How Far Can Accountability For Road Traffic Accidents Stretch?

Nurse and mother of three Sharon Corless was knocked her bike and killed in a road traffic accident in 2008.

Ms Johnson was driving her partner's black Range Rover along a road in Macclesfield and was approaching a roundabout. Witnesses report seeing her car swerve between lanes, before mounting the kerb and ploughing into both 43 year old Mrs Corless and her husband Peter, 47, who 'bounced' off the bonnet.

The female driver of a red Peugeot remembers hearing an engine revving behind her, then seeing Ms Johnson's 4x4 'flying' through the air towards her as it mounted the crest of a hill.

The Range Rover then crashed into the Peugeot before careering into a lamppost and spinning. The Peugeot's driver, Tracey Cartledge, said that Ms Johnson had appeared 'hysterical' after she had climbed out of her car, and kept asking what had happened.

Ms Johnson was absolved of liability for the accident in January this year, after doctors said they could not be sure she hadn't fainted while driving. Ms Johnson's lawyer had earlier argued that she had lost control of her vehicle due to her blacking out at the wheel. This was given weight by witnesses who said that the Range Rover's brake lights did not illuminate once during the incident.

This was dismissed after doctors said there was no medical reason why this would have happened, and Ms Johnson herself did not remember feeling unwell or dizzy in the moments immediately before the crash. However, medical experts said they could not say that she had not fainted in the car. In interviews, she claimed that she thought she had blacked out, and remembers nothing of her role in the collision, a testimony to which she has stuck.

Investigators found that the Range Rover had both a worn tyre and a faulty brake light, but neither of these factors were deemed to have caused the accident. Ms Johnson had this to say: 'I didn't know my involvement. It was only when I got to the middle of the road and looked back at my car and it was in pieces and I was like 'oh my god, I'm in this accident. I don't understand.

"I just, I swear to each and every one of you, I swear to you, to her husband and her children, to everybody that loves her, I swear to you from the bottom of my heart, on my son's life, I was not in that car, I swear to you.

"I don't remember anything. You can come to my house any day you want, I will tell you the truth, I am not lying to you, I swear to you.

"I am so sorry, from the bottom of my heart, I'm so sorry. I wish I could tell you more. I'm so sorry, I'm not lying to you. I wanted to tell you that, to explain. I was not conscious, I didn't see them."

This tragic case raises a question of accountability: if Ms Johnson was genuinely not in control of her actions, as it seems, then what can Mrs Corless' bereaved family do? Perhaps it is unfair to charge a motorist who, given the benefit of the doubt, was not consciously present at the time of the accident?

This could well be one of those cases that is genuinely just a tragic accident, although the question remains if Mrs Corless' family could pursue a claim for compensation.

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