Family: 'Verdict brings no comfort' (From Penarth Times)

Family: 'Verdict brings no comfort'

THE mother of a St Cyres pupil who died in an horrific car crash last year has said she and her family take "no comfort from the verdict", after the driver was fined £1,000 and banned for 30 months for careless driving.

Angela Smith, whose son Kyle died in February last year, said: "We have lived a tortured life for the past 13 months.

"This trial was not about winning or losing, as we have already lost."

Her words followed the sentencing of 20-year-old student Amir Baig - the then best friend of her other son James.

Baig, of Morfa Lane, Wenvoe, originally faced a charge of causing death by dangerous driving, after crashing his car into the central reservation of the Ely link road.

During the crash, 16-year-old Kyle was thrown from the back of the car and onto the opposite carriageway.

But a jury at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday unanimously found Baig guilty of the lesser charge of careless driving, and he was fined £1,000 and banned from driving for 30 months.

Baig, who lives with his father, a Barry GP, and mother and sister, had pleaded not guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

The jury heard at the trial, which lasted almost a week, that the accident happened when Baig was driving his mother's Renault Clio home from an unofficial car rally at the Asda store in Coryton, Cardiff.

Kyle and his brother James accepted a lift with Baig back to their Wenvoe home.

James sat in the front passenger seat, while Kyle sat in the back on a bare metal floor.

The rear seats had been removed previously for cleaning and the seatbelts were out of use.

Baig told the court: "I could have refused to take him but the last thing on my mind was that there would be some terrible accident."

The St David"s College student drove along the M4 to junction 33 and then on to the Ely link road.

Baig was overtaking another car at about 72mph when his car drifted towards the central barrier.

He told the court: "I think I lost concentration. I think I either blacked out or was knocked out after the first impact.

"The car just got stuck. It felt as if there was something pulling us in. I tried to correct the steering.

"All I remember was waking up on the motorway with a paramedic."

The first thing Baig asked in hospital the next day was how the Kyle and James were, the court heard.

"My mother told me James was ok but that Kyle didn"t make it. My heart just sank."

Prosecuting, Hywel Hughes said that the standard of Baig"s driving had fallen well below the standard of a competent motorist.

He told the court that Baig had lost control because of the speed he was travelling, setting in motion a chain of events that resulted in Kyle"s death.

Mr Hughes said the accident was due to driver error and no mechanical fault had contributed to the loss of control.

Defending, Huw Davies QC said that drink-drive tests showed that Baig was completely unaffected by alcohol. He said his speed was not excessive and that the accident was due to a momentary loss of concentration.

After the jury had given the verdict, and before Judge Christopher Llewellyn-Jones QC had sentenced Baig, a statement was read by the defence from Baig"s GP, Dr Martin Coleman.

Dr Coleman said that since the accident, Baig had suffered many psychological effects. He was said to be "remorseful", and was said to repeatedly state "it should have been me that died".

His family even had to place him on "suicide watch" because of his guilt.

After the verdict, Kyle"s mum Angela, who with her husband John runs the Atlantic Spray business in Barry, said: "Following the event of our family tragedy, which was totally avoidable, when our eldest son Kyle was killed on February 20, 2005, we have lived a tortured life the past 13 months.

"This trial was not about winning or losing, as we have already lost. This was about establishing the truth.

"We take no comfort from this verdict. All we ever wanted was for the person responsible to accept responsibility."

She described Kyle, who also had a sister Georgina, as a "truly remarkable, special boy", who was "kind, caring, loving, giving" and "always the peacemaker".