A pensioner who caused the death of an eight-month-old baby after hitting her pram in a ‘senseless’ crash outside a hospital has been jailed for four years. Bridget Curtis, 71, had taken her own adult daughter for an outpatient appointment at Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, on the morning of 21 June 2023.
Swansea Crown Court heard how she turned around to help her daughter find her handbag in the back when she pressed the accelerator of the automatic BMW ‘right to the ground’. The car shot forward, reaching 29mph before mounting the kerb of a grass seating area and hitting little Mabli Cariad Hall’s pushchair.
The infant, who had only said ‘Mama’ for the first time a day earlier, suffered catastrophic head injuries and died in hospital in the arms of her parents, Rob and Gwen Hall, on 25 June.
Curtis, who had a clean driving licence, was arrested and later pleaded guilty to a charge of causing death by dangerous driving.
Judge Geraint Walters disqualified Curtis from driving for eight years and sentenced her to four years in prison, describing her actions as ‘grossly reckless’.
The judge told Curtis: ‘At about midday on June 21, 2023, the lives of the Hall family were changed forever. Loving parents, siblings and a wider extended family suffered the devastation of their lives. ‘That is because that day, they suffered that which every parent dreads, the loss of a much-cherished child, Mabli, just eight months old. ‘Her life was taken from her senselessly and indeed needlessly as a result of your actions.’