Pensioner, 80, who ran over and killed her life-long friend, 82, on the way back from a school reunion after mistaking her automatic Skoda’s accelerator for the brake is spared jail after victim’s family forgive her
- Patricia Tulip, 82, parked outside her friend Joyce Nainby’s Newcastle home
- Her Skoda Roomster started rolling backwards, so Tulip got inside to brake
- She hit accelerator instead and the vehicle, still in reverse, clipped Mrs Nainby
- The open side door knocked her to the ground, and she died 10 days later
- Tulip admitted death by careless driving and was given a community order
Patricia Tulip, 82 leaving Newcastle crown court
An 82-year-old woman who accidentally caused the death of her lifelong friend in a ‘tragic’ parking blunder walked free from court today.
Patricia Tulip was said to have felt a ‘great deal of remorse’ after a series of errors caused fatal injuries to her passenger, Joyce Nainby, outside the 80-year-old’s home in Gosforth, Newcastle.
After parking her Skoda Roomster, Tulip saw the vehicle had started to roll backwards and, realising that she had left it in reverse instead of neutral and that she had not applied the handbrake properly, she quickly got back inside.
But instead of braking she accidentally pressed on the accelerator, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
The vehicle hurtled backwards towards grandmother-of-six Mrs Nainby, who was hit by the open side door.
The court heard how the stricken woman was rushed to hospital, but eventually died from her injuries 10 days after the accident happened on September 18 2018.
Prosecutors told how the pair had gone to school together around 70 years ago, and had been best friends.
Tulip sat with her head bowed and eyes closed as she listened to ‘heartbreaking’ statements from the family of Joyce Nainby about the death of their mother and subsequent death of her heartbroken husband of 64 years.
He died from cancer in July following his wife’s death in September last year. The couple’s children expressed anger that Tulip at first refused to accept that she was responsible for causing her oldest friend’s death – while at the same time stating they had no desire to see her punished.
Tulip admitted causing death by careless driving following the incident and on Tuesday was told she will have to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.
Sentencing her, Judge Amanda Rippon said: ‘As a result of a series of careless errors by you, your car very sadly became the implement responsible for your old and great friend’s tragic death.
‘Although she was 80, she was fit and she was active, and she had every reason to expect many more years with her family.’
Tulip admitted causing death by careless driving at Newcastle Crown Court (pictured)
Tulip was banned from driving for three years – but the court heard that she gave up her licence immediately after the accident.
Describing how the loss had ‘completely devastated’ the Nainby family, the judge said the victim’s husband of 64 years died months after the incident without her by his side.
‘There is no sentence that I can give that will bring back Joyce Nainby for her family, or for you,’ the judge told the defendant.
The court heard Mrs Nainby’s death shattered the lives of her three children and six grandchildren, but particularly her husband Peter, who at the time was suffering with Parkinson’s disease and cancer.
Just weeks after Mrs Nainby’s funeral, the family were told Peter’s cancer was terminal and that he had less than a year to live.
A heartbreaking victim impact statement from the couple’s son Geoffrey said his mother’s death had robber her of the chance to be by her husband’s side during his last months, ‘as she would have wanted to be’.
Tulip was said to have felt a ‘great deal of remorse’ after a series of errors caused fatal injuries to her passenger, Joyce Nainby (pictured)
Mr Nainby said his dad struggled to cope with the loss of his ‘best friend, partner and soulmate’, and kept telling family and nurses that he ‘just wanted to be with Joyce’.
He died without knowing Tulip had accepted responsibility for his wife’s death, leaving him ‘without answers and without closure,’ his family said.
Mr Nainby said: ‘It was devastating to see dad’s life come to an end without mum by his side.’
The court heard how the two friends had been driving back together in the Skoda from a school reunion when the accident happened, with witnesses telling how Tulip, of Seghill, Northumberland, was a trusted and competent motorist with many years’ experience.
A neighbour said that the Skoda appeared to reverse at speed, with the side door knocking Mrs Nainby to the floor before hitting a parked vehicle.
The victim was knocked unconscious and never woke up, eventually dying from a head injury, the court heard.
In a statement that was read out in court, one of Mrs Nainby’s three children, Geoffrey, said the incident had changed their family’s lives forever.
‘Put simply, she was not ready to go,’ he told court.
The statement added that Geoffrey Nainby’s father, the victim’s husband of six decades, was ill with both Parkinson’s disease and cancer at the time of the crash, and died in July.
‘Their final years could have been so different. Mum could and should have been here to look after dad in his final months.
‘Like so many others, we felt confident that terrible things only happen to other people, but then this happened to us.’
Shaun Routledge, defending, said that the defendant, who wore a purple coat and mopped away tears during the hearing, had written a letter of condolence to her friend’s family.
‘I have not come across, in over 30 years, a set of facts or circumstances that are similar to these,’ he told the court.
In a statement issued following the sentencing, Mrs Nainby’s family said they were disappointed by the defendant’s failure to take responsibility earlier.
They said: ‘Whilst we accept that the events of that day were a tragic accident caused through Mrs Tulip’s carelessness, every action and decision made by her beyond that date, has been made without any respect or consideration whatsoever for the feelings of our family.
‘As a friend of our mum’s, we didn’t seek punishment for Mrs Tulip, all we ever wanted was an acceptance of responsibility.
‘Maybe naively, we expected her to ”do the right thing” from the start but as that was not the case, we had no option other than to support a prosecution through the courts.’
The statement said that, as a result of the delay between the incident and Tulip’s sentencing, Mrs Nainby’s husband had not been able to get closure before his death.
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