Driver jailed over fatal satnav crash

A judge yesterday partly blamed satnav for a road tragedy in which a father died after an impatient motorist blinded by spray and driving rain overtook a lorry in pitch darkness.

Judge Jonathan Rose said guilty driver Roland Kadas-Tar had placed far too much faith in the electronic map of the road ahead when embarking on a manoeuvre "fraught with danger". Jailing him for four and a half years, he told him: "You were reckless, foolish, and irresponsible and had no regard for other road-users or yourself."

Overtaking the lorry in the "atrocious" weather Kadas-Tar, a hospital porter, crashed his Ford Mondeo into a motorcycle being driven by Stephen Summers, 59, of Keighley, West Yorkshire, who died in hospital four hours later, Bradford Crown Court was told.

"You placed excessive reliance on your satellite navigation system and how that depicted the road ahead of you," the judge told Kadas-Tar. "You paid insufficient attention to the reality of the road ahead of you."

Kadas-Tar, said to be haunted by nightmares of the crash, was also banned from driving for five years.