At the Old Bailey, Stephen successfully defended a cab driver accused of causing death and serious injury by careless driving in a public place.
Stephen’s client had parked his car in the private car park beside his home in order to speak to his wife and a family friend. Outside the car were his son and the friend’s son. The car suddenly moved forward and struck the two boys, seriously injuring his son and tragically causing the death of the other child.
The prosecution case was that the defendant had inadvertently pressed the accelerator, causing the car to surge forward. However, the defendant said right from the time of the incident that the all-electric car had moved forward on its own, possibly due to a software error. Despite the assertion by a prosecution “expert” witness that an error with the car could be ruled out, his expertise was not as a software engineer, and he could not analyse the car’s computer system as it was proprietary software and a trade secret.
Stephen argued that there was no evidence that the defendant had actually pressed the accelerator, and that in any event the car park was not a public place. After 5 hours of deliberations, the jury acquitted the defendant.
During the case, as a result of the significant media attention it received, alongside dedicated work by Stephen’s instructing solicitor, Zachary Whyte of Sperrin Law, around a dozen members of the public approached the defence team with their own experiences of electric cars surging forward without driver input. However, the defence were not permitted to rely on this evidence.
Since the reporting of the verdicts and information about other people experiencing the same issue, the case has received interest from other lawyers due to the potential for the case to shed light on possible wider safety issues with the make of car involved.
Stephen was instructed by Zachary Whyte of Sperrin Law.
Case press coverage:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/electric-vehicle-volkswagen-fareed-amir-b2896026.html