Man admits causing fatal crash on A47

A lorry driver has today admitted causing the death of two people in a crash on the A47 at Necton last year.

Daniel Peter Hewett’s truck collided with two oncoming vehicles after he failed to see stationary traffic ahead of him.

The 38-year-old, who was heading towards Swaffham, had swerved into the opposite lane as evasive action.

Calvin Ronald Beckett, who was at the wheel of a Jewson lorry, died at the scene of the crash on March 6, 2020, and car driver Peter Stebbings suffered a fatal heart attack in hospital the following day.

Hewett appeared before Lynn Magistrates today to plead guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving.

The court heard the crash happened at about 10.45am in good visibility.

Prosecutor Stacie Cossey said Hewett’s lorry rolled onto its offside before first colliding with a dropside lorry driven by Mr Beckett and then a Skoda Fabia containing Mr Stebbings and his wife Josephine.

“Mrs Stebbings also suffered serious injuries,” added Miss Cossey.

Relatives of the two deceased were in court to hear written accounts from witnesses.

One said traffic had started to slow down and became stationary before he became aware of the “whoosh” of a large vehicle passing on his offside.

Another motorist had seen the lorry approaching in her rear-view mirror.

“It was approaching at speed and she moved to the left in order for it to pass her,” said Miss Cossey.

A collision investigation report found that the lorry was travelling at 56mph - six miles an hour above its permitted speed limit.

Miss Cossey said: “Although it was speeding at the time, the crash happened because of [the defendant’s] lack of seeing that traffic was stationary, so speed wouldn’t have prevented the collision from happening.

“Mr Hewett was unable to offer any explanation when interviewed.”

After seeing dashcam footage from his lorry of the incident, Hewett told police: “I took evasive action. I just remember seeing something, I don’t know what it was. But, yeah, that would be me doing what I had needed to do at the time.”

Jonathan Goodman, mitigating, acknowledged that it involved the “tragic” death of two people and there must be a serious risk of custody for his client but he could not agree with the prosecution’s view that it fell within the top category of sentencing guidelines for the offence.

The bench said that it did and declined jurisdiction.

A pre-sentence report was ordered and Hewett was committed to Norwich Crown Court for sentencing on a date to be fixed.

An interim driving ban was imposed and Hewett, of Fairfax Road, Norwich, was granted unconditional bail.