A driver left a much-loved mother-of-two fatally injured when he ploughed into a taxi in Hucknall. Kathleen Hinsley, 77, was wounded as her husband of 48 years, Brian Hinsley, helped her get into a grey Skoda taxi parked up by her regular driver, Chris Bills, outside the couple's home in Annesley Road, Hucknall.
Nottingham Magistrates' Court heard the crash happened when another driver, Richard Clarke, was on the same road. Mr Bills's car was parked half on and half off the pavement.
Clarke, in a silver-coloured Vauxhall Insignia with his unrestrained Weimaraner dog, lost control in seconds when he was distracted by his hound on the morning of November 3, 2021. Mr Bills saw Clarke's car veer in an "almost deliberate manner" into his lane and drive straight towards him as he sat in the driver's seat.
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The Insignia crashed into the driver's side, trapping him in the car. "I remember looking back in the rear seat of my car and seeing Kathleen lying facedown in the rear passenger footwell, and she was groaning. Brian was face-up, lying across the back seats," his statement read.
Clarke jumped out of his car and he looked into the back seat of Mr Bills's car and his face dropped in fright and he swore and went quiet. Then he moved to the front of his car and was trying to calm down a brown dog with floppy ears, "who seemed to be quite agitated," said Mr Bills, who had a bust lip, bruising and pain.
Mr Hinsley, now 81, would have been celebrating his 49th wedding anniversary with his wife this December. They had a happy life together and were proud parents to daughter, Helen Millburn, 43, and son Robert Hinsley.
Mr Hinsley was a carer for his wife who had Alzheimer's and vascular dementia. She had day care twice a week, organised by Hucknall's St John's Church, and it was routine she would get a taxi to day care where attendees played bingo and listened to songs.
Devastated Mr Hinsley recalled trying to get his wife into the taxi and nothing more until he was in accident and emergency at hospital with mutiple fractures and a head wound. He described in his statement how, "my heart has been torn out", as he reflected on his wife's death.
Mrs Millburn, who attended Clarke's sentencing with her dad, and husband, Paul, said when she saw her mum in hospital she looked weak, pale and broken. They said one last goodbye to her before she died eight days after the collision.
Clarke, 37, of Bestwood Road, Hucknall, was jailed for 24 weeks and banned from the roads for 64 weeks, to account for his time in prison, and given a victim surcharge order for £128. He pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention to Mr Hinsley and Mr Bills, and causing Mrs Hinsley's death after driving without due care and attention.
District Judge Grace Leong referred to eight seconds of driving where Clarke could have braked or stopped his car to deal with his dog but failed to do so. "It could have been avoided with the defendant stopping his car when the dog first jumped from the back seat on to the front seat", she said.
After Clarke was jailed, Mr Hinsley said: "I think justice was done. Kathleen had her day". Mrs Millburn added: "No matter what sentence had been passed, it will never be enough. It wouldn't bring mum back".
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