Man jailed after serious injuries caused by unsecured load

A man has been jailed after a woman was seriously injured in a road traffic incident in Blackwater.

Between 11.45am and 11.54am on Tuesday 8 November 2022, a Ford Transit flat bed vehicle travelling northbound on the A327 Minley Road towards Camberley shed a scaffolding pole.

This struck a black Vauxhall Astra travelling in the opposite direction.

The pole penetrated the driver's side door and the driver, a then 33-year-old woman from Hook, suffered a serious leg injury. There were also two young children in the car who were luckily uninjured.

The driver of the Astra was airlifted to Southampton General Hospital for treatment.

The driver of the scaffolding vehicle, Peter Lee, 36, of Yorktown Road, Bracknell Forest, was later charged
with causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

On Friday 27 January he was sentenced to three years in custody at Winchester Crown Court.

PC Rhiannon Gibson, of the Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit, said: "I want to thank all the people who came forward following our media appeal. This information proved vital in our investigation.

"I hope this sentencing shows how seriously we take cases like this and stresses the importance of load security on commercial vehicles. We regularly have to take action against drivers who don't properly secure their loads.

"The victim in this case has shown a lot of strength and we hope this sentence provides them with some peace."