Oxford player jailed for car crash death

I'd love to know why this took over a year to get to sentencing as well because, from what I have read, this incident took place in May 2009!

That has allowed him to play a full part in Oxford's promotion winning season and he is noted in some reports as their man of the match in the playoff final win over York. How the hell was he allowed to be playing football while his victim's poor family were still waiting for justice.

Something in this case smells as rotten as a cheese that has laid undiscovered for 50 years!

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What the delay in cases like this "are usually about" are the forensic evidence ~ in this case the records of his mobile phone use ~ being sought and verified by a very busy police department. Three years ago I was hit up the arse for no apparent reason whilst driving on the M25 in broad daylight and good visibility and almost a year later I received a letter from the police confirming that they had made extensive investigations into just such possible mobile phone use by the driver who hit me and that they had concluded that indeed he had not been texting or talking either at the time of impact or at any time leading up to the incident..........................these things can and do take time as I'm led to believe the police don't exactly get willing co-operation from the network suppliers and often have to seek legal powers to investigate.

Pleading guilty doesn't really come into it as the gravitas of the evidence is the more vital factor where sentencing is concerned and therefore it is essential that it is all substantiated in a watertight fashion before the case can go ahead.

That's the second fatal tragedy to have affected Oxford United in the past year.................on March 27th one of their Football & Education Academy scholars, 17 year old Godwin Lawson was murdered travelling to his brother's home near to where I live when his friends were set upon by a gang of four and he was fatally stabbed in the heart after running back (unarmed) to help them fight off their attackers. Just imagine the anguish of his father, called from his Enfield home to go down to Amhurst Park at four o'clock in the morning to identify his son's body laying under a tent on the pavement. A body that he couldn't even touch, nor hug nor express his grief over in any way. The body of his son who had opted to make his attempt to become a professional footballer away in the "country" ~ away from the jealousy and turf wars of his neighbourhood, taken away from him in an instant by a bunch of losers and idiots.

A letter to the family after the tragedy from Sir Alex Ferguson made them aware of something that until then neither they nor Godwin had been aware.........................that Manchester United had been tracking his football progress; and now he was gone.

I thought it strange at the time that Chris Hargreaves made no mention of this in his blog, and surmised that the Oxford Club may have misguidedly kept detail of this awful tragedy from their First team Squad, but then I checked their website and indeed the news was on there. How strange that no tribute was paid to him at the time or even after their Wembley triumph.....................perhaps the family didn't want it; I don't really know. But like the Chapman incident, that football club have been strangely silent and somewhat devoid of social responsibility in all this.

2.99 for a handsfree set,thats all it costs,aussie i am in total agreement with you,they reckon that using your phone whilst driving is more dangerous than driving after having drunk 2 pints.In my view both are serious dont do it simple as that or face the consequences

i agree with your comments merse,any action either eating drinking dvd changing or radio tuning whilst driving lessens our ability to do what we are supposed to be doing and that is total concentration on the driving ahead.The law will change all these available actions eventually.Anna is quite unwell at present merse,different circumstances to yours i admit,but she hasnt driven since the illness occurred,i respect you both for your sensible actions,although driving everywhere then having to stop is quite life changing i know

I drive over 1200 miles ever single week and sadly see far more road accidents in a month that most people would see in a year. I always know when it’s a really bad one and despite how many I have seen those bad ones they always hit me hard and there have been times I have needed to pull off the road and stop driving for a while.

I have lost count of the drivers I have seen using their phone while driving, idiots reading a map or even a book placed on their steering wheel doing 80 MPH on a motorway, or someone behind the wheel of an articulated lorry doing things he should not be doing while is lorry then ends up swerving into the middle lane.

It does only take one single second of not concentrating on the road to find you have caused an accident and maybe even killed someone else and its why I know due to the miles I drive, I have to fully concentrate when I’m behind the wheel..

I have only a 27% chance on not being involved in a serious road crash, this figure has been worked out on the miles I do drive every year and armed with such statistics I know I have to try an increase my chances of that not happening by making sure I’m fully aware of what’s going on ahead of me, beside me and behind me at all times.

My phone is kept in the glove box of my van; I did once use a blue tooth headset and felt due to my driving experience I was more than capable of still driving safety, but I decided It really was the sensible choice not to take any calls when I’m driving and I now checked my phone when I get to every town just in case there is a message from Toolfix on it.

You can tell so easily when someone is on the phone on a motorway, they are so often in the middle lane and they start slowing down for say 75mph to 60mph or even less, I make sure when I overtake them that I give a short toot on my horn and make a gesture with my hand such as pretending I ‘m using a phone so they will understand why I have given them a toot.

I spent over five years of my life helping someone who ended up no more than a zombie get his life back to as near normal as possible, yes he sadly killed someone on the road and it was not his fault in anyway, there was nothing he could do to prevent what happened.

If it was that bad for him just how would anyone feel if they knew it was their fault? It does seem reading this thread that some people can somehow how get on with their life as if nothing has happened. Its why such cases should not take a year to come to court, its why such people should be made to stop driving straight away and it is proved they were to blame, then they should be sent away for a very long time and never be allowed to drive ever again.

It’s the fact we are to soft in this country and people never have to pay the price they really should have to for talking someone else’s life, if punishments really were so much more severe, then maybe people would start to think so much more when they are driving and innocent people will not have to lose their lives and their families having to live without them for the rest of theirs

Well what a surprize Merse dissagrees with me, again, I just post things now and wait for him to tell me I`m wrong/ ignorant/ stupid/ Joe Barlow or what ever the great Lord Alan wants to label me as!