Overview
- The crash occurred on July 1 last year when Aaron Roberts’s Ford Transit struck the rear of 73-year-old Roger Bowler’s Nissan Micra on the A38 north of Derby.
- Prosecutors told court that Roberts had been on his phone and sent a photo to a WhatsApp group moments before impact and that his van was recorded at up to 89mph five seconds before the collision.
- Mr Bowler was airlifted to hospital with multiple injuries and, the court heard, his cancer later returned and he died in March seven months after the crash.
- Roberts pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was sentenced to two years in prison and disqualified from driving for two years and ten months, with the judge citing phone use and excessive speed as aggravating factors.
- Court reporting noted Roberts had received three and six penalty points for separate speeding offences in the months before the collision, a detail prosecutors used to show prior risk and inform sentencing.