit and heard a small bang. Three or four minutes later he heard a very loud bang. He got out to see what had caused it. He could see the hazard lights of Mr Penarrubia's vehicle. It was stationary at the junction. Then he said he saw it manoeuvring at the junction. Unless this was rather later, that cannot be right because at the time of the second collision Mr Penarrubia was by the coach. Mr New did not see a second articulated lorry at the exit.

Mrs Morris was an experienced driver holding an HGV 1 licence as well as a public service vehicle licence. She had received no training as to what to do in the event of an accident. She was very familiar with the road and she worked from RAF Wittering which is about 3 miles north of Wittering Service Station. She said that there was sufficient light for her to see the colour of other vehicles. She saw Mr Penarrubia's vehicle in the service station slip road about 150 to 200 metres ahead of her. She was travelling at about 40 mph, possibly a little more. He appeared to be moving but very slowly. She thought that he was coming out. She wanted to pull over to let him out. She saw in her off-side mirror that she was being over-taken by an articulated lorry. She assumed that Mr Penarrubia had seen her. She saw that he had encroached slightly into her lane. At some point she braked so as to lose some speed but not harshly. She said at different points in her evidence that she could have braked to a halt had she decided to, that it would have required very harsh braking, and that she did not think she could have stopped. All of that must substantially depend upon the point at which she might have begun braking to a halt. She thought she could get through. The mirror hit. There was a very loud bang and an explosion of glass. She did not know what had happened. As she slowed she asked if anybody was hurt. Nobody was. She came to a halt and put the hazard lights on. She did not see the sign indicating the lay-by ahead: if she had, she would have gone on to it. She said she parked with the...