Grandmother, 72, run over by driver, 29, who couldn’t see her because his eyesight was failing
An elderly grandmother was hit by a car and killed because the driver failed to spot her due to his failing eyesight.
Mary Phillips, 72, died from a fractured skull after being thrown onto the hood of the car before being thrown into the road.
The old woman was making her way home after shopping at Asda when 29-year-old Jordan Horder’s silver Volkswagen Golf hit her.
At a sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court today, it was revealed the driver had a number of visual impairments and was effectively blind in one eye when he fatally beat Ms Phillips in Cwmbran, Wales.
Horder didn’t see the victim until she hit his window. After the accident, he stopped and called an ambulance.
Mary Phillips, 72, died of a fractured skull after being thrown onto the bonnet of the car before being thrown onto the road in Cwmbran, Wales
Prosecutor Eugene Egan said the light was green for traffic when Ms Phillips crossed the road, but the driver should have seen her and stopped.
She said: “The defendant could be legitimately criticized, he did not see the deceased, he did not look properly, did not steer his car to avoid her and did not brake.
“The underlying cause of all these failures is that he failed to adequately check his eyesight at the time.
“He failed a license plate test, which was sufficient to maintain visual acuity. It was a completely avoidable accident and resulted in a fatal traffic accident due to careless driving.’
An off-duty paramedic rushed to the scene to help Ms Phillips as she lay dying in the street.
Horder told the medical worker, “I haven’t seen her before, I know she hit my car and windshield.”
When police arrived, Horder was tested for drugs and alcohol but came back negative. He was not speeding at the time of the accident and his vehicle had no defects.
The following day, November 28, 2020, Ms Phillips was pronounced dead after suffering from a fractured skull and subarachnoid hemorrhage, as well as injuries to her upper left breast.
Horder is said to have had significant vision problems since he had surgery on his right eye when he was a teenager in 2007.
Cardiff Crown Court heard today that driver Jordan Horder had deteriorating eyesight, meaning he did not see Ms Phillips as she crossed the road, on her way home from her shopping spree at Asda
Optometrist Gareth Ward said the driver was “basically blind in one eye” and needed contact lenses for his left eye.
In 2020 he failed an eye test and was advised not to drive a car, but was deemed fit to drive in August of that year.
By December 2020, his eyesight had deteriorated and it was determined that he was unfit to drive. His license was not revoked by the DVLA.
Horder, from The Crescent, Cwmbran, was arrested and initially denied responsibility for the crash, saying the harsh glow of the green light affected his vision.
But he later pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving. The court heard that he had previously been of good character.
In a personal statement from the victim read to the court, Ms Phillips’ son David Johnson said: “To see my mother lying cold that night and being unresponsive on life support and listening to the medical staff explain that there would be no recovery is one of the most difficult things I have had to experience.
“As a family our lives have been turned upside down, I still can’t believe she’s gone.”
Mr Johnson said his mother gave birth to him when she was just 16 and left school without a degree, but attended community college as an adult and qualified as a nurse and midwife.
He said her interests include gardening, reading, theater and travel, as well as a “hungry appetite” for politics and news.
He added, “I haven’t told her enough how much she means to me and wish I’d said it more often.”
The victim’s daughter, Tracey Johnson, described her mother as a “fit and healthy” 72-year-old woman who “loved life and lived it to the fullest.”
She said: ‘What haunts me is that on that cold and wet November evening our mother died by the side of the road in every sense of the word, she wasn’t surrounded by the people who loved her … That’s not how she should have died.’
“We know she wouldn’t have lived forever but she was kidnapped too early and that makes us very angry and very sad.
“She went out to buy chocolate and never came home. Mom deserved a better ending to her life.”
In mitigation, defense attorney Heath Edwards said his client was “devastated” by the consequences of his driving and “feels terrible” at having caused grief to Ms Phillips’ family.
He said someone with “adequate eyesight” may have seen Ms Phillips crossing the road and the collision could have been avoided.
He added: “If he could turn back time, he would love to.”
Addressing Ms Phillips’ family, Judge Michael Fitton KC said: “I want to testify to the courage you had in coming before this court and reading these carefully written but powerfully eloquent testimonies.
“No one who listens to this, including the defendant and his family, will be untouched by your deep love for Mary.
“She was the beating heart of her family.” This was an event that should never have happened and should not have happened. It was completely inevitable.”
Judge Fitton told Horder that only immediate imprisonment could be warranted.
The defendant was sentenced to 21 months in prison, half of which he will serve before being paroled.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11341841/Grandmother-72-run-driver-29-did-not-eyesight-deteriorating.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 Grandmother, 72, run over by driver, 29, who couldn’t see her because his eyesight was failing
