A JUDGE and a grieving family called on motorists not to use mobile phones when driving after the tragic death of a motorcyclist.

Russ White, 55, was killed by car driver Sandra Tales when she turned into his path as he rode home from work.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that Tales, 51, had been using her phone shortly before the accident, but not when it occurred.

Sentencing Tales, of Friar Court, Idle, Bradford, to five months imprisonment suspended for 12 months, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said she had been significantly distracted.

He told her: "There is no possible explanation why you didn't see that gentleman. You were thinking about something else, you were worried about something else - you were miles away."

Disqualifying bespectacled Tales from driving for two years, the judge said she had been using a phone moments before the collision.

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Judge Durham Hall said: "It's not because of that that the accident was caused, but it is evidence of your distraction."

He added: "I hope everyone will do their best to bring to justice people who use phones when they are driving. It has to stop."

Mr White, of Cliff View Cottage, Kettlewell, was on his way home from his job as a road marker with Kirklees Council, when the accident happened at the junction of Canal Road and Frizinghall Lane, Frizinghall, Bradford, at 4.30pm on December 16, 2013.

The court heard Mr White was driving carefully, with his headlights illuminated, in the opposite direction to Tales' Kia Picanto car.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sharp said the defendant pulled out towards the centre of the road to overtake or move up the slow line of traffic and then made a right turn that brought her into the path of the motorcycle. Mr White braked hard but was unable to stop and collided with the front nearside of the car.

Mr Sharp said a number of witnesses expressed horror at what was about to happen.

Mr Sharp said there had been a theory that the defendant must have been distracted by use of a mobile phone.

But he added: "While it was true there was some phone traffic earlier, it wasn't close enough for us to be able to show it could have been an operative distraction."

He said Tales had been en-route to pick up her son, but he was not at the normal place. There was an exchange of text message indicating he would be elsewhere and she had made the right turn to pick him up.

Mr Sharp said picking up her child was uppermost in her mind and she made the turn without looking properly to see what was coming, pulling in front of the motorcycle as a result.

Tales pleaded not guilty yesterday to causing death by dangerous driving, but admitted causing death by careless driving which was accepted by the prosecution.

Her barrister, Stephen Wood, said she had accepted responsibility immediately. She had an unblemished driving record and was of impeccable character.

After the case, Mr White's widow Nicky, speaking on behalf of his family, said Russ was "full of life and loved by everybody he came into contact with".

In a statement, she said: "Justice has not been done. Sandra Tales has killed Russ by her own admission, a man who was adored by his wife, his children including his four-year-old son, and all his family.

"Nothing will ever fill the hole that she has caused in our lives.

"No example has been made that might stop the same tragedy happening again and again to other families."