A Center Parcs worker involved in a fatal accident with a colleague after his electric buggy collided with her bicycle has been cleared of causing death by careless driving after a judge concluded there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to convict him.
John Davies, 66, was using the off-road vehicle when it collided with Penny Bulpitt, a supervisor at the firm’s Woburn Forest Resort in Millbrook, Bedfordshire.
Grandmother Ms Bulpitt, 67, died from a traumatic skull fracture and brain injuries, an inquest heard previously.
Mr Davies was later charged with the driving offence, which carries a maximum five-year jail term.
A trial began at Luton Crown Court last month but Judge Michael Simon today directed jurors to acquit him after hearing the prosecution case.
He had also considered submissions from the barrister representing the defendant and the prosecutor about the evidence against him.
‘As a matter of law, there is insufficient evidence in this case for a jury to convict,’ Judge Simon told the jury.
‘The correct verdict, as a matter of law, is not guilty.’
Penny Bulpitt, 67, a supervisor at Center Parc’s Woburn Forest Resort in Millbrook, Bedfordshire, died after the bicycle she was riding was in a collision with an electric buggy driven by colleague John Davies, 66
Davies, of Flitwick, was on the all-terrain Yamaha UTV just after midday on September 22, 2023, when it collided with the bike ridden by Luton resident Ms Bulpitt.
She was taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge by air ambulance where she died the following day.
At the time of her death, Detective Sergeant Craig Wheeler said: ‘Both people involved in the incident were staff at the site and we are working with Center Parcs directly.
‘We know that Friday was a changeover day so the site would have been busy and we would encourage anyone who was on the site at the time, and particularly in the Pine area, to come forward with anything they may have witnessed.’
Centre Parcs added: ‘We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of one of our team at Woburn Forest. Our thoughts are with her family, friends and her colleagues at this time.
‘We are in contact with her family, and we are offering support to them and any of our colleagues at Woburn Forest who have been affected.
‘Center Parcs is working closely with all the relevant authorities following this incident.’
Ms Bulpitt’s family issued a tribute in which they said she was ‘loved by everyone who knew her’.
Police previously said the accident happened on a changeover day at the resort, when ‘the site would have been busy’
The Woburn Forest Resort is one of six Center Parcs sites in the UK and Ireland.
The first opened in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, in 1987. Woburn Park has been running since 2014.