David Fudge death: Driver, 88, convicted over fatal U-turn crash

An 88-year-old driver who killed a motorcyclist while making a U-turn has been found guilty of causing death by careless driving.

David Fudge, 66, was killed as he carried out a legal overtake on the A4146 near Billington, Bedfordshire, on 18 November, 2018.

A trial heard William Curtis "failed to ensure a safe gap" and chose an "inappropriate" place to make the turn.

Jurors were also told errors were made in an original police report in 2019.

The Chief Constable of Bedfordshire Police, Garry Forsyth, apologised to the family for "failings" in the investigation.

Curtis, of Oak Close, Irchester, Northamptonshire, is due to be sentenced on 30 September.

Cambridge Crown Court heard Curtis was driving his wife in a Hyundai i10 and took the "wrong exit at a roundabout" shortly after 13:00 GMT.

The A4146 was a three-lane single carriageway with a national speed limit of 60mph (95km/h), the court was told.

Curtis pulled into a "patch of hard standing" at an access gate by the single lane southbound side of the road, and was attempting to perform a U-turn on to the two-lane northbound side, it was said.

Jurors heard how Mr Fudge, who was travelling southbound and performing a lawful overtake, collided with Curtis and died at the scene.

The trial was told there was "no evidence to say he was exceeding the speed limit".

Forensic collision investigator PC Ed Colley said he believed the "primary causes of the collision were two-fold".

They were "Mr Curtis' choice of U-turn location" and his failure to comply with the duty to ensure a safe gap before conducting his manoeuvre, prosecutor Simon Wilshire said.

But police officers from the same unit disagreed with those conclusions, including PC Bruce Lister, who attended the scene and wrote an original report in 2019.

The officer who reviewed PC Lister's report, PC Matthew Hollingsworth, accepted there were errors in the preparation of that report.

PC Lister accepted he used a speed calculation which was wrong to use in the circumstances.

Chief Constable Mr Forsyth added: "The failings in the investigation into the collision undoubtedly compounded the pain, suffering and grief that Mr Fudge's wife and family have had to endure since his death, and I am genuinely sorry for that.

"The learnings from this case informed a review and restructure of the teams responsible for the investigation of fatal collisions to make improvements and ultimately prevent it from happening again."

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