This is a chilling story. Peter Conroy, 73, knocked down two pedestrians, one of whom died six weeks later. He claimed he was wearing the wrong glasses, but police found his eyesight made him unfit to drive whether he was wearing the correct ones or not, and that he had lied to the DVLA in order to keep his licence.
Conroy said in court that the women “ran across the crossing”, but CCTV footage revealed he was lying about that, too. Audrey Noden, the woman who died, was 93. John Siddle from Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership said:
Ninety-three-year-old women don’t run anywhere.
In spite of the CCTV evidence, Conroy still denied he was at fault. He eventually admitted to causing death by dangerous driving. The court heard that Conroy had glaucoma, was blind in one eye, and short-sighted in the other. Yet he told the DVLA he was fit to drive when he had to renew his licence at 70.
Conroy was jailed for 2 years and banned from driving for 10 years. I can’t work out why he was banned for a finite period – it should have been permanent.
Part of me almost feels sorry for him. But most of me doesn’t. Lying to the DVLA is a common practice among elderly drivers.