Claims driver was texting just before fatal toddler accident

Monday 12 June 2017

The trial of a 39-year-old woman accused of causing the death of three-year-old Clinton Pringle by dangerous driving opened this morning with the prosecution stating that she had been texting seconds before the collision happened.

39-year-old Rebekah Le Gal is pleading not guilty to one charge of causing death by dangerous driving. She's pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of careless driving.

This morning, HM Solicitor General, Mark Temple, outlined the prosecution's case stating that Ms Le Gal had committed, "...three criminal failures as she drove down Tunnel Street," on 27 June 2016, one of them being the use of her mobile phone. He said that phone records showed that she had sent a text to her son one minute and 37 seconds before a first call to emergency services was made. 

He alleged that she, "...disregarded traffic signals she should have observed," and "...failed to see warning signs," despite "...a clear and unobstructed view."

"If the defendant had paid heed to the 'no entry' sign she wouldn't have been driving on that part of Tunnel Street. She did not see Clinton Pringle and his cousin on the street as they crossed. They would have been in her view for three seconds each, with nine seconds between the two. She did not heed the shouts of warnings from the mother and the aunt, who were waving their arms to tell her to come to a stop."

Mr Temple then went on to allege that Ms Le Gal had hidden her mobile phone in her VW Transporter and failed to mention she had been using it during her first police interview. The mobile phone was recovered three days after the accident, upon inspection. 

He claimed that when shown her phone records, Ms Le Gal explained that she had pre-typed a message to her son while in her driveway, which was sent a little later while she was going over the speed bumps on Tunnel Street. Upon being arrested she apparently explained she didn't realise she had hit Clinton on the street, and that she hadn't seen anyone on either side of the road.

Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, sitting with Jurats Mike Liston and Jane Ronge, went for a site visit on Tunnel Street in late morning with the Solicitor General and Ms Le Gal's Advocate Matthew Jowitt. Clinton's mother, Stacey Pringle, and his aunt will be giving evidence this afternoon as proceedings resume. A bystander who witnessed the scene and tried to free Clinton from under the van will also be called in.