An elderly driver left a woman fighting for her life after hitting her while attempting a three-point turn on a shopping trip.
Retired lorry driver Michael Jones, 80, who is profoundly deaf, went to buy A5 writing paper for his wife at Ryman but pressed the accelerator instead of the brake on his way home. He struck pedestrian Maria Oginska in Liverpool city centre, leaving her trapped underneath with devastating injuries.
Medics desperately performed CPR while her distraught cousin, whom she had been visiting from her native Poland, “looked on in horror”. Liverpool Crown Court heard that Jones, of Roby, parked his Seat Ateca on double yellow lines on Queen Square while visiting the stationery retailer’s branch in St Johns Shopping Centre on October 29, 2023, and the accident happened when he returned to his car.
Peter Hussey, prosecuting, described how Mrs Oginska had been walking nearby with her cousin Magorzata Kowalska and her husband Norbert. whom she had been staying with at their home in Deeside, North Wales. He told the court: “The defendant obviously hit the accelerator pedal very hard, because [his car] moved very rapidly.”
Jones’ car smashed through bollards and into an adjacent pedestrianised area with Mrs Oginska “carried on the bonnet of the car and then underneath as it continued, not stopping until colliding heavily with the corner of the Royal Court building”. Mr Kowalski was also hit by the Seat after attempting to pull their visitor out of its path, with CCTV footage of the incident appearing to show the rear driver’s side wheel running over his chest.
Mr Hussey added: “Mrs Kowalska looked on in horror and then ran to help her cousin, who was still trapped under the rear of the defendant’s car. Mr Kowalski picked himself up initially, but then appears to have fainted. He describes himself as blacking out with pain in his chest and body.”
People rushed their aid before police arrived and lifted the car up in order to free Mrs Oginska who then received CPR as Mrs Kowalska watched on. Mr Hussey said: “She thought her cousin was going to die. To the relief of Mrs Kowalska, she heard her cousin suddenly break into a scream, indicating that she was, in fact, alive. But she had been seriously injured.”
Mrs Oginska subsequently spent “an extended period of time” in Aintree Hospital after suffering fractures to her spine, shoulder blade, pelvis and ribs, causing both of her lungs to collapse. She required multiple blood transfusions and three operations as a result of her “grave and life changing” injuries, reported the Liverpool Echo.
Mr Kowalski sustained “bruising all over his head” while Mrs Kowalska was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and left tending to her husband and cousin until the latter was finally able to return to Poland in late 2024. Jones subsequently attended a voluntary interview at a police station, during which he told detectives that his “foot must have slipped from the break onto the accelerator pedal”. He has no previous convictions.
Damian Nolan, defending, said on his behalf: “Mr Jones accepts and recognises that, whatever can be said on his behalf, it will not have the effect of turning back the clock so that it did not occur. It is an often used word, tragedy. It may well be entirely apt here. It is a tragedy for those three people who were walking through Liverpool, no doubt enjoying a day with family. The last thing they would have expected was to be met by a car moving in that way. They were utterly and completely unprepared for that reality.
“It is entirely fortunate, and Mr Jones recognises this, that she did not suffer fatal injuries. A combination of quick thinking at the scene and, no doubt, the skills and expertise of those who treated her at the hospital are what lies behind the fact that they were not fatal.
“They were life threatening and are likely to remain life affecting for a significant period, if not for the remainder of her life. For a very significant period of time, she is going to bear the physical and mental scars of that incident. He wishes, through me, to apologise to her and to the other two victims.”
He continued: “He has a 79-year-old wife. She asked for writing paper, sized A5, because she wanted to write a letter to someone. This was Sunday, and the shops were shutting. He had tried two other establishments without success. He came to town to go to Ryman. Regrettably, because of the time, I think the incident was at about quarter to five in the afternoon, he parked where he did. That is what caused him to be there.
“Upon returning, he began was was ostensibly a safe manoeuvre. The car could have been driven off without incident. He pressed the accelerator at a time when the brake should have been pressed, causing the catastrophic injuries it did.”
Jones admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was handed a 16-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months and told to pay court costs of £150 plus a victim surcharge.
Sentencing, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC said: “The circumstances of this case are, on any view, tragic. At the risk over overgeneralising, given your presentation today, it appears to me that you are not an especially youthful or agile 80-year-old.
“I am told that you were there that day to get some shopping on behalf of your wife. Although you perhaps ought not to have been parked where you were, that fact has nothing to do with the circumstances and does not affect your blameworthiness for what subsequently happened.”
He added: “These are dreadful cases, involving momentary lapses in concentration and resulting in episodes of dangerous driving where the consequences have been truly profound. There are many factors which persuade me that it is not necessary to impose an immediate prison term. If the circumstances had been different and if you had been significantly younger, it might have been a more difficult decision.”
