Havering trucker accused of death by dangerous driving - verdict
Wallace was cleared of causing death by dangerous driving. Picture: John Stillwell/PA - Credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima
A lorry driver has been cleared of running down and killing a former bank clerk after becoming distracted while chatting to his passenger.
Peter Wallace, 50, hit Rafal Kuzniar in his 7.5 tonne flatbed scaffolders’ truck as he drunkenly staggered across Victoria Embankment in central London.
Wallace’s passenger, Grant Pike, tried to raise the alarm after spotting Mr Kuzniar, a former bank worker, and shouted “stop” just moments before the collision.
But Mr Pike was forced to look on helplessly as Wallace, of Marshalls Drive, Romford, was unable to stop in time, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Mr Kuzniar, who moved to Britain from Poland in search of work, was thrown several metres forward after the crash, on April 12 last year.
You may also want to watch:
Paramedics tried in vain to save the former banker, who was pronounced dead at the scene at 4pm.
Prosecutors claimed Wallace was not paying sufficient attention to the road ahead of him.
Most Read
- 1 Havering households to be asked to participate in census
- 2 Deputy head: School's teachers have gone 'above and beyond' during Covid pandemic
- 3 Police appeal after second fatal Rainham collision in less than a week
- 4 Council report reveals concern that borough's Covid vaccination drive may be held back
- 5 Christmas Day babies to spend their first few weeks in lockdown
- 6 DAB radios donated to Queen's Hospital for those too weak to hold a phone
- 7 Illegal car meet in Rainham sees 49 fined for Covid breaches
- 8 BHRUT thanks families of NHS workers who are keeping service afloat
- 9 Romford MP hails charity's 'extraordinary' work during Covid pandemic
- 10 Havering parks and gardens five feet under water as rivers burst their banks
But a jury of four women and eight men deliberated for three hours and fifteen minutes before yesterday acquitting the scaffolder of causing death by careless driving.
Wallace breathed a sigh of relief and appeared to be close to tears as the verdict was announced.
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith described the death of Mr Kuzniar as “very sad”, adding: “What little we know of him is he is Polish and had worked in a bank in Poland.
“His parents died and he came to this country.
“It looks as though he was not working and didn’t have accommodation.
“It looks as if he had taken to drink.
“His body was taken back to Poland and there was a funeral with his family.
“We shouldn’t forget him.”
Wallace denied causing death by careless driving.
He insisted he was driving responsibly and had not been chatting to Mr Pike.
