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James Greenwood

Age: 61

Sex: male

Date: 7 Apr 2018

Place: A66, Keswick, Lake District

James Greenwood died in a road accident.

He was hit on an unlit section of the A66 near Keswick as he walked back to a campsite with some friends after visiting a pub by a man in a BMW 1 series car at 12.30am on 7 April 2018.

However, the man left James Greenwood to die in the road and drove off and later pretended his car had been stolen. He said that he recalled hearing a 'big bang' on the windscreen, but said that he didn't realise he had hit someone.

James Greenwood died soon after paramedics arrived at the scene. The man in the BMW drove off without stopping. It was noted that James Greenwood's friend had only the lights of their mobile phones to assist them in finding out what had happened.

However, part of his numberplate and a piece of the BMW insignia were left behind at the scene and his windscreen had been smashed.

After the incident he was said to have driven off at speeds of up to 104mph to a remote woodland, Setmurthy Woods, near Bassenthwaite, 12 miles away where he abandoned his car and arranged for a friend to pick him up. They had both known the woodland well as they had been there before together to ride their mountain bikes.

He left the car with its radio and headlights on and keys in the ignition to make it look like it had been stolen and later said that it had been stolen.

The man's car was described as being worth £15,000.

However, he was not tried for causing James Greenwood's death and faced no charges relating to the accident itself. It was heard that a police investigator concluded that the man's BMW car had swerved immediately before impact and concluded that his actions 'were those expected of a reasonable and competent driver'.

His phone was not recovered by the police but the man denied throwing it away. The police said that the man had attempted to avoid detection by throwing away his phone. The friend that had picked the man up near the remote woodland had deleted all calls that had been made between him and the man after 11pm.

It was said that after the man was picked up that they went to an estate in Cockermouth where his partner's sister lived with her boyfriend. The boyfriend said that the man had wanted to borrow the spare key for his partner's address on the same estate. The boyfriend said, 'He seemed quite startled. And in my opinion he seemed quite panicked'. When they were told that there was no spare key they went off but returned shortly after and asked to stay the night.

The following morning at about 7am they woke up and had a conversation. The man's partner’s sister said, 'He said 'something really bad has happened. I think I might have hit someone in the road'. The sister said that the man then said, 'I'm pretty sure it's a person but it might not have been'. She said that he then advised him to go to the police, noting that he seemed quite upset. She said that soon after that the police arrived.

When the sister was asked at the trial whether the man said anything about hiding his car or throwing away his phone, she replied, 'No'.

When the judge asked the sister whether the man had asked to borrow her phone to call the police the sister replied, 'No'.

The first trial collapsed after the jury failed to reach a verdict on 6 September 2019 and a retrial was ordered. However, they were convicted in October 2019 but appealed their sentences.

The man later admitted hitting James Greenwood and said that he 'panicked and kept driving' as he was shocked and upset. He said, 'If I'd known I'd hit Mr Greenwood I would have stopped'.

The man that hit James Greenwood was acquitted of perverting the course of justice but convicted of dangerous driving with a smashed windscreen, failing to report an accident and failing to stop and sentenced to 16 months and banned from driving for four years. His friend was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment after being convicted of criminal conduct. However, they both appealed their sentences and the man's friend had his sentence replaced with a suspended sentence of 8 months.

When the judge had sentenced the man, he said, 'You could have, and should have, stopped at the side of the A66. You did not. You drove off, and I am satisfied that at that moment your only concern was for yourself. You cared not one jot at that moment what or who you had struck on that road. You were intent only on trying to put as much distance as possible between you and that accident. It is sheer good fortune that you weren’t involved in another collision on your reckless journey from Braithwaite to Setmurthy. The driving was especially dangerous given the speeds you must have reached and the distance you covered in a car wholly compromised in its safety by almost total occlusion of vision'.


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