A driver whose car hit a pedestrian and flung him in the air could not have done anything to avoid the collision, a traffic collision expert told a court this week.
Andy Clark was left with a catalogue of severe injuries after he was struck by Kamal Rezaye’s Ford Focus on Portland Road, Hove.
He told Brighton Magistrates Court yesterday that he remembers checking it was safe to cross after pausing in the middle of the road before walking to the kerb.
But defence expert Simon Hall said after examining CCTV footage, he concluded Mr Clark must be misremembering.
Mr Hall, who has worked as a police investigator and advanced driving instructor, used the CCTV footage to calculate the speed Rezaye’s Ford Focus was travelling just after impact.
He said he estimated the car, which was already braking when caught on CCTV just after the impact, was travelling between 22mph and 27mph – and said this meant it would probably have been going at about 30mph when it hit Mr Clark – the same as the road’s speed limit.
He also calculated the gaps between three cars travelling in the opposite direction, one of which Mr Clark must have walked through on his way across the road.
He said: “His evidence is that he got to the middle of the road and waited before crossing. It’s also his evidence that there were no vehicles crossing from his right, when CCTV shows three vehicles around that time.
“I suspect that his recollection is mistaken. Mr Clark crossed between two cars travelling in the opposite direction to Mr Rezaye, so Mr Rezaye wouldn’t have had a clear sight of him.”
Rezaye’s defence counsel Jack Jennett said: “Is there anything Mr Rezaye could have done to avoid the collision?”
Mr Hall replied: “No.”
Under cross examination from prosecutor David Packer, Mr Hall said Mr Clark’s severe injuries and the fact he was flung in the air were consistent with being hit at 30mph.
Rezaye, 24, an Afghan refugee who came to the UK as a child in 2015, was in the car with his friend Mohammed Moradi when the crash happened.
Mr Moradi had recently passed his test and Rezaye told the court he was giving him safety tips when the crash happened.
He said: “I was driving carefully because I was hoping my family would be able to come over and reunite with me. I was applying for British citizenship. I didn’t want any issues interfering with that.
“Mohammed said stop, there’s a man in front of you. I immediately braked and then I saw the man in the road.. but couldn’t stop and hit him.
“I stopped the car, put on the hazard lights and came to see what happened.”
He said he had been driving extra cautiously and checking his mirrors and looking out for pedestrians.
He added: “He’s to blame, he should have looked. There wasn’t a zebra crossing there. He decided to come in the middle of the cars.
“In a split second, I saw him in front of my car and then I heard a bang.”
The court heard that following the crash, the car was inspected and found to have no defects, and Rezaye was tested for drink and drugs, both of which came back negative.
Rezaye, of Craven Road, Brighton, has held a full licence since passing his test in 2019 and no previous convictions.
Mr Clark was carrying two hot mochas and a bacon roll back to their car from Costa when he was hit at bout 10am on Tuesday, 8 February last year.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Clark’s wife Jenny told the court she thought he had died for a few terrifying minutes after seeing him flying through the air and landing in the road.
The impact left Mr Clark with a shocking list of injuries, including an open fracture to his left elbow, and breaks to his pelvis, left leg, two ribs, left wrist and two bones at the base of his spine.
He also had deep vein thrombosis, deafness in his right ear for ten weeks and a greatly reduced short term memory loss.
He underwent skin grafts and blood tranfusions, and is still walking on crutches almost 18 months after the crash.
Rezaye denies driving without due care and attention. The trial was adjourned until next month.
The content of this article is confusing. I have been a professional driver for many years from class one LGV down , in many capacities.
I know Portland Road very well ,usually busy with shops either side and parking, some set back from the road. Whilst the speed limit is 30 , this is the maximum not a minimum and not a target.
Surely the ‘expert witness’, who is hardly impartial as he is employed by the insurance company , with all his knowledge and experience, knows the section in the Highway Code, rule 126 that states ‘drive at a speed that will allow you to stop well within the distance you can see to be clear’.
Your article states, there were cars driving in the other direction, so how could the driver, Mr Rezaye, see clearly. The fact it was the driver’s passenger, Mr Moradi, who had only recently passed his test, had to tell the driver to stop, suggest the driver wasn’t concentrating.
You don’t say in your report what Mr Moradi said in court, it would be interesting to read his account.
In the meantime, it sounds like Mr Clark will suffer physically and mentally for the rest of his life, all because of the driver’s inability to react to a situation that should be second nature.
Sounds like the speed limit should be 20