An inquest has heard that before a motorcyclist was killed, the now convicted taxi driver, was driving erratically hours before the tragedy.
34 year old motorcyclist Mark Buckley was travelling to work when a taxi being driven by Kevin Wiesztort, veered across the central white line and crashed into him.
The crash happened in March 2014 however, the inquest was told that complaints were made to the police about Weisztort’s hours before the incident occurred.
It should be noted that Weisztort admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for 45 months in 2015.
Helen Neaverson, a police family liaison officer, read out statements from 2 of Weisztort’s earlier passengers who stated that he had been “lane swapping for no apparent reason”.
They also said that at one stage he had taken his sweater off whilst driving which caused him to veer across lanes.
At the end of their journey, one of the passengers, Mrs Newton told Weisztort that he was not fit to drive and that he was “a danger”.
The other passenger, Mr Newton, telephoned Weisztort’s taxi company immediately to make the complaint and was told someone would call him back. No one did.
Mrs Newton continued by stating that had the taxi driver been taken off his shift then the accident would not have taken place.
The inquest further heard form the taxi controller who took the complaint from Mr Newton. She stated that the taxi company owner, Mr Lamb, was out working but she referred to his wife.
It was further heard that Mrs Lamb failed to act on the complaint as she also went on another taxi fare.
The coroner, Mairin Case asked Mrs Lamb if her fare was more important than dealing with the complaint and she replied that she would have “have ended up paying for their holiday” had she not taken the fare to the airport.
Mrs Lamb continued: “I realise what had happened but I wasn’t aware that this complaint was so serious.
“The only message I received was the passengers had complained about him taking his jumper off while driving, which to me was wrong.
“I don’t see what I could have done because Stephanie was telling me she’d spoken to him and he was alright.”
When giving evidence, Mr Lamb stated that had he heard of the complaint he would have stopped Weisztort from driving immediately.
He added that he didn’t think his wife realised how serious the complaint was.
Source: http://www.nottinghampost.com/inquest/story-29836142-detail/story.html
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Carl Millar is a highly respected and experienced drink driving solicitor who is the principal of Millars Solicitors.
Carl has been a specialist in road traffic law for many years and represents clients from all walks of life and all over the Country. He is well known for the dogged defending of his clients and robust cross examination of police officers and exert witnesses.
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