'Runaway' courier driver cleared
Date: 14 November 2007
A courier driver whose van careered out of control, smashing into a house and killing an elderly man, has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Glenn Haggerty of Heolgerrig in Merthyr Tydfil claimed that he did not realise his Citroen Relay courier van had a defective handbrake when he delivered a parcel in Abertillery.
The 36-year-old was then unable to prevent the vehicle from running out of control, down a hill and hitting 85-year-old Wilfred Rogers before crashing into a house.
Mr Haggerty told Newport Crown Court that he had bought the van new in 2005 and that it was serviced regularly, although he had no record of this.
Marie Chivers, Mr Rogers' granddaughter, said she was "disappointed" with the jury's verdict. But she added: "At least now at the end of this case we can finally put closure to this, but we will never forget the way Wilfred was taken from us."
"It was a difficult case in law," Judge Patrick Curran after the verdict, BBC News reports.
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