Reliance on satnav was a factor in death 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 Roland Kadas-Tar, 33, had placed far too much faith in the electronic mapping system when embarking on a manoeuvre “fraught with danger”.

Jailing Kadas-Tar for four and a half years, the judge said: “You were reckless, foolish, and irresponsible and had no regard for other road users or yourself.”

The judge said by overtaking a lorry in the “atrocious” weather Kadas-Tar, a Hungarian working in Britain as a hospital porter, could have steered into the path of another lorry.

Instead, his Ford Mondeo ploughed into the front of a motorcycle being ridden by Stephen Summers, 59, who died in hospital a few hours after the crash.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Kadas-Tar had been driving home at 5am after seeing his girlfriend when Mr Summers, of Keighley, West Yorkshire, was on his way “to a day of hard work” at the Silentnight factory in Barnoldswick, Lancashire.

Mr Summers was on the correct side of the road and travelling at a safe speed when the crash happened near Broughton, North Yorkshire. Kadas-Tar veered on to the wrong side of the road to pass a lorry.

Mr Summers had died “an untimely and tragic death” while “still young in years and very much loved,” the judge said.

He told Kadas-Tar: “He was a hard-working man … He has been described as someone who was a larger than life character whose constant smile could brighten any room unaffected by bad moods – a man who saw the good in everyone.

“You placed excessive reliance on your satellite navigation system and how that depicted the road ahead of you.

“You paid insufficient attention to the reality of the road ahead. The road was curved and the weather was appalling.”