Pedestrian, 86, mowed down by driver after raising hand to say 'thanks', court hears

Pedestrian, 86, mowed down by driver after raising hand to say 'thanks', court hears Maureen Sanderson, 86, died after she was hit by 58-year-old charity worker Tracie Spowage’s white Nissan Juke while she was crossing the road in Aspley, Nottingham An elderly pedestrian put her hand up to thank a driver waiting at a junction before she was knocked down and killed, a court heard. Maureen Sanderson, 86, died two days after she was hit by 58-year-old charity worker Tracie Spowage’s white Nissan Juke while she was crossing the road on October 13 last year. Spowage was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to causing Mrs Sanderson’s death by careless or inconsiderate driving in Nuthall Road in Aspley, Nottingham. The defendant from Basford, Nottingham, was handed a 10-month jail term, suspended for 12 months, and disqualified from driving for 18 months. Outlining the case, prosecutor Philip Cowburn told the court Spowage was leaving a car park when she waited at the junction leading onto Nuthall Road for 14 seconds. Mrs Sanderson decided to cross the road in front of the stationary car. He said: “Maureen is seen to raise her hand out in the ‘thank you’ motion towards the car, seemingly thanking this defendant for waiting. Mrs Sanderson, Maureen, reaches the midpoint of the Nissan Juke. This defendant drives forwards and collides with her. Maureen falls to the ground and is taken underneath the Nissan Juke.” The court heard that Mrs Sanderson was taken to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, but she was pronounced dead less than two days later on October 15. Spowage, who has been driving for nearly 30 years, already had three points on her licence for speeding on a 30mph road two years earlier, the court was told. Judge Steven Coupland told the defendant that Mrs Sanderson was “entitled to cross the road where she did”. He said: “You are here because you did not keep a proper look out or check before moving off.” Defence barrister Lucky Thandi said “there wasn’t a complete check to the left” by Spowage, but she did “check to the right which is the direction traffic was flowing”. Ms Thandi said: “It’s plain, as Your Honour has already noted, that there was a number of seconds between which Mrs Sanderson would have been in view and the point at which the impact occurs.” The barrister said of the defendant: “She now knows for the rest of her life she will carry the guilt. She accepts not just through her guilty plea … that she was responsible for this and does not seek to diminish that responsibility in any way.” The court heard Mrs Sanderson was described as a “strong lady with a zest for life” by her loved ones. Michelle Sanderson, Mrs Sanderson’s daughter, described seeing her mother’s clothes “cut from her” after the collision and “her favourite coat covered in blood”. In a victim impact statement read to the court by the prosecutor, she said Mrs Sanderson’s family had to make the decision to turn off the pensioner’s ventilator. She said: “We had been put in this situation, a situation no one should be put in.” As part of Spowage’s sentence, the judge ordered her to attend 30 rehabilitation sessions and handed her a six-month curfew meaning she cannot leave her home address between 8pm and 6am.