A driver has been found guilty of running over a frail former lollipop man as he crossed the road.
John Smith, 84, died after being hit by a Volkswagen Golf driven by Paul Johnson as he crossed Brinnington Road in Brinnington, Stockport , on the evening of February 5 last year.
Mr Smith, who walked the aid of a stick and could only see clearly out of one eye, had put up his hand to ‘ward off’ the approaching vehicle.
But, instead of slowing down, Mr Johnson tried to swerve around the victim and failed.
The incident was witnessed by Mr Smith’s friend, Geoffrey Borrell, whose home is on the other side of Brinnington Road. Mr Smith had been on his way to visit him when he was fatally injured.
Johnson, 39, of Gowerdale Road, Brinnington, denied causing death by careless driving in a Minshull Street Crown Court case. He said he had been ‘dazzled’ by an oncoming car in the moments before the accident.
At the scene, after the accident, Mr Johnson told Mr Borrell ‘he came across too fast - I didn’t see him’. The trial heard that John Smith tended to assume that driver’s would slow down for him as he crossed the road, and sometimes stepped out before it was clear.
Mr Johnson was driving within the speed limit at the time. But, opening the case, prosecutor Peter Cadwallader told the jury that this was ‘too fast for the particular circumstances’.
Mr Smith lived alone at Brindale Road, close the scene of the accident. Mr Cadwallader told the jury the fact he walked slowly was ‘important, because it mean he would be in the road way for a lot longer than a person with normal gait’.
This, and the straight layout of the road, gave Mr Johnson, or any other driver, ‘much more opportunity to see (John Smith) slowly going across the road’, Mr Cadwallader said.
He added that ‘a prudent and careful driver would have slowed down significantly’ if they had been dazzled by lights, and then noticed a pedestrian.
Describing the fatal incident, Mr Borrell said: “(John) had gone over the white line which was in the centre, about that time he began to move a bit faster because I think he was aware there was a car coming...he put his hand up and tried to walk a bit faster as though he was trying to ward it off, and it hit him.”
Mr Johnson has been bailed until July 8, when he will be sentenced by Judge Timothy Mort.
