Jailed for causing death of nurse
29 year old Sean Coates, of Alcove Road, Bristol has been jailed for 9 months. Coates appeared for sentencing at Taunton Crown Court yesterday. He pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving in an incident which killed 52-year-old Stacey Steer. Along with his prison sentence, Coates has been disqualified from driving for two years and 10 weeks.
On Sunday 30 May last year, Stacey had been travelling with her husband on his motorcycle as a pillion passenger. Coates had been driving his car along the A39 at Holford when he pulled out to overtake a slow-moving vehicle. He failed to see the motorcycle had already started overtaking the traffic. He had pulled out and collided with the motorbike, knocking both passengers off the bike. Stacey was airlifted to hospital where she sadly later died.
Coates made no attempt to stop or call the emergency services and fled the scene. Officers conducted a search for Coates’ car, which was located. It was discovered he had attempted to clean the car with baby wipes.
Addressing Coates at the sentencing, His Honourable Judge Cook described the act of failing to stop as ‘cruel’ to the family. He added: “Your actions showed a complete desolation of the family’s life. A basic sense of compassion and empathy should have compelled you to stop at the scene. The aggravating factors of this case is not the manner of your driving, but your actions afterwards.“
Stacey’s husband, Carl Steer, pays tribute to his late wife. He said: “Stacey was the very core of our family, she held a place in all our hearts that I cannot describe in words. If you could have met her, you would have liked her, Stacey was that sort of person. Stacey spent her life dedicated to her family and her work as an intensive care nurse, never thinking of herself, always others. Through her gift of organ donation other people and their families have been given fresh hope. Even after her passing, she would still be saving lives, exactly what Stacey would have wanted.“