Driver cleared of causing death of man when his lorry shed load of straw bales
A HGV driver has been cleared of causing the death of a Lincolnshire man by dangerous driving after his lorry shed straw bales on the A15 near Lincoln.
The collision involving a Land Rover Discovery and a Scania Lorry being driven by Matthew Weaver, 43, happened on the A15 near the Wragby Road roundabout at about 12.20pm on March 14, 2022.
The 39-year-old driver of the Land Rover Discovery, Brad Watson, from Rand, near Market Rasen, was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Weaver, of Tattenhall Road, Chester, was charged with causing the death of Mr Watson by dangerous driving in what was believed the first prosecution of its kind and faced two trials at Lincoln Crown Court after he denied the offence.
A jury on Wednesday (November 12) found Mr Weaver, a HGV driver with two decades experience, not guilty of the charge after jurors in a previous trial failed to reach a verdict.
The court heard Mr Weaver was delivering a load of straw bales to a biomass power station in Brigg when a strap detached after slackening and losing tension.
Defence barrister Richard Dawson conceeded the load became "objectively dangerous" at that stage but suggested the "tragic and terrible" death of Mr Watson was an "accident in the truest sense."
In his closing speech Mr Dawson told jurors that Mr Weaver had made that same journey up to four times a day and had strapped that load using the method he was trained in and that had never failed him before.
Mr Dawson said with hindsight the method of strapping the bales was "objectively dangerous" but argued it was not "obviously dangerous" to Mr Weaver when he tightened and checked his load before setting off.
"In your judgement would that ordinary, reasonable lorry driver have looked at that load and immediately thought that is obviously dangerous," Mr Dawson asked the jury to consider.
Mr Dawson stressed that Mr Weaver was interviewed at length by the police following the collision, but at no point was it suggested that the load was obviously dangerous.
"Mr Weaver did not set out to kill anyone, it never entered his mind he would injure anyone," Mr Dawson said.
Following the not guilty verdict Judge Catarina Sjolin Knight told Mr Weaver he was free to leave the dock.
Judge Sjolin Knight told Mr Weaver: "You have been aquitted by the jury. That is the end of these proceedings."