Pensioner who killed eight-month-old baby in ‘senseless’ crash outside hospital jailed

A pensioner who caused the death of an eight-month-old baby after hitting her pram in a ‘senseless’ crash outside a hospital has been jailed for four years.

Bridget Curtis, 71, had taken her own adult daughter for an outpatient appointment at Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, on the morning of June 21, 2023.

Swansea Crown Court heard how she turned around to help her daughter find her handbag in the back when she pressed the accelerator of the automatic BMW ‘right to the ground’.

It flew forward hitting 29mph before mounting the kerb of a grass seating area and hitting little Mabli Cariad Hall pushchair.

The infant, who had only said ‘Mama’ for the first time a day earlier, suffered catastrophic head injuries and died in hospital in the arms of her parents Rob and Gwen Hall on June 25.

Mr and Mrs Hall stood together in the witness box of the courtroom as they gave harrowing statements about Mabli’s death and the impact of their loss.

Mr Hall, who had been placing Mabli back into her pushchair at the time of the collision, described how Curtis had ‘literally ripped my baby out of my arms’.

‘I remember Mabli smiling at me, making her cute noises as I was about to take her for a walk,’ Mr Hall said.

Both Mr Hall and his brother also sustained injuries from Curtis’ vehicle.

He described how his family had spent the past two-and-a-half weeks at the hospital as his mother, Betty Hall, was receiving palliative care.

‘The actions of Bridget Curtis denied me the opportunity to be at my mother’s passing,’ he said.

‘I was forced to choose between her and my daughter. I had to say goodbye on Facetime with her asking me to be there.’

Mabli was the youngest of six siblings, who visited her in hospital in the days before her death.

‘The last goodbyes for Mabli’s four sisters and brother were heartbreaking for them and soul destroying for me and my wife,’ Mr Hall said.

Mabli’s funeral was held the day before her grandmother’s funeral, the court heard.

Mrs Hall described how she had taken Mabli to say goodbye to her ‘Nanny’, then her husband took their baby girl for a walk while she remained with her mother-in-law.

‘Within 15 minutes, I was running to the A&E department,’ she said.

‘She hadn’t crawled yet. She had said “Mama” for the first time only the day before. We had so much planned with her. It was nowhere near the time for her to be taken away from us. She was my baby. My eight month old baby.’

Mrs Hall told how Mabli had been sitting in her pushchair, away from the road, playing with her family, when she was killed.

‘All that we have been through was avoidable,’ she said.

‘I finished my maternity leave without my baby. In four seconds, I went from a Mum who took care of my Mabli all day and night, to not having her at all.’

Mrs Hall said Mabli would not go to school, to marry, or to have her own family as this had been ‘stolen from her by Bridget Curtis’.

‘She was so bright, so beautiful, so full of love and life,’ she told the court.

‘She was my best friend, my shadow, my second skin. All she ever gave and all she ever had was love.’

Curtis, who had a clean driving licence, was arrested and later pleaded guilty to a charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

Judge Geraint Walters disqualified Curtis from driving for eight years and sentenced her to four years in prison, describing her actions as ‘grossly reckless’.

The judge told Curtis: ‘At about midday on June 21, 2023, the lives of the Hall family were changed forever. Loving parents, siblings and a wider extended family suffered the devastation of their lives.

‘That is because that day, they suffered that which every parent dreads, the loss of a much-cherished child, Mabli, just eight months old.

‘Her life was taken from her senselessly and indeed needlessly as a result of your actions.’

Dashcam footage from another vehicle at the hospital showed Curtis’ car appearing to lift off the ground before colliding with Mabli’s family and her pushchair, then coming to a stop when it hit a tree.

Speaking about the footage, the judge said: ‘The sight of that vehicle taking off before impact is something that words cannot describe. It has to be seen to be believed.’

He added that Curtis had not braked or taken avoidant action after her car began moving.

Representing Curtis, John Dye said his client was a mother-of-four and a grandmother-of-10 who had led a ‘blameless, law abiding life’.

He told the court Curtis had written a letter to the Hall family, apologising for her actions, and described her as ‘absolutely devastated’.

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