Woman walks free over biker's death

[Mojo67]

Sad story.

From http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17 ... 46,00.html

A WOMAN accused of causing the death of a motorcyclist by dangerous driving yesterday walked out of the District Court after a jury acquitted her of the charge.

Jennifer Anne Worth, a mother of three and a grandmother, had been on trial for allegedly causing the death of Karen Percy in October 2003.
She was also charged with causing bodily injury to Ms Percy's boyfriend Matthew Holland.

During the trial, the court was told Ms Percy, her partner of 3 1/2 years and a small group of friends - all on motorcycles - had just left the outskirts of Mt Barker when Worth's vehicle mounted the median strip and collided with the pair.

They had been on their way home from the Moto GP at Phillip Island.

Yesterday, the jury of eight women and four men took just two hours to acquit Worth, 62, of Goolwa, of all charges, including driving without due care. Ms Percy's family had prepared a written media statement, but their lawyer advised against issuing it.

Both her family and Mr Holland's declined to comment as they left court.
It is believed, however, that Ms Percy's family will now campaign for changes to the law.

Outside court, Worth, flanked by her family, refused to comment.

[Neka79]

OHMFG!!!
that group of riders included me......

i was there that day, we had ridden all the way back from the GP without incident, and we left Matt? and Karen at Mt Barker exit (which is abt 4km from my house)....we had been home abt 10 min wen jason rang me (aardvark) as he heard abt an accident ....i told him that me & jamie were fine...i then found out abt an hour later it was the couple we had been riding back with (freinds of a freind)...
i cant believe she got off scot free..fark im angry...
the rumour at the time was she was severely tired as she had just flown back from some other country & hadnt slept in 2 days or sum such thing...she ran a red light, jumped the median strip & cleaned up an innocent couple (he was in hospital for some time too i believe)..
whether the rumours are true i dont kno, but wot i do kno is
i dont give a shit wot a written statement says, theres no excuse for killing anybody....
damn..

[gizmo]

Shouldn't it have been Manslaughter no matter what?

This happened in the state that books you for 3kph over the speed limit, yet kill some innocent person & you get off scott free!?

[HemiDuty]

Fuck this. So we get hammered by the cops for any little thing and yet it is ok for a member of the public to run us over? Great.

If bikers were of a different ethnicity or something this would not happen. We are like a minority that is not a minority. Hopefully this will change with the price of fuel forcing more people onto bikes etc.

[Steve_TLS]

Makes me so angry.

[javaman]

FUCK!!

Hopefully some kind of action is arranged. It is MURDER and she walked away in 2 hours ??? What did the jury think ?? Motorcyclist's fault ???

[Smitty]

WTF..???
you kill someone (however) and walk out scot free..??

what is it?
is the life of a road user these days...worth NOTHING?

the riders in SA should be very scared
coz it seems other road users can wipe you out
and get away with it
or
are the road rules in SA stuffed?


not happy...Jan

[smek]

geez that seems absoloutely ridiculous. I wonder what could have made them decide to acquit her.

I remember reading about the accident back in the mailing list days.

[stevew_zzr]

This is South Australia for ya, we don't even give way or let people in or have any patience - most drivers are more like "Get out of my ****ing way" on the roads. So i'm not surprised the jury extended that philosophy to those 'reckless' motorbike riders who should've got out of the way of that poor tired lady behind the wheel of a mobile human crushing machine.

[Barrabob]

dont think we are getting the full story on that one, when they say the car mounted the median strip was that because she spiled coffee on her lap or because of mechanical failure or some other unforseen reason.

Which side of the road where the bikers on?

for a jury to aquit her they are saying it wasnt her fault basicaly so who knows if there was a old peice of pallet or something she hit that caused the problem?

Just pointing out that she got a not guilty and we may have got half the story.

[red_dave]

Just pointing out that she got a not guilty and we may have got half the story.

I agree with Bob... The jury would have gone over the whole incident and formed their opinion... We don't know the whole story.

It's always sad when we lose a fellow rider and accidents will always happen. Killing another person is never acceptable and consequences should follow, and i'm sure it will eventually in this case too...

RIP

[icebreaker]

That's a bloody joke... How can you get acquited when it is fact that you commited the act... That's is absolutely rediculous..

Yes if she stole say $12,000 a guess at the value of the bike she'd be in deep shit..

or

If a motor cylcist did something similar we'd be in deep shit... I recon you could guarantee no aquital.. just because it was a motor cyclist...


Shame, shame shame on you Jury Members... Precedence has now been set...

[Colette]

I agree, this judgement seems a disgrace, but no judgement can match the fact that for the rest of her life, the driver will have the death of this girl on her conscience.

[stevew_zzr]

Look if you completely *accidently* kill someone with a shovel it's called manslaughter.

Why is it that as soon as we are behind the wheel of a car it's deemed to be different ?

Doesn't make any sense to me.

[mrmina]

thats crap