Death crash policeman's ban reduced on appeal

A policeman whose careless driving cost the life of a mother-of-two after he shot through red lights at a junction, had his driving ban reduced and his nine point endorsement overturned in London's Appeal Court.

In April Pc Nicholas Andrews-Faulkner, 45, of Sweetlands, Hassocks, was disqualified from driving for four years after a Winchester Crown Court jury convicted him of careless driving, but cleared him of causing Karen Stagg's death by dangerous driving. He was fined £2,000, had nine points endorsed on his licence, was banned from the road for four years, and ordered to take a further driving test before he can get back behind the wheel, an order which he also successfully challenged at the appeal.

Andrews-Faulkner's victim was Karen Stagg, 47, killed in January last year when her car was passing through a green light at a junction near Gatwick airport in Crawley, colliding with the officer's police car. Also in the car with Mrs Stagg was her 12-year-old son, Philip, who was injured in the impact. The officer, who had a previous exemplary driving record, claimed he was distracted by the antics of an unruly prisoner in the car, who needed to be controlled.

Mrs Stagg's husband, Graeme, 61, was test-driving a BMW just in front of her at the time of the crash, and was then confronted by the full horror of the tragedy. In a witness statement read to the crown court he described watching the collision and seeing his wife "fade away in front of my eyes".

Andrews-Faulkner's counsel, David Jubb, rebutted suggestions from Mr Stagg that the officer did not do enough to help in the crash's aftermath. "That's not a true reflection of the position," said the barrister, adding that his client had been in a "state of shock" in the immediate aftermath, later carrying out emergency resuscitation.

But Mr Justice Mackay said the trial judge had pinpointed one particularly worrying feature of the case - the Pc's "inability to explain why the accident happened". The lights had been red against Andrews-Faulkner for some time before the crash, the court heard, and although his police role entitled him to pass through them, he had to do so "with appropriate care" and give precedence to those relying on the green light.

The trial judge had described it as "more than a momentary lapse of concentration", describing the officer's conduct as "one of the worst cases of careless driving" likely to reach court.

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