[A] SPEEDING motorist whose dangerous driving left a pensioner dead and her friend with “devastating” injuries has been jailed.
Stephen Alan Farragher, 47, was behind the wheel of a Volkswagen Passat which crashed into pedestrians Audrey Tunstall and Natalli Fisher in darkness on October 22 last year.
At the time, the two women – both of Cape Road, Seaton – were crossing the A596 close to Workington’s Dunmail Park shopping centre. Ms Tunstall, aged 79, died late that day while Ms Fisher spent 11 days in a coma and almost six months in a wheelchair having suffered a head injury which meant she has had to “re-learn how to live”.
Farragher was sentenced today (THURS) at Carlisle Crown Court. He had previously admitted charges of causing Ms Tunstall’s death – and serious injury to Ms Fisher – by dangerous driving.
The court heard Farragher was travelling at 57mph in a 40mph zone. A man of good character, he remained at the scene of the crash and was described in court as a “quiet, humble, private and hard-working” supermarket assistant manager.
Jailing him for 45 months, Judge James Adkin stated: “No sentence I can pass this afternoon can possibly extinguish the sadness, frustration, anguish and distress of members of the family of Ms Tunstall, who sadly passed away, and Natalli Fisher, who has been left so badly affected by your dangerous driving.”
The judge directed that Farragher, of Thirlmere Avenue, Workington, must serve a three-year driving ban when released from prison.
Sergeant Martin Bainbridge said: “This was a tragically avoidable collision. Farragher was driving significantly above the speed limit and the two pedestrians simply did not have a chance of avoiding the collision.
“Our thoughts today are with the victims of this incident and their families.”
