£2,200 fine for police officer who crashed into islander's car

Friday 19 January 2018

A 30-year-old police officer who ran a red light at David Place while on duty, and then crashed into a car, has been disqualified for three months, and ordered to pay a £2,200 fine by the Magistrate's Court.

Adrian Hobson was responding to a call from a colleague who was in “personal danger” when he crossed the red light in his BMW around 01:30 on 24 October 2016 and crashed into a Mini Cooper coming from Stopford Road.

The collision, which the police officer who attended the scene described as a "t-bone accident" - where the front of one vehicle crashes into the side of another - sent the Mini Cooper into a traffic light, which was destroyed. 

Mr Hobson was charged with dangerous driving, but he later pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of careless driving, which the prosecution accepted.

Presenting the case for prosecution, Sam Brown said that, "luckily" there were no injuries to members of the public as a result of the collision but that irreparable damage was done to the vehicles and traffic light. 

Mr Brown also noted that Mr Hobson had "a genuine need to attend an emergency scene," and that the Prosecution did not seek to "criticise his driving before the collision took place." He however added that Mr Hobson was careless when he crossed the stop light at David Place.

Advocate Alison Brown, who was defending Mr Hobson, told Court that he was a man of good character and a serving police officer, who moved to Jersey five years ago. She said he regretted the incident and the impact it had on all. 

She told the Court that when the incident took place, the roads were devoid of traffic, and no pedestrians. She explained that Mr Hobson had received an urgent call from a colleague who was "in personal danger."

Advocate Brown said that Mr Hobson's decisions had been "snap" ones which took place while he was hearing on the radio that officers were being surrounded as well as several "code 1," which meant a real emergency.

She said: "He was driving down the road and this was ringing down his ears. These were snap decisions he had made and this must go to mitigation." She described the decision to run the red light as a "momentary lapse in judgment and concentration."

Advocate Brown also told Court that Mr Hobson's case should be distinguished from a previous case in which the officers were respectively fined £2,000 and £1,000 after they crashed into each other while separately responding to an emergency ‘Code 1’ alert on 6 July 2016.

Returning his sentence, the Magistrate said that while it is widely accepted by the public that drivers of emergency vehicles "should not be required to drive by every road traffic law," the question of public safety applies in all circumstances. He added that, had Mr Hobson started decelerating quicker, he would have been able to do a "proper assessment of the risks approaching the junction and the collision would have been avoided."

He fined Mr Hobson £2,200 and disqualified him for three months, saying: "If it was any member of the public, there is no doubt they would face disqualification. Evidently Mr Hobson’s driving was for a legitimate purpose (...) He was driving seriously but nevertheless didn’t drive carefully. I am obliged to disqualify him for three months."

(Picture: Google Maps)