Lorry driver jailed over death of Shropshire’s Callum Powell

Patrick Casey, 22, and from Ireland, was jailed for four years and two months after making what the victim's mother called a "bad decision with a bad outcome".

That sentence was reduced from eight years for mitigation and an early guilty plea at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Tuesday, November 7.  

Casey admitted causing the death of Mr Powell, 24, by dangerous driving on January 23 close to Felton Butler roundabout on the A5, where the victim died at the scene shortly after 3am. 

CCTV footage showed him attempting to overtake two other HGVs on a single carriageway stretch, ending with a head-on collision which killed Mr Powell immediately.

Judge Anthony Lowe, sentencing Casey, said that he agreed with Sandra Powell’s view that her son had died because of a ‘poor’ decision by the defendant to try the ‘highly dangerous’ overtaking manoeuvre past two other heavy goods vehicles.  

He added: “This is a tragedy for both families but I’m afraid that it doesn’t matter which way you look, the tragedy is substantially greater for Callum’s family.

“For whatever reason, and only you know, you seemed to decide you were in a hurry,  

“I don’t know why you didn’t make any attempt to overtake on the dual carriageway but when you got to the single lane, you suddenly decide to effectively overtake both lorries that were ahead of you.  

“The driver of the first HGV described that as ‘poor’ but the overtaking manoeuvre that led to the crash was, in my judgement, highly dangerous.  

“The distance you had to stop was insufficient and the speed you needed to get away didn’t exist.  

“By your own admission you’d never driven along that part of the A5 in the dark.” 

The judge added: “I am satisfied that you genuinely believed that what lay before was a straight road and that is important because, as is usual in these cases, you didn’t know what you were dealing with.  

“But you carried out a dangerous manoeuvre without checking whether it was safe to do so.  

“I have to strike a balance between the fact that it was highly dangerous but that you didn’t deliberately ignore the risk and made a terrible mistake.” 

Judge Lowe added that he considered the attempt at the manoeuvre in a HGV as a significant factor.

The CCTV footage showed Casey having to slow down as there was not enough room for both lorries, before he tried the manoeuvre again.

Further up the A5 towards Shrewsbury, Casey tried to overtake again as the road went up an incline and turned to the right. 

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It was here that he collided head-on with Mr Powell’s Vauxhall Astra vehicle, killing the 24-year-old instantaneously.  

Footage of Mrs Powell giving a victim impact statement was played to the court where she described her son as ‘straight as a die who loved cars’ and that his loss had left his parents ‘empty and waiting to die’, and added further the family would not be celebrating Christmas.  

And she also expressed sympathy to the parents and family of the defendant because of his ‘terrible mistake’.  

Casey, whose defence barrister told the court was ‘genuinely remorseful’ and ‘had thought about Callum Powell every day’  will serve half of his sentence before he will be released and deported to Ireland. 

He was also banned from driving for five years. 

After his death in January this year, tributes poured in for Callum.

His friends and family described Callum, a motors enthusiast who was nicknamed Spanner, as genuine, a good friend and 'a character' who had a great passion for cars.

References

1. ^{^} Friends and family deliver glowing tributes to young man killed in A5 crash (www.bordercountiesadvertizer.co.uk)