A VAN driver accused of causing the death of a motorcyclist on the M6 near Rugby will not stand trial until more than two years after the tragedy.
Christopher Jackson pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to causing the death of motorcyclist Gary King in September 2016 by careless driving.
Mr King, riding a green Kawasaki, is said to have gone into the back of Jackson’s Renault Trafic van after it had collided with a Vauxhall Zafira on the M6 southbound at junction one at just before 1pm on September 14.
When paramedics arrived on the scene they found he had gone into cardiac arrest as a result of his injuries.
And despite their efforts at the scene and in the ambulance, nothing could be done to save him, and he was declared dead following their arrival at University Hospital in Coventry.
Graham Blower, defending, had asked for the charge not to be put to Jackson.
He explained: “If he has to be arraigned, it will be not guilty, but I would like time to have a look at the essential evidence, the dashcam and CCTV footage.”
But prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith commented: “There is one person who knows whether he drove carelessly, and that’s the defendant, and he ought to be arraigned in my submission.”
Judge Sally Hancox agreed, and declared: “I am going to ask for the defendant to be arraigned today.”
After Jackson, 29, of Ennerdale Road, Rushden, Northants, had entered his not guilty plea, she adjourned the case for trial, which the court heard could not take place until November – more than two years after the collision.
The judge, who granted Jackson bail until then, also ordered that a pre-trial review hearing should take place after the defence have had time to consider the dashcam and CCTV recordings.
