Police warn of hidden danger of 4x4s after reversing driver kills shopper he couldn't see

Police have warned 4x4 drivers not to reverse without help after a motorist killed a grandmother as he backed along a pavement.

Businessman Michael Crofts escaped jail yesterday after a jury heard he would not have been able to see his victim through the car's back window.

The 61-year-old struck pedestrian Janet Austin, 57, despite checking in his wing mirrors.

The high rear window and tinted glass in his Mitsubishi Warrior meant Crofts would have struggled even to see the top of 5ft 4in Mrs Austin's head, the jury was told.

He hit her at 5mph as she walked along a parade of shops in Bourne, Lincolnshire in March last year.

She died later from severe head and chest injuries.

Crofts was fined £1,800, ordered to pay £1,200 costs and banned from driving for a year after the jury found him guilty of careless driving.

The offence does not carry a jail term and the maximum sentence is a £2,500 fine.

He was cleared of the more serious charge of causing death by dangerous driving, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.

Michael Cranmer-Brown, prosecuting, said Crofts was 'engaging in a manoeuvre that a careful and competent driver would regard as an inherently dangerous one'.

He added: 'He was doing it in a vehicle that does not afford the best view with the mirrors.'

Crofts, the boss of a vehicle hire company from Bourne, said: 'The first I knew of a problem was when I felt a bump under the vehicle. I thought I had hit a pot-hole.'

He stopped and found Mrs Austin, also of Bourne, lying on the ground, the court heard.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Treacy told him: 'You were carrying out a manoeuvre that in my judgment was risky in the circumstances  -  particularly in the type of vehicle you were driving.'  Judith Kent of Lincolnshire police said outside court that cars such as the Warrior were 'commercial vehicles' and their drivers should not reverse them alone.

The family of Mrs Austin, a nursing home assistant, mother of three and grandmother of eight, condemned the jury's verdict.

Her daughter Helen Hewitt, 35, of Boston in Lincolnshire, said: 'This tragedy is a lesson for all drivers.

'Everyone should be safe on a pavement. No one should ever drive on them.'

The design of the Mitsubishi Warrior which hit Janet Austin made it hard to reverse safely (file photo)