Crime Solicitors

A West Midlands traffic officer has told a court that he felt the speed he was travelling at as he answered an immediate response call was legitimate – despite the act he failed to see a student on a pedestrian crossing until it was too late and ploughed into him, killing him.

The Express and Star newspaper reports that 43-year-old PC Vaughan Lowe, from Stourbridge hit 24-year-old Zhang Xuan Wei – a student at Birmingham City University – in April 2012 as he answered an immediate response call in Birmingham city centre.

PC Lowe is facing charges of causing death by careless driving. He told Warwick Crown Court that he did not see the student until he was inside the confines of the pedestrian crossing:

“He literally came from my off-side into the path of the vehicle,” said PC Lowe in court.

The student was hit as he crossed a dual carriageway by the unmarked BMW Lowe was driving.

The student was using a pelican crossing on the A34 New Town Row in Birmingham at around 7pm as he and a friend made their way to a takeaway.

The student had crossed the first part of the dual carriageway and had “walked or jogged” to the second half to cross the rest of the dual carriageway.

PC Lowe was in uniform a with another officer in the car and was responding to a call about a sighting of an Audi S3 that had failed to stop for other police officers and had been spotted in Aston – about a mile away from where PC Lowe and his colleague were when they received the call.

The officer told the court he had activated the unmarked police car’s blue light and siren and had driven through red traffic lights before reaching the three-lane carriageway, which had a bus lane as well as two other traffic lanes. PC Lowe said he had intended to use the bus lane. He told the court:

“I have been aware that there are pedestrians on the crossing slightly obscured from my view, crossing from my off-side. As lane three is clear of traffic I made the decision to move into lane three.”

PC Lowe said as he approached the pelican crossing, the lights began to flash amber when he was about 100 metres away.

“There were no persons approaching from the nearside,” he said. “I can see no persons to the off-side of the crossing, and there were no people on the crossing.
“As I got into the confines of the crossing, Mr Zhang has run in front of my vehicle on the crossing,” he told the court.

The court heard that PC Lowe had reduced his speed from 62mph to 52mph – but it is alleged that he was still driving too fast at the time of the incident as the speed limit on the road is 30mph.

PC Lowe was responding to a call in an area known for gun crime and told the court he felt that he and his colleague were potentially investigating a serious case involving gangs and gun crime.

However, the prosecution told the court that PC Lowe’s driving had fallen “below the standard of a competent and careful driver”.

He was interviewed about the death of Zhang Xuan Wei by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in August 2012.

The trial continues.

Duncan Lewis Crime Lawyers – Motoring Offences

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For expert criminal law advice and representation for interview under caution, call Duncan Lewis crime lawyers on 020 7923 4020.

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