Crash driver fined

A DRIVER has been fined 1,000 for causing a car crash which killed a Peacehaven father-of-three.

David Winder, 59, of St John's Close, who worked as a scaffolding manager, died in a head-on collision on the A259 between Friston and Exceat on September 3 last year.

In addition to the fine the driver of the other car Ashley Jones, 23, of St Anne's Road, Eastbourne, received a three-year-ban and was ordered to retake his driving test before being allowed back on the roads.

At Hove Crown Court this week Jones was cleared of the more serious charge of causing death by dangerous driving but convicted of careless driving.

Prosecutor Stephen Shay said: 'The accident happened when the defendant decided to overtake and it was in the course of that overtaking manoeuvre that he was in the wrong side of the road and crashed almost head-on into Mr Winder's car.'

Mr Shay told the court how Jones was part of a line of vehicles behind a van.

Witness Bennett Mott saw a Cavalier car pull out to overtake the van followed by Jones's Fiesta. He said: 'I saw the blue Fiesta pull out and overtake at the same time as the Cavalier.

'The Cavalier pulled in sharply with the brake lights on and I could see a glint of another vehicle coming and then there was a crash.'

In sentencing, Judge Austin Issard-Davies told Jones: 'You have by your actions cruelly altered the entire lives of one family. You don't need me to tell you that.'