Bournemouth Crown Court trial: Charlotte Hardwick denies causing death by careless driving over fatal crash with motorcyclist Nuno Gaspar on Barrack Road, Christchurch

A WOMAN sobbed in the dock as a jury was told how she caused the death of a speeding motorcyclist in Christchurch.

Nuno Gaspar, who was in his 40s, had been riding his Kawasaki motorcycle at double the 30mph limit along Barrack Road when the collision happened.

But prosecutor Ed Wylde told Bournemouth Crown Court that despite the biker speeding, motorist Charlotte Hardwick (27) should have still seen him before she turned into his path.

He said: “She did not take sufficient care to make sure the road ahead was clear. However quickly he may well have been driving, she should have seen him.”

Care worker Hardwick, of Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, was on her way to see a client in a road near where the collision happened at about 8.40am on 30th September 2022.

She had just left the Bailey Bridge roundabout and had moved into the right-hand lane to turn right into Avenue Road.

CCTV footage shown to the jury captured the moment when Hardwick started to pull across Barrack Road and Mr Gaspar, who was travelling towards the roundabout, came into collision with her.

The defendant, who was driving a Suzuki Swift, has pleaded not guilty to causing death by careless driving.

Outlining the case against her, Mr Wylde said: “This is an extremely sad case. Charlotte Hardwick is not evil or a bad person. We do not say that at all.

“She is a very admirable person but even admirable people can make mistakes. She did not just make a mistake, she was careless.”

Although Mr Gaspar had been travelling “significantly in excess of the speed limit of 30mph” Mr Wylde said the biker had tried to brake “hard” after spotting the defendant’s car but had been unable to avoid the collision.

Although the motorbike had been speeding, Mr Wylde said Mr Gaspar still had “right of way” and had been riding as if “it appeared there was nothing in front of him that was in his way”.

He added that as the motorcyclist had approached the junction “he did not slow down because cars are supposed to give way”.

After the accident Hardwick told police “I did not see him” referring to Mr Gaspar. She maintained she had checked several times the road ahead was clear before starting to turn.

She said: “A car was letting me go, I checked to see if it was safe. I checked straight ahead of me. I ensured it was clear to go.

“I turned and I didn’t see him.”

In a statement, driver Amy Snell said Barrack Road had been busy at the time of the crash, adding it had been “stop, start all the way”.

She said about 30 seconds before the crash she had seen Mr Gaspar’s motorbike behind her in her wing mirror. She said he had been riding “quite aggressively, looking to overtake me the whole time he was behind me”.

Ms Snell said she had seen a silver car start to turn. She then heard the motorbike start to “rev” and it overtook her.

She told the court she said out loud: “Oh God no!”

Ms Snell said the motorbike did not slow down: “The car just turned, normal, it did not appear to stop.”

The motorcycle hit the car and the rider landed on the ground, she added.

Another witness, Antonio Carluccio, was riding a scooter along Barrack Road in the same direction as Ms Snell. In a statement he said Mr Gaspar had been “weaving in and out of traffic”.

As he approached the junction he “accelerated to high speed” and the crash had then happened. He added: “The motorbike was travelling too fast.”

In statements read to the jury, another eyewitness said the car where the defendant had been waiting to cross over had been “clear until the motorcyclist came out of nowhere” with another one saying she had said to her husband “What an idiot” because of the speed Mr Gaspar was doing just before the accident happened.

The trial continues.