http://www.tavistock-today.co.uk/today/options/news/newsdetail.cfm”id=12766
A GRIEVING widow says the
conviction of a 16-year-old who caused the death of her husband by dangerous
driving should serve as a warning to other young people. Motorcycle enthusiast
Peter Hackworthy, 54, was killed in an accident on
the A386 at Lake, near Sourton, last summer and his
wife Christine, 49, the pillion passenger, suffered serious injuries. Driver
Jeremy Frise, of Buctor
Park, Tavistock, was just 16 at the time and the car stereo system was being played so loud he did not
hear shouts from his three passengers.
He tried to overtake a caravan in a 40mph
limit and crashed head-on with Mr Hackworthy's
550cc motorcycle. Mrs Hackworthy,
from Tamerton Foliot, last
Thursday said the loud music in the car may have caused the under age driver to
lose concentration. She said: “Youngsters need to realise
that it can be dangerous, driving when they are playing music so loud in their
cars. “
Drivers need to be able to hear
and it always amazes me how they can hear anything when the music is that loud.
It is dangerous because they cannot concentrate properly.” She said she had
been given a “life sentence” and her feelings were of “pure and utter hatred
and anger” for what
had been done to her and her
husband. “I have lost my husband and suffered serious injuries. This case
should be a warning to other young people and their parents. “I will never get
over the emotions.
“Pete was my other half and we
had been married for 27 years. I have lost him and I am also having to live
with my own injuries.” Mrs Hackworthy
spent eight weeks in hospital with a fractured pelvis and still needs further
surgery on a broken nose as a result of the crash last June.
She and her husband had gone for
a quiet ride together on Dartmoor on a Saturday
afternoon to escape the hysteria surrounding an England Euro 2004 game. After
the crash, Frise pretended another youth had been
driving and had fled the scene. The car's owner Richard Maxwell, 19, of Heather
Close, Okehampton, a front seat passenger, backed up
the false story. Apprentice carpenter Frise, now 17,
was sent to a young offenders” unit for three years and nine months by Judge
Graham Cottle at Exeter Crown Court after he admitted
causing death by dangerous driving and attempting to pervert the course of
justice.
Maxwell admitted attempting to
pervert the course of justice and permitting Frise to
drive without a licence or insurance. He was sent to
a young offenders” institution for nine months. Judge Cottle
said: “Mr Hackworthy's
driving was utterly blameless.
Nothing this court does will
change the tragic outcome or begin to compensate his widow for her loss. “Against
the background of this appalling tragedy Frise and
Maxwell attempted to pervert the course of justice by pretending somebody else
had been driving.” Jonathan Barnes, prosecuting, said Frise
had no licence or insurance and was too young to
drive at the time of the accident. He said: “Frise
told police he had only driven twice before on the roads and had never had a
professional driving lesson. Nevertheless he told police he considered himself
a competent driver.” Stephen Mooney, defending Frise,
said he was full of remorse and bitterly regretted his actions. Malcolm
Galloway, defending Maxwell, said his client acted out of fear and immaturity
and had learned the lessons from the accident. An order forbidding the
identification of Frise was lifted by the judge.