Driver cleared of causing fatal collision with motorcycle but vows never to drive again

David Teasdale was alleged to have been responsible for the collision on the A15 near Leasingham in which motorcyclist Peter Howard died and his partner and pillion passenger Claire Rowbotom suffered life changing injuries.

The jury at Lincoln Crown Court took just over an hour to return a not guilty verdict at the conclusion of a four day trial.

During the trial the motorist driving in front of Teasdale’s Vauxhall Vectra said that the car was on its correct side of the road and the motorcycle had crossed the double white lines into the wrong carriageway while his passenger said she believed that both vehicles may have been on their correct side of the road, but each was very close to the centre.

Lincolnshire Police accident investigator PC Godfrey Barlow said that tyre marks found on the road surface indicated Teasdale was at fault.

But a defence expert accident investigator told the marks were consistent with a tyre sliding sideways rather than forward and he could not agree with the complete prosecution interpretation.

Teasdale, the court was told, had passed his test less than 12 months before the collision. He has not driven since and does not intend to drive again.

He did not give evidence to the jury but during a police interview he told officers: “The motorcycle was two or three seconds away when I saw it.

“I think I was in the middle of my carriageway. That’s my normal driving.

“The motorcycle was all over the place. I don’t think he was in control of the bike at the time.”

David Teasdale, 28, of Sharpe Road, Grantham, denied causing death by careless driving as a result of the collision on July 5, 2018.