THE side panel of a J. W. Rihoy lorry involved in an accident in which a woman died was ‘like a knife’, the Magistrate’s Court was told yesterday.

The panel of the lorry, which was being driven by Edward Osborne, ploughed into a car in which 77-year-old Jacqueline Adkins was a passenger. The Hyundai was being driven by her husband, Laurie, at Les Rouvets, Vale, on 6 February.

Mr Adkins, who is able to walk with a stick, was in hospital for nine weeks and has lost the use of his right arm. The court heard that the drivers of three cars in front of the Adkins’s had to take avoiding action.

The company and Mr Osborne admitted using a motor vehicle that was in such a condition that it caused danger to a person on the public highway.

He was fined £800 and banned from driving for a year. The company was fined £1,000. Assistant-Magistrate Philip Robey described Mr Osborne’s actions as ‘one single error in a long history of safe driving’.