Jerry Daniell (pictured) was riding his bike ‘properly and correctly’ when he was crashed into by William Searle, a court heard
A pensioner who killed a motorcyclist had been to Specsavers for an eye test just two weeks earlier, a court heard.
William Searle, 74, had his sight tested by the high street opticians and was handed back his licence by the DVLA as a result, Exeter Crown Court heard.
However Mr Searle would crash into Jerry Daniell after pulling out at a service station, leaving the 52-year-old with fatal head injuries.
Mr Daniell was riding his Yamaha motorbike down a hill when Searle’s red Mercedes pulled out from the entrance of a garage workshop into his path as the car turned right on to the 30mph road.
The accident was just two days after Searle’s driving licence had been renewed by the DVLA on the basis of an optician’s report from Specsavers.
Police officers who tested Mr Searle’s sight in the days after the fatal crash found that he could not read a number plate from 65ft away.
Bathsheba Cassell, prosecuting, said: ‘He was unable to correctly read a number plate from 65ft on three separate occasions.’
A jury heard that Mr Daniell was riding his bike ‘properly and correctly’ along Shaldon Road near Newton Abbot, Devon, on September 22 last year, before he was hit.
The biker struck the car’s door and he was catapulted into the air and landed on his head in the road. He died the next morning in hospital.
Forensic collision investigator John Hitchcock said the Yamaha bike would have been in view for 300ft and the rider would have been visible for between five and twelve seconds.
Searle, who suffers from diabetes and an irregular heart beat, told the jury hebelieved he was safe to drive and that his eyesight was not defective.
He said: ‘I looked with care. I looked right and then left and then right and pulled out. I did not see anything happen and then I heard a big bang and that was it.
Exeter Crown Court (pictured) heard William Searle, 74, had his sight tested by the high street opticians and was given his licence back
‘I was driving as I normally would. I heard the bump and thought something had hit me from behind. Ever since the accident my memory has been clicking on and off.
‘I never saw the motorcycle. I cannot answer why I did not see it. I had been to Specsavers and had my eyes checked. They never said that I should not drive.’
He told police he thought it was the biker’s fault saying: ‘I never saw him before or after the impact.’
Miss Cassell said: ‘The prosecution say a careful and competent driver would have seen Mr Daniell as he proceeded along the road.
‘The defendant did not and caused Mr Daniell’s death.’
Searle, of Haccombe, Devon, said he looked right, left then right again before he pulled out of the service station.
He told police ‘as far as he was concerned his eyesight was good’, said Mr Cassell.
Exeter Crown Court heard Searle has ‘significant medical conditions’ but they did not contribute to the crash.
As he is aged over 70, the DVLA is entitled to ask any licence holder wishing to renew to first provide proof that they have passed a sight exam.
Miss Cassell said eye experts ‘are in broad agreement that he had some eye sight defects which would have contributed to the collision’.
Miss Cassell asked the jury to consider whether Searle ‘turned a blind eye’ to his sight defects.
Searle denies causing the death of Mr Daniell by careless driving and his trial continues.
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