Overview
- Julia Pritchard was struck while crossing Boulevard de Villenave d’Ornon in Bridgend on 15 September 2023 and died in hospital days later.
- The prosecution played CCTV and called a forensic collision investigator who said damage to Jones’s Citroen was consistent with an impact with the pedestrian.
- Police evidence said the road was well lit and dry, drug and alcohol tests were clear, there was no phone use recorded while driving, and no record of high speed.
- Jones told the jury she had just returned from Florida, was speaking with her father about raccoons before the crash, and repeatedly said she did not see Pritchard until impact.
- After about 50 minutes of deliberation the jury returned a not guilty verdict and the judge discharged the case, a result that turns on how the careless-driving legal test was applied in court.