Police officer cleared by jury of dangerous driving after crash
A police officer has been cleared of causing serious injury by dangerous driving during a car chase.
Undercover officer Mark Calladine was found not guilty by a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday to cheers from a packed public gallery.
During a three-day trial, the court heard he was pursuing an uninsured Renault Scenic through rural roads in Stafford when his vehicle smashed into a Ford Ranger as it turned right into a business park, it was heard, badly injuring driver Ian Smith.
He was chasing the vehicle with a colleague along Creswell Grove – close to junction 14 of the M6 – before heading along the Newport Road.
The 42-year-old Staffordshire Police officer, from Bradley, near Stafford, was overtaking a line of vehicles on a straight road he said he knew ‘very well’, before the crash occurred on February 27 last year.
Mr Calladine, who had arrived for the trial aided by a crutch, had denied causing serious injury by driving dangerously.
He has been in the field for 26 years and has no previous convictions or cautions.
The jury had been told the unmarked BMW was travelling at around 65mph when disaster struck.
Risk
When he took to the witness box on Wednesday, he said: “You can never eliminate risk entirely in a pursuit and every pursuit situation presents different risks.
He said he believed the line of vehicles he was overtaking on Newport Road during the pursuit were braking in response to his unmarked car approaching bearing blue flashing lights and not because one of them was about to turn right.
He said: “I had a split second to form that opinion.
“I have never taken unnecessary risks. I never have and I never will,” he told the court.
Mr Calladine admitted he did not have time to stop before hitting Mr Smith’s car, but said his driving ‘did not fall below the standards of careful and competent’.
Once the jury had returned their verdict, Judge Amjad Nawaz told Mr Calladine: “The jury has found you not guilty, you are to free to leave the court.”
Following the verdict, a spokesman for Staffordshire Police said: “We note the decision at Wolverhampton Crown Court that a serving Staffordshire Police officer seconded to the Central Motorway Police Group has been found not guilty of a charge causing serious injury by dangerous driving.”
