Rebecca Ableman had been leaving a farm shop in Cambridgeshire, pushing her daughter in a pram when she was hit by equipment to build a crane being carried by the driver
A lorry driver has admitted to killing a mum after she was hit by crane equipment. Rebecca Ableman was pushing her two-year-old daughter’s pram when she was hit with the machinery hanging off the back of Kevin Miller’s truck.
He pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving after appearing in court on Tuesday (February 24). He is now set to be given his sentence in April after his plea was accepted by the judge.
Peterborough Crown Court heard how Rebecca left a farm shop in the village of Willingham in Cambridgeshire before the incident took place. The 30-year-old had been pushing her 2-year-old daughter on a footpath when Kevin drove past her in his lorry, according to the Sun.
He had been carrying equipment to construct a crane — which had not been secured properly, according to police reports.
Prosecutors said that the parts of the crane that were being carried were “plainly potentially lethal”, as they had the possibility of sliding off the lorry and causing major harm to other people.
In court, it was revealed that metal bars that would be used to form the crane were hanging over the edge of the lorry. As a result, when the lorry went past Rebecca at a high-speed, she was struck in the head and immediately fell to the ground.
The court heard how Miller had been bringing scrap metal from the docks at King’s Lynn in Norfolk to two different Network Rail depots in Essex and Cambridgeshire. One driver who had been travelling along the road at the time but who hadn’t seen the incident itself, said even he noticed the unsafe equipment.
Thomas Butler said: “I thought it looked horrendous and I told my wife it doesn’t look all right.” Butler would go on to tell jurors as he moved along the road that he saw a woman lying on the road, with “people running all over the place”.
The court was also told that Miller had been completely unaware there had been a collision until he was arrested and detained by police two hours after the incident. When told by officers he should have stopped after hitting someone, he is believed to have said: “What’s happened mate? I ain’t hit no one.”
Rebecca tragically suffered “very serious head and brain injuries” in the crash. She was rushed to hospital to be treated for her injuries, but sadly died as a result of her injuries three weeks later.
In a tribute, Rebecca’s partner Chris Tuczemskyi said: “To me, she was my light in the darkest of nights, my rock for when I stumbled and my best friend. She made me a better person, she pushed me to be and do better because she could see my potential when I could not.”
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