A MOTORCYCLIST was killed by a car driver who was “singing” to music before being kissed by a widow on the road.
Lynda Hewitt found husband Robert Hewitt dead after hearing terrifying sounds that turned out to be a car hitting his bike just meters from their home.
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Robert Hewitt, 64, was turning right onto a side road near his home when he was killed Credit: Lincolnshire Police
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Ruth Upsall is closed
She was aware he was coming back and checked the phone’s tracking app to confirm his whereabouts after hearing the crash while he was working in the garden.
Driver Ruth Upsall, 28, hit the back of Mr Hewitt’s motorbike head on without seeing him, MailOnline reports.
The 64-year-old victim was pointing right onto a minor road off the A52 at Frampton Fen in Lincolnshire.
In a victim impact statement, Mrs Hewitt told Lincoln Crown Court last week: “I had to lean into the road to kiss my husband of over 40 years.”
Prosecutor Jon Dee said Mrs Hewitt rushed to the scene after checking the app and found her husband dead by the side of the road.
The incident happened around 3:45 p.m. on October 9, 2023.
Mr Dee argued that there must have been more to the crash than a momentary inattention because the motorcycle “was stopped for a while with its indicator on”.
Upsall stopped at the scene but Mr Hewitt suffered fatal neck and head injuries.
During a police interview, Upsall said she did not see Mr Hewitt until she was several car lengths away.
She claimed she braked alongside, and there was no evidence of that on the road, the court heard.
Mr Dee said: “There was music and she was singing.”
Upsall, of Heron Way, Boston, pleaded guilty to causing Mr Hewitt’s death by careless driving at her first court appearance.
Mrs Hewitt read her victim impact statement in which she described her husband, known as Bob, as her “soulmate” and explained how they married after just three weeks.
She also described the horror of the scraping sound of the crash and the approaching air ambulance.
Upsall is a rehabilitation worker for a mental health charity and has a master’s degree in forensic psychology.
Neil Sands, defending, argued she was suitable for a suspended sentence.
“This will never, ever leave her,” he added.
Recorder John Philpotts sentenced her to 10 months in prison on Thursday.
He said speed was not a factor in the crash, but he could not ignore her previous unrelated speeding conviction.
On Thursday, Upsall was jailed for months, Recorder John Philpotts told Upsall that while speed was not a factor in the crash, he could not overlook the fact that she had a previous speeding conviction.
He told her she “just wasn’t concentrating well”.
Upsall was also banned from driving for 17 months.
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Source: HIS Education