Driver blames overgrown bushes for causing Spixworth crash

Kerri Davey, 44, was at the wheel of a Ford Fiesta when she pulled out into the path of another car in Spixworth at 7am on July 1.

Norwich Magistrates’ Court was told that she subsequently claimed that trees and shrubs had obscured the view of on-coming traffic. 

The crash left a 73-year-old woman who was driving the car she hit with a fractured sternum and serious injuries that left her in hospital.

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Prosecutor Hannah Butler said the injuries had left the woman suffering severe chest pains and had “affected her emotionally” when she went out in a car, something which had dramatically affected her social life.

Appearing in court, Davey, from Horsham St Faith, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by careless driving. 

The crash in Spixworth left a 73-year-old woman with serious injuries (Image: Geograph/Adrian S Pye)

James Burrows, mitigating, said her view had been hampered by foliage but that it had been cut back before investigations into the crash were concluded. 

“It is a junction where she was turning right and there was foliage and shrubbery in the way,” he said. 

“What is clear is that shrubbery is then cut down in a very short period after this accident. 

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“When a police officer returns to take pictures in the subsequent days that foliage had been cut down by highways or the council.

“That could be important because she says that in order to see around it she has pulled out too far causing the collision.”

The court was told that until the crash Davey had held a clean driving licence for 15 years. 

District judge David Wilson said the victim remembered a “big crash” before being left in “a lot of pain”.

Disqualifying Davey from driving for two years, he also ordered that she carry out 140 hours unpaid work and pay costs of £259.