W Mids man who ‘allowed ambulance to pass’ guilty of running red …

A West Midlands pensioner has been found guilty of running a red light despite his claims of doing so to allow an ambulance to pass. Justices found against Frank Wallington’s reasoning, who did not attend the hearing at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on April 17. Wallington, 76, from Walsall, had denied driving through the red light on the A52 Grantham Road/Cropwell Road, saying he had special reasons.

His BMW was driven through the red light at Radcliffe-on-Trent at 1.2 seconds after the light turned to red. Faith Rowan, prosecuting, told justices at Wallington’s trial: “The Crown wish to make it clear to the court that ambulances were not on sirens or lights on that occasion – the defendant had no reason to go through the light as he had done.” Speaking of the incident, Wallington had said: “It’s frustrating because I’m an advanced driver and I’ve always had a completely clean licence.

I actually feel I could have carried on and driven straight through the traffic lights without any problem, but then I would have delayed the ambulance, and what I assume was a car with perhaps a relative of the patient in the ambulance with it being so close to the ambulance. “I can’t deny that I was 1.2 seconds late going through the traffic lights, but my point is that it was mitigating circumstances. If I had carried on, I would have blocked the ambulance’s procedure through those traffic lights as the road went into a single lane shortly afterwards.

“A split second decision on my part has caused me to go through the lights after they had turned red, but I was distracted of course as they were overtaking me. I wasn’t looking at the traffic lights, I was looking at them in my rear view mirror whilst they overtook me.” When asked about the traffic lights, he explained: “They were green as I approached, I was in the left hand lane but I slowed down.

I turned my indicator on to indicate to the ambulance driver that I was slowing down and allowing him to overtake. “Even if that white car hadn’t been behind the ambulance, which I couldn’t see as they were right behind the ambulance, the lights were on green, and if I had been able to pull right behind the ambulance, I would have still gone behind the lights on green.”

(Image: SWNS)

The court heard that no ambulance was on an emergency call at the time and that an ambulance was travelling in front of Wallington at the time he went through the red light. Wallington was notified about the trial and emailed Nottinghamshire Live [2] to state: “The Nottingham Magistrates’ Court hearing on the 14th February 2023 has now issued me with another date to appear in court (17th April 2023).

I am now writing, again, to say I will NOT be there! “I wrote to the court (14th January) stating my plea (of mitigating circumstances) and asked for the case to be dealt with in my absence. No wonder the Magistrates’ Courts are overloaded.

I will be in touch when I receive the ‘final’ verdict.” Legally he was required to comply with the red light. Justices, who examined a photo of the defendant’s car, said the car went though the red light at 1.2 seconds after it turned red.

They said: “We haven’t had the benefit of the defendant in court to say their part – but we have heard that the two ambulances that went through were not in a situation where there was an emergency at the time of the red light, and we saw on the picture there was a considerable space between the vehicles and the vehicle in question of Mr Wallington. “And so we find there was no special reason that Mr Wallington had an opportunity to stop at that red light – therefore special reasons are not found and find him guilty of the offence”. Wallington already has three points on his licence from 2021.

He was fined GBP220, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of GBP34 and costs of GBP620, as well as three points on his licence.

References

^ Man taken to hospital with serious injuries after incident in Coventry (www.coventrytelegraph.net)
^ Nottinghamshire Live (www.nottinghampost.com)
^ here (data.reachplc.com)
^ Coventry and Warwickshire (www.coventrytelegraph.net)