Two men have been charged with causing death by dangerous driving after a police investigation lasting almost eight months into a crash which killed a 51-year-old woman outside her Bradford home.
Grandmother Mary Byrne was paying for a minicab when it was involved in a collision with a black BMW in Mandale Road, Horton Bank Top, on April 20.
Mrs Byrne had been returning from celebrating a friend’s birthday to the home of 27 years she shared with her partner Alan Jones. She died of injuries caused by the force of the impact.
The detailed police investigation, carried out by the major collision inquiry team at the West Yorkshire force, looked into the movements of the BMW and a blue Ford Focus before the collision.
Joseph Robinson, 22, of Westminster Gardens, Clayton, and Thomas Healey, 20, of Brow Lane, Clayton, have now both been charged with causing death by dangerous driving and will appear before Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court later this month.
Robinson faces an additional charge of conspiracy to obtain insurance by making false statements.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police also confirmed that a 17-year-old Bradford youth had been released without charge after he was initially arrested in connection with the investigation.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, Mrs Byrne’s relatives spoke of their “inconsolable grief” for a beloved family member whose sudden death had left a “massive void.”
Mrs Byrne’s eldest daughter, Sam Rees, who lives near Keighley, said there was not a day went by when her mother did not see one or all of her seven grandchildren.
“She loved us all, but whatever love she had for us, you could times that by ten for the grandkids,” she said. “She was a proper nana, and involved in as much as she could be.”
Neighbours also paid tribute to Mrs Byrne, a cook at Cooper House care home in Buttershaw, with numerous floral tributes left near the smashed garden wall of the semi-detached house adjoining her own.
One simply read: “This should not have happened to a lovely person like you.”
Hundreds of mourners attended the mother-of-four’s funeral at St Michael’s and All Angels Church, Shelf, in June, with the Reverend Marion Gaskill describing Mrs Byrne as “a loving and dearly loved mum, a devoted nana, cherished daughter, treasured partner and a good friend to all those who knew her.”
St John’s RC Primary School in Mandale Road, had started a petition asking traffic to slow down in and around the school prior to the crash, using posters drawn by children, including Mrs Byrne’s seven-year-old grandaughter Grace, to highlight a road safety campaign.
Following the tragedy, Councillor Michael Walls (Con, Queensbury) and Bradford South Labour MP Gerry Sutcliffe added their support to calls for traffic calming measures where Mrs Byrne was killed.
Since then Bradford Council has spent £10,000 installing speed humps, traffic islands and solar-powered road signs in Mandale Road.
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