A recent ruling has found a male defendant guilty of causing the death of his girlfriend in a vehicular collision on a rural thoroughfare.
Lily-May Vaughan, a 17-year-old, was a passenger in a car driven by 19-year-old Logan Addison when it went off the road. On February 4, 2023, the incident happened near Shawbury Heath in Shropshire.
Court proceedings at the Shrewsbury Crown revealed that Ms. Vaughan died from her injuries at the scene after the car she was in struck an electricity pole and overturned onto its roof.
Seventeen years old when the incident occurred, Mr. Addison denied the accusations of driving in a dangerous manner, claiming instead to have been well within the speed limit. He maintained that he was not at fault but had, in fact, reacted to an Audi that had suddenly appeared from a junction and to the loose road surface that he was forced to drive onto. His vehicle had, he claimed, lost traction econometrically right when it had to function at its most critical moment—coming directly into a dangerous head-on collision with the industrial estate that the road led into.
Prosecutor Peter McCartney told the jury that the defendant had been "thrashing the VW down that lane," and a local witness, Gwen Evans, testified that she saw the vehicle go by in a "flash of a blur."
Mr. McCartney contended further that high-speed motoring was unsuitable for the rural lane, pointing out the many houses and access points that flank the road. He asserted, "That speed on that country lane was hugely inappropriate and we say dangerous."
The driver of the Audi, who denied the allegations of encroaching too far into the roadway, confirmed that Mr. Addison had been driving much too fast. â €
Police Collision Investigator
The trial had a police collision investigator testify that, based on the analysis of tire markings, it was probably Mr. Addison who was going too fast—that is, over the statutory limit of 60 miles per hour. They could say this much with some kind of authority because the prosecutor had set it up so that this guy was a witness for the prosecution. But could anyone really identify the driver who was exceeding the limit set for the road?
The investigator pointed out that Mr. Addison's vehicle seemed to have traveled a distance of 57 meters (about 187 feet) from the first tire track, which indicated a possible loss of control of the vehicle and suggested it was going faster than the 60 mph threshold.
After the collision, Mr. Addison was taken to a hospital and identified as having broken bones in the cervical and lumbar parts of his body. Later, he went before the court and said he had been driving and gone into the 50- to 55-miles-per-hour range just before the wreck. Furthermore, the court was informed that Mr. Addison was labeled an "inexperienced" driver, having gotten his driving license only the year before and having acquired his vehicle only two to three weeks before the unfortunate incident.
The prosecution also argued that Mr. Addison showed that he didn't care about the rules of the road by choosing not to use a seatbelt on the day of the crash.
Logan Addison, of Hazels Road, Shawbury, appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court last week for a trial and was found guilty of causing her death by driving dangerously.
Ms. Vaughn’s mother said after the trial: "It's been a really traumatic time not knowing whether we are getting justice or not, and we did get it.
"I'll sleep a bit better now knowing that Lily-May's got justice".
https://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/25071209.lily-may-vaughan-relief-teen-gets-justice-crash-death/
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