1:00pm Friday 19th March 2010
By Arron Hendy
AN 82-YEAR-OLD woman today told of her trauma at waiting a year to face a court trial over her crash with a police car.
Joan Tatler was badly injured in a crash on March 18 last year and was shocked when she was told she faced a charge of driving without due care and attention.
Her case has been before the courts six times and a magistrate in Weymouth yesterday slammed the Crown Prosecution Service after Mrs Tatler was sent home again when the evidence was not ready.
Mrs Tatler said: “It should have been sorted out by now.
“It’s 12 months since the accident and they’ve left me using the road for that long so I can’t be that bad a driver.”
Mrs Tatler had to be cut free from her Rover Metro by firefighters and spent three days in Dorset County Hospital after the crash with a marked police car that had its sirens on.
She was driving home from a doctor’s appointment in Portesham when she was involved in the crash at the junction to Langton Herring on the B3157.
Mrs Tatler suffered a dislocated knee, a gashed leg and bruising in the collision on the Weymouth to Bridport coast road.
During her recovery she tried using the bus from her village home in Langton Herring but collapsed when she could not step up and into the vehicle.
She has been helped in her recovery by her three sons David, Stephen and Robert Banner, and her friends.
But facing court has upset her and she has felt herself physically trembling.
She said: “When it’s done it will be a great relief believe you me. This has caused a lot of psychological damage.
“And if anybody thinks I’m not a safe driver that makes me less confident.”
Mrs Tatler has always been interested in cars.
She worked in the spare parts department in the old Pye Hill Garage on Chickerell Road in the 1960s and was a member of the Woolbridge Motor Club.
She also used to go on car rallies and last Sunday she drove to Birmingham for a funeral.
“I used to enjoy driving tremendously.”
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