A judge has condemned the working practices of parcel delivery companies as a “disaster waiting to happen” while jailing a DPD driver for killing a woman he mowed down as she crossed the road.
Driver Kamil Zieba was caught on his own dashcam camera recklessly mounting pavements and paying little attention to his driving while he checked his scanner or rolled a cigarette in the hours running up to the crash.
At about 3pm on May 21, 2020, his Mercedes Sprinter van hit Jennifer Davies as she crossed the Seven Dials roundabout. She died two days later of inoperable head injuries.
Mrs Davies was married to Tim Davies, founder of the Grubbs Burger Chain, who sold all but one of the restaurants in the aftermath of the crash.
In a victim impact statement read out in court, he said he depended on her for so many things, and “misses her so much”.
Zieba, 41, of Waterloo Street, denied causing death by dangerous driving, and driving dangerously before the crash.
Today, a jury at Hove Crown Court acquitted him of the first charge, but found him guilty of dangerous driving. Zieba had already pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of causing death by careless driving.
Sentencing, David Rennie said the trial had heard that drivers were paid £1 for every parcel, and were expected to deliver up to 180 in an eight-hour shift – or one every 2.5 minutes.
A traffic light system on the dashboard warns drivers they are falling behind with amber and red lights, which could get a driver fired.
He said: “Putting purely commercial interests to one side, I doubt that any right-thinking person would see this as anything other that a disaster waiting to happen.
“In this case, that disaster led to a death, and a devastated family.
“It is my sincere hope that those who are in a position to influence things are able to bring about or recommend changes to some of these practices, because in my judgement they create highly dangerous situations on our roads.
“If changes are not made then other families, like the Davies family, will be needlessly torn apart in the future.”
During the trial, the jury was shown upsetting footage from the dashcam and local businesses’ CCTV which showed the moment of the collision.
Judge Rennie said: “Anyone watching that video could be forgiven for thinking that it was only a matter of time before something terrible happened… and it did.
“It was the extremely careless way you chose to drive that day killed Mrs Davies, and that was completely avoidable.
Where was the person crossing? If it’s at the roundabout because lazy then that’s the design decision of the person who redesigned this.
It’s very clearly the driver’s fault.
DPD drivers get paid for every delivery not parcel.
The difference being there is always more parcels than deliveries.
Just a small note about the accuracy of this article.
E.g. if he/she had 150 deliveries (drops) it is likely that he/she had 150-220 parcels. Just saying.
Accuracy is important.