Driver, 19, vindicated after charge dropped

THE Crown Prosecution Service has withdrawn a charge of driving without due care and attention following an accident involving a Peugeot 105 car and a First double-decker bus.

THE Crown Prosecution Service has withdrawn a charge of driving without due care and attention following an accident involving a Peugeot 105 car and a First double-decker bus.

The accident happened at Yawl on April 24 last year and, subsequently, Callum Doble, of Rousdon, the driver of the Peugeot, was charged with an offence.

Mr Doble, 19, always denied the charge and the case has now been discontinued.

He maintained from the outset that he was driving towards Uplyme in a line of traffic when a light-coloured Saxo car overtook him at speed, in damp conditions, before a bend in the road.

Mr Doble says the Saxo was forced to brake in order to avoid the oncoming bus and that he, in turn, had no choice but to apply his brakes suddenly, causing his vehicle to skid towards the bus.

Several witnesses, who gave statements to the police, confirmed the involvement of the Saxo.

Speaking of the Crown Prosecution Service's decision not to proceed with the charge against him, Mr Doble told the Herald: "It has been difficult dealing with the suggestion that the accident was my fault, but I always said that another car was involved and most of the evidence tended to suggest it was.

"The police even found skid marks at the scene from a car that was neither the Peugeot nor the bus.

"It was a horrible accident to be part of and I am glad that I was right that it wasn't my lack of care that caused it.