Charges against biker dropped after NewLaw reveal police sketch of accident was inaccurate

Hereford police have dropped a prosecution against a biker after NewLaw revealed that a sketch prepared by police at the scene of an accident exaggerated a skid mark by 22 metres.
Joseph Heaven, age 38 of Lewisham in London, is a local man from Pembridge but works in London. He had been visiting his mother.

He followed a car round a left hand turn at a junction on the A44 at Golden Cross near Leominster. He overtook it but immediately afterwards his bike skidded on loose gravel, believed to have been dropped by a lorry from a local quarry, and he fell off. Mr Heaven suffered a broken collar bone in the fall but was not in collision with the car, which had stopped.

Police attending the accident sketched the scene and, on the basis of that sketch, Mr Heaven was charged with driving without due care and attention. But further investigations by his solicitors showed that the sketch overstated the skid mark by 22 metres. The sketch suggested that the skid extended all the way to the junction, on road which Mr Heaven could not have occupied.

The charge also claimed that he had crossed into a chevron-marked area leading to a right-hand turn, but the police sketch also exaggerated the extent of this area as well. Mr Heaven only entered it when he fell off his bike. When these discrepancies were pointed out to Hereford police, the charges against Mr Heaven were dropped.

His lawyer is Darren Hackley-Green, a motor defence specialist with NewLaw. "From the evidence of both Mr Heaven and the car driver and an examination of the road, it was clear that the accident couldn't have occurred as shown in the police sketch," Darren Hackley-Green explains. "There was simply no basis for arguing that Mr Heaven was not permitted to overtake at that point or that there was no room to do so. The sketch suggested that, but it was wholly inaccurate. A fresh examination showed the circumstances were quite different from those suggested initially by police, and so charges were subsequently withdrawn."

In a statement, Joseph Heaven said: "The gravel was obvious when the police were investigating, and their 'statement of fact' didn't bear any resemblance to the actual road markings at the scene. I protested my innocence clearly, yet the police insisted I admit I had been riding irresponsibly even while I was in pain and being treated at the roadside for a broken collar bone, shoulder blade and several broken ribs. "The withdrawal of charges has therefore come as a great relief."

15/04/2010