Tram driver jailed over speed death

Holidaymaker Maureen Foxwell, 70, was celebrating her wedding anniversary with husband Barry, 70, in Blackpool when she was knocked down by the tram on the resort's Promenade in August last year.

Mrs Foxwell, from Caerphilly, South Wales, suffered a fractured skull and chest injuries and died a month later.

Tram driver Paul Edensor, 36, of Alexander Road, Thornton Cleveleys, Lancs, was sentenced at Preston Crown Court yesterday after he pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving last month.

Kirsten McAteer, for the prosecution, told the court that Mrs Foxwell was walking over a tram crossing with her husband when Edensor's blue double-decker tram failed to stop and ran into her.

The barrister said the couple, who were on the sixth day of their holiday, were intending to catch a tram at the Norbreck stop to head into the town centre.

They had been staying at the nearby Norbreck Castle Hotel to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

As the couple approached the crossing, they saw a group of people waiting at the tram stop on the other side of the road and watched as Edensor's tram approached.

Expecting the tram, operated by Blackpool Transport, to stop for the waiting passengers, they crossed the tram lines.

But Edensor, who had become a tram driver only two months earlier and had already been disciplined for his speeding, ignored the waiting passengers and carried on driving.

The prosecutor said tram regulations state that Edensor should have approached the tram stop and crossing at no more than 4mph. Forensic examination of the tram and lines after the collision showed he had been travelling at between 13mph and 17mph.