Jury fails to reach verdict in death crash trial

Thatcham motorist may face retrial

A JURY has been dismissed after failing to reach a verdict in a death by careless driving trial.

During the hearing at Reading Crown Court last week, jurors heard how Kayleigh Field, a 24-year-old mother of two, spun into oncoming traffic after hitting floodwaters near Marsh Benham at around 60mph, the prosecution claimed.

Her black Audi struck an oncoming Vauxhall Corsa driven by Anne Joyce Deeks, also from Thatcham, killing the 69-year-old.

The incident happened following extremely wet weather on February 26 last year and, during the trial, Damian van Duyvenbode, prosecuting, said of Ms Field, a keen show jumper who works on the delicatessen counter at her local Tesco store: “Either (she) didn’t see the obvious hazard in the road, visible for 300m in both directions – or she did see the hazard in the middle of the road but didn’t consider it to be one.

“We say the actions of a competent and careful driver when faced with an expanse of water right across the carriageway would be to slow down.

“There isn’t any evidence to suggest she did so.”

Ms Field denied causing death by careless driving and her line manager at Tesco, Tina Emmens, described her as “reliable, honest and trustworthy”.

On Friday, September 18, after the jury had been deliberating for several hours and were unable to reach a unanimous verdict, Judge Angela Morris said she would accept a majority verdict.

However, they were unable to do so and Judge Morris declared a hung jury and formally dismissed them after thanking them for their efforts.

She gave prosecutors two weeks in which to decide whether to bring a new case against Ms Field.

A spokeswoman for the Thames and Chiltern Crown Prosecution Service, Louise Rosher, said: “We will be speaking to the victim’s family, the police and witnesses and then come to a decision which will be announced to the court on Friday, October 2.”