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Private hire driver who crashed while fiddling with phone’s Sat Nav with children passengers on boar

Michael Murphy

A private hire driver in Ipswich pleaded guilty to charges of driving without due care and attention and driving while using a mobile phone, after causing a head-on collision with another vehicle on the morning of 10 December 2018. 45-year-old Rahena Begum, who was working for a local firm contracted to carry out school runs in Suffolk, became distracted after getting lost on route to one of the schools.

Begum, who didn't attend court in person, said in a written statement that she was asked to carry out a different journey than normal and had to take two children to Thomas Gainsborough School in Great Cornard. On route, in an unfamiliar area, she got lost and needed to check the postcode of the school with the cab company.

Begum started to fiddle with the satnav on her phone because she said the TomTom device she had in the car stopped working due to lack of signal. As reported in the Ipswich Star, Begum, who was driving a Ford Galaxy, was holding her phone in her hand when she veered onto the wrong side of the A1092 and collided head-on with a Nissan Navara. The child passengers were lucky to escape with minor injuries. Both vehicles were damaged so badly that they were declared write offs by the insurance companies.

Anne Ng, chairman of the bench, highlighted the possibility of Begum being disqualified from driving due to the severity of the incident.

Begum must return to court on 26 July for sentencing.

Image: Source; Flickr

Image: Author; Pete

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