Woman, 96, lost control of car and killed pensioner outside bridge club | British news

A 96-year-old woman killed a fellow bridge club member and injured another after losing control of her car.

June Mills was sitting in her Vauxhall Corsa, about to leave Elbow Lane Methodist Church in Formby, Merseyside, when the vehicle accelerated forward, mounted the pavement and hit pensioners Brenda Joyce (76) and Jennifer Ensor (80).

Mrs. Joyce died of a serious head wound, while Mrs. Ensor suffered minor injuries.

Mills, who later pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, avoided jail today when she was given an 18-month suspended sentence at Liverpool Crown Court.

She is the oldest person ever to die in Britain due to dangerous driving.

Judge Simon Medland KC told Mills: “From every perspective and angle, this case is an unmitigated tragedy.

‘Mrs Joyce has died, Mrs Ensor was injured, you have lost your good character and are in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court.’

Robert Dudley, prosecuting, told the court that Ms Joyce and Ms Ensor had been walking along the pavement after leaving the bridge club, which they were attending with Mills, when the collision happened shortly after 4pm on August 2 last year.

Mills, who was in a wheelchair during the hearing, told police in a prepared statement that her accelerator pedal felt like it had “fallen to the ground” as she maneuvered around a parked car and she had been “hurled forward.”

She said: ‘It all happened very quickly and there were people in front of me but I couldn’t avoid hitting them because the car was going so fast I had no control over it.’

The court heard that Mrs Joyce’s husband did not support the prosecution.

In a statement read out in court, Ms Ensor said she suffered minor physical injuries, including tendon damage that prevented her from playing a full round of golf, and that she felt a ‘feeling of guilt’ for having survived.

Tom Gent, defending, said: ‘This is clearly a terribly sad case. Mrs Mills, the defendant, deeply regrets what happened. The consequences will haunt her forever. She feels great shame and guilt.’

He said the former careers counselor, who surrendered her driver’s license after the crash, had previously done volunteer work with crime victims and young offenders.

He added: “She recently housed and continues to house Ukrainian refugees.”

He said Ms Ensor now accepted that she had accidentally applied too much acceleration, causing her car to lurch forward and onto the kerb.

Judge Medland, recognizing a guilty plea made at an earlier hearing, said the starting point for her sentence would be 18 months in prison.

He added: ‘Taking into account the sentencing guidelines, the pre-sentence reports, the plethora of referrals and, if I may add, common sense, it would not benefit anyone to to make it an immediate punishment, nor would that be a just punishment. result.’

He suspended the sentence for 18 months.

Mills, of Broadway Close, Ainsdale, Merseyside, was ordered to pay a fine of £1,500 and £500 prosecution costs and was disqualified from driving for five years.

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