Safe Speed Forums

I'm sure there is some CCTV or perhaps the cyclists watch that could show what time the accident took place, and if an incoming message was read shortly before it wouldn't look good.

But I know that not good enough for the courts, and rightly so. There are lots of examples of innocent parties becoming caught up because things "didn't look good".

We don't even know the full facts so this is largely pointless. But I'm utterly unconvinced that it has got anything to with the council!!

Like several others here I'm intrested how "recieved a text while driving" makes a quantum leap to "she must have been replying, lets make that accusation and make her prove innocence" Given that a driver has no control over when people choose to send them messages, how does the network indicating reciept of one prove anything? It does nothing more than give a clue. Are prosecutors allowed to make such statements based on clues and presumptions? I thought you needed evidence to back it up?

I was thinking that whatever she had been doing on the phone would probably have been interrupted if she used it to call an ambulance. Which only adds to the complication.

Jurors heard that Jordan, who lived in Woolston Road, Netley, had momentarily stopped at the traffic lights but then went through them when they were red. He was about two-thirds across the junction when Coultas struck him in her BMW.

and queried her speed in the 30mph limit. But the answer became clear when checks were made on her mobile phone.

Driver's text messages were no accident, court heard
By John Hoskins

Keira Coultas
TEXT messages from a driver accused of knocking down a teenage cyclist could not have been sent by accident, a court heard.

An expert told jurors that Keira Coultas would have had to open her phone and press at least four buttons to send a text.

The prosecution claims that Coultas, 25, was texting her estranged husband when she collided with Jordan Wickington, 19, at the junction of Mountbatten Way and West Quay Road, Southampton, shortly after 7am on February 7 last year.

Jordan had momentarily stopped at the lights in Mountbatten Way but then carried on - though the lights were still against him.

He was about two-thirds across the junction when a BMW, driven by Coultas, came through green lights in West Quay Road and struck him side on.

The teenager - who lived in Woolston Road, Netley Abbey - died hours later in hospital from severe head injuries.

advertisementThe city crown court has been told that Coultas was on her way to the hotel in Hythe where she worked, to meet her estranged husband, Chris, when she received a text message from him.

Jurors were shown a log chronicling the calls Coultas had made or received at the time of the accident.


Jordan Wickington
DC Stephen Case described how he had determined their order and timing after examining her Samsung mobile phone.

The officer - who is based with the communications intelligence unit at Netley - was handed a summary of the network times of phone calls and messages on her phone.

The sequence began at 7.08.08 with a text message from Chris Coultas to his estranged wife. Forty-seven seconds later she sent a text back.

The court heard Coultas then dialled her current boyfriend but no message was recorded, either because she terminated it or there was no connection, and then immediately phoned the emergency services.

Ten minutes later, she again rang her estranged husband and then her boyfriend.

Coultas, of Frost Lane, Hythe, denies causing death by dangerous driving.

Proceeding

I remember someone saying to me that "a green light only ever means proceed with caution, as you can't tell what someone else will do."

If this was car v car who would they be prosecuting?

"If she was doing that and texting, that is certainly dangerous because she wasn't looking ahead."

poor Aaron who is fist in my names list has sent me a text saying "stop f**king texting me" because my phone has managed to send him 20 or so text messages due to being knocked about by the other contents of my pocket.