A Rugby woman is to stand trial next year – more than 18 months after two girls were badly injured when her car was involved in a crash with a lorry.
Sheila Williams, 55, of Malvern Avenue, Rugby, pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to two charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The court heard the charges followed a crash at the A5 junction with Rugby Road on October 28 last year.
Prosecutor Sharon Bahia said: “The incident occurred at about ten past four in the afternoon, when serious injuries were caused to two passengers in the car driven by this defendant.”
She said Williams had an adult passenger and the two girls, aged 12 and 16, in her Nissan Micra.
Miss Bahia said it was alleged that Williams had pulled out of the side road, overtaking another car and going into the path of a lorry coming in the opposite direction.
There followed a collision with the lorry in which the two girls were seriously injured.
But Williams’s barrister Nicholas Syfret QC, who observed that the lorry was doing 62mph when it started braking, said the defence case was that she had pulled into a right-turning lane.
“The lorry must have reacted to seeing her in the road and skidded into the stationary car,” he suggested.
A report has been prepared by a police expert and, being told that a report was also being prepared for the defence by another collision investigator, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said: “We’re going to need a further hearing.”
She adjourned the case for review hearing to take place before a trial, which is expected to last four days, in June next year, and Williams was granted unconditional bail.
