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Driver ‘on phone’ seconds before killing pregnant mum

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A motorist who killed a heavily pregnant mother and her unborn baby when he ploughed into her car at 70mph was using a mobile phone seconds before the crash, a court heard.

Craig Scott, 51, told police he had been on his way to work and had been distracted by something on a bridge above the motorway and claimed and he finished a hands-free call with his employers five minutes earlier.

However the prosecution outlined at the start of his trial today that officers discovered the call actually ended 14 to 34 seconds before he crashed into the car of 27-year-old mother-of-one Rebecca Evans on 29 November 2016.

Ms Evans, 27, was eight months pregnant when she died at the scene of the crash on the M4 near Port Talbot in South Wales, while her two-year-old son Cian suffered serious injuries including bleeding on the brain and a fractured skull.

The jury heard how crash investigators found Scott had failed to brake before the collision and had not noticed other vehicles stopped in front of him.

The court heard Ms Evans was the front passenger in a Peugeot 407 driven by her partner Alex Evans and that they were on the way to drop Cian – who was in the rear of the vehicle – with her mother before continuing on to work at the Swansea office of the homeless charity Shelter Cymru.

Image: Rebecca Evans was eight months pregnant

Prosecuting Catherine Richards, said: "Tragically for Alex Evans and his family this defendant was not paying attention to the conditions.

"Alex Evans could see the defendant's BMW approaching.

"It seemed to Mr Evans that the defendant was not slowing and he didn't."

In a statement read to the court, he said Ms Evans had been pregnant with their unborn daughter Cari and was due to go on maternity leave the following week.

Describing the aftermath of the crash, he told the court: "I saw blood on her dress and I knew then that our daughter had gone.

"I knew that straight away but not in a million years did I think I would lose Becca."

Mr Evans said a police officer told him a short time later that she and their daughter had died and he "screamed and cried for them both".

John Mayer, who was driving a van, became emotional as he told the court about holding Ms Evans's hand and trying to get her to respond.

Ms Richards added of Scott: "He accepts that the collision was his fault, he accepts that he was driving carelessly, namely that he drove below the standard of what would be expected of a careful and competent driver.

"But Craig Scott denies that his driving amounted to dangerous driving."

On Monday Scott went on trial at Swansea Crown Court accused of causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving.

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He pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving but denied the more serious charge.

The trial continues.

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