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Driver who killed pedestrian without realising spared prison

A driver knocked over and killed a man on a Dudley road – but didn’t realise until he saw a police appeal the following day, a court heard.

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The scene in Amblecote High Street at the time

Kieran Baddams left a Wall Heath hotel where he was staying with a friend just before 3am in his Peugeot 307 to buy cigarettes from a nearby garage, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

“During the journey he became aware he had struck something.

"He did not know what it was but it caused serious damage to the car,” said Miss Rachel Pennington, prosecuting.

After returning to the hotel the now 21-year-old told his friend what had happened and the pair took a taxi back to the scene in Amblecote near Stourbridge Football Club’s War Memorial ground.

They found parts of the car but nothing that might have explained what he had struck, continued Miss Rachel Pennington.

The Peugeot had been wrecked in the collision. But after the taxi took Baddams back to the hotel he got into his unroadworthy car and drove it home.

The following day he saw an appeal for information about a 37-year-old man who had died in Amblecote High Street during the early hours of December 16, 2017, and gave himself up.

Condition

Baddams was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving but this was dropped.

Tests showed the deceased – 37-year-old Krzyzstof Klasowski from West Bromwich – had a ‘significant’ amount of alcohol in his blood and was wearing camouflage-type clothing, said Miss Pennington, who added that evidence suggested he had stepped into the road.

However the defendant was accused of dangerous driving because the condition of the car.

Baddams, of Mendip Close, Lower Gornal, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and was given a 12-month community order with 50 hours of unpaid work, a year-long driving ban and an order to pay £500 costs.

He avoided a jail term as Judge Jinder Singh Boora told him: “This is an unusual case as it is about the condition of the car and not your driving.

“You were driving normally when you struck a man who died as a result. This was not your fault.

"After the initial collision your car was unroadworthy but you drove it to your home with protruding bits of metal that could have caused serious injury to pedestrians and other road users.

"You co-operated with the police, are contrite and have suffered psychologically knowing that the man died."

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