A SURGEON who caused the death of a grandmother-of-nine in a crash on a country road has been fined at Worcester Crown Court and banned from driving for 12 months.

Robert Padwick, a surgeon at Hereford County Hospital, was fined £2,000 with £500 costs after he pleaded guilty to a charge of causing death by careless driving. He had been found not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving by a jury at an earlier trial in Hereford Crown Court.

The crash on the A4103 at Lower Eggleton, near Ledbury, at 9.30am on Friday, March 6, 2009, killed 60-year-old Anne Morris, of Coddington, near Malvern.

The 33-year-old surgeon had just come off a night shift and was heading back to his home in Scott Road, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, to see his 29-year-old wife Aisha, who was pregnant with their first child.

He admitted he had been driving at 80mph just before the crash in a 60mph limit. He slowed in order to negotiate the bend but lost control and hit the Honda driven by Mrs Morris almost head-on as she drove in the opposite direction.

Mrs Morris was killed instantly. Padwick was trapped in the wreckage of his car and diagnosed that he had broken his own femur in the crash.

The court was told Padwick had two previous fixed penalty convictions for speeding, which were no longer on his licence.

Stephen Thomas, defending, said Padwick had always accepted responsiblity for the accident and that he was driving too fast.

“It was a momentary lapse on that bend,” he said. “He was injured and since the accident his professional and personal lives have been on hold. He is a doctor with great potential and his references say he will make an excellent surgeon and teacher.”

Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins said Padwick had been driving at 80mph and it was the process of trying to reduce his speed for the bend that led to him losing control of the car. He said Padwick was “a responsible man with a responsible job” and neither a custodial sentence nor a community order would be appropriate.

Padwick was also ordered to take an extensive re-test before he is allowed to drive again.