Cambridgeshire Teenager Jailed

22 February 2010, 14:28 | Updated: 22 February 2010, 15:00

A teenage driver from Little Paxton, near St Neots, has been jailed for almost two years for causing the death of an army major as he took part in a time trial race.

19 year old Katie Hart was driving along the southbound carriageway of the A1 to her boyfriend's house when she crashed into 37 year old Gareth Rhys-Evans.

The army major was taking part in a 25 mile time trial race when the teenager hit him, throwing him over the roof of her Ford Ka and on to the fast lane of the road near Eaton Ford.

He was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived at the scene on May 3rd last year.

Major Rhys-Evans set off from Sandy in Bedfordshire at 7:46am and was one of 120 entrants in the 25 mile time trial to Buckden in Cambridgeshire.

At an earlier hearing, Hart admitted causing death by careless driving but denied causing death by dangerous driving.

She had passed her driving test 18 months before the crash and on the day the visibility was clear, her mobile phone was in her handbag and her stereo was switched off.

However last month a jury found Hart guilty of the more serious charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

She has been sentenced to 21 months in prison and banned from driving for 2 years.