Charges dropped against Hove traffic PC involved in death crash

A Hove traffic policeman appeared before magistrates today having been summonsed for driving with defective tyres.

The case followed an accident in which a 20-year-old man died and another man was injured.

PC Stewart Chalmers learnt in court today that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was discontinuing the two charges of having defective tyres.

He was driving home from a shift at the time of the fatal crash.

The subsequent investigation concluded that the state of his tyres had not been a factor.

PC Chalmers, 31, of New Town, Uckfield, was driving his Lotus sports car shortly after 1am on Saturday 14 February 2009 when he crashed, killing pedestrian Luke Bland.

Mr Bland, a former member of the 6th Hove Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps, who lived in Lime Close, Uckfield, was standing at the side of the road.

He had been involved in a minor accident on the icy road in the car in which he had been travelling.

PC Chalmers’s car also struck Mr Bland’s friend Ben Blackford, 21, who suffered serious head injuries.

The accident happened on the A26 at Little Horsted near the junction with the A22.

Sussex Police said that it had conducted an investigation and submitted evidence to the CPS, as it would with any other motorist.

The CPS told Fareham magistrates today that it wished to discontinue the case.

Superintendent Tony Blaker, of the Sussex Police Roads Policing Unit, said: “Today events conclude the criminal investigation into the tragic incident which resulted in the death of Luke Bland.

“We recognise that this has been a lengthy and traumatic experience for his family and friends and would again like to express our sincerest condolences to them.”

PC Chalmers was found not guilty of causing death by careless driving at Maidstone Crown Court in July last year.

The two cases were prosecuted separately because the tyres were not considered to be a factor in the fatal crash.