After accidentally crossing onto the motorway at a veterans car rally, a truck driver crashed into his vintage vehicle and was using his phone to call his victim.
Michael Black (52), was trying to contact a friend via his cell phone, when he crashed his Scania truck in the back of Ron Carey’s 80-year-old car.
Calgary-based Mr. Carey had taken the wheel the 1903 Knox Runabout Old Porcupine vehicle in the London to Brighton Veteran car Run of November 3, 2019.
Carey was well-known as a member of local vintage car clubs and business circles. He is believed to have made a wrong turn from the M23 official route.
His body was declared unresponsive at the scene. Billi, his female passenger was airlifted to London’s hospital with serious head injuries.
Ron Carey was 80 years old and had taken the controls of the 1903 Knox Runabout Old Porcupine vehicle with Billi. It is believed that this photograph was taken several hours before Carey’s death.
Pictured with Billi Carey is Mr Carey. He was described as “very well-respected, well-liked”
Yesterday’s police at the accident scene at Surrey’s junction of M23 and A23
Guildford Crown Court heard today that Mr Black was driving his lorry on the northbound carriageway of the M23 motorway when he used a works exit to turn and join the outside lane of the southbound carriageway.
Scott Brady, the prosecutor, told the jury that Mrs. Carey took a wrong turn on the motorway and they were now in the third lane near Hooley.
He stated that they were in the third lanes and Black was ahead. They were directly behind him in lane 3. Soon after 10 am, Black’s Scania and Knox collided.
He ran into the Knox veteran’s car, and Mr Carey tragically was killed as a result. His wife sustained serious injuries. His wife sustained numerous injuries and had to be helicoptered to the hospital. She survived.
A video was shown to the jury, which included seven men and five woman. They also heard an account of where the crash occurred.
This is the London-to Brighton Veteran Car Run route. The route taken yesterday by Mr Carey is shown in red.
The evidence showed that the driver of the truck sat motionless at the dock in a suit with a poppy on it throughout the trial.
Brady told the jury that Black confessed in moments following the accident to telling a member the public that he hadn’t been paying attention to the roads properly.
“If Black had kept a close eye on the scene, this would have prevented it from happening,” said the prosecutor. Because he was not looking because they were already there, he didn’t keep a close eye.
“He claimed that he didn’t keep a close eye on the scene because he was busy making a call to a friend. He admitted that he was making a call to a friend at the time of collision in a police interview.
He said that it was “ringing,” ringing or ringing. However, it failed to connect with me and I crashed into the vehicle.
Black was allegedly trying to reach his friend Ritchie at the time of the crash. After that, he hung up and called 999.
The Careys on the Mall at the start of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 2019
Judge Miranda Lees was informed earlier by Mr. Carey that their black open-top vehicle had been shipped from Canada to take part in the famed veteran car rally.
Brady stated that Mr Carey was headed towards Brighton. The Carey’s had been travelling south on the A23 when Mr Carey misinterpreted the signage. They turned onto M23. It was before the Hooley Turn.
They continued to follow the correct lane in order to continue south. He and his wife had a long conversation, during which he realized that they’d probably made a mistake.
A video of Black’s accident from Black’s lorry was shown to the court. The trucker’s records were also shown. Brady concluded his opening statements by saying that the crash was “tragic”, and that there is no way to avoid it. It is truly awful.
Mr Carey, who had made his fortune after founding oil supply company J&L Supply, had been a veteran car enthusiast since the 1980s and had contributed to museums and collections around the world, including his personal collection which was worth an estimated £3.8 million.
He was joined by his wife via a distant link to Arizona from where he listened all the way through.
The scene is portrayed in 2019 by police officers and also a Highway Maintenance Vehicle.
According to reports, the pensioner might have chosen the wrong route and ended up at the M23 yesterday
A spokesperson for London to Brighton Veteran Car Run stated that the car in the M23 crash had been registered in the London-to Brighton Veteran Car Run.
“The car had not left the route which doesn’t include the M23, where the collision occurred. We have been supporting the family and working closely with police.
At the time, Mr Carey’s friend Rick Pikulski, 62, told MailOnline: ‘On car tours, and we’ve been on many, it’s a common thing when you drive antique cars – in the olden days people used to give you a wave and a wide berth – these days if you’re on these faster driving roadways, people are more likely to give you the finger and tell you to get off the road.
“We are more inclined to avoid the fastest roads, especially if you’re going between 25 and 30 mph. In this instance they should have been driving on scenic country roads. It is not clear how he got to such an expressway.
Mr Carey was the founder of oil supply company J&L Supply and was also a major contributor to vintage vehicles at two museums, Gasoline Alley and Pioneer Acres.
Photographs revealed that the vehicle of Mr. Carey, which was without indicators and had a maximum speed of 35 mph, was nearly destroyed by an accident in 2019.
The listing of Mr. and Mrs Carey’s car on the London-to Brighton Veteran Car Run website stated that it was registered in Arizona. It has been removed
Mr Carey, who owns a £3.8million classic car collection and a home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, is thought to have competed at the race in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Each year hundreds of car enthusiasts participate in this 60-mile rally. This tragedy comes two years after another driver, a 68-year old man died in the same event.
Carey was born Regina, Saskatchewan in 1939. He was abandoned as a child and his grandmother took him in.
He was 17 when he started working on oil rigs during winter. In summer, he worked in road construction and operated crawler tractors.
His words were: “I never had a job.” I worked on rigs when they were in operation. They would shut down and I’d get another job.
Mr Carey worked his way up the career ladder with various drilling contractors before starting his own company, J&L Supply, in 1973.
He also claimed to possess a trophy room that houses one of the largest and most valuable sheep collections anywhere in the world. It includes 36 species, as well as 24 goats from the Capra (goat family).
A helicopter ambulance took Mrs Carey from Tooting to St George’s Hospital.
Albertan legend Mr. Carey is known for his collection of classic cars, as well as old trucks and gas pumps that he donated to museums.
The four-seater rear-wheel drive Knox Runabout was designed by Harry A Knox – one of the pioneers of the horseless carriage industry in the US – and initially sold for $2,000.
Because of their air cooling system they were called the Knox Waterless or the more common ‘Old Porcupine’.
One model fetched around £53,000 when sold at auction in 2012. Two years ago, David Corry (68) was killed in a crash involving four vehicles.
Jocelyn Gregory from the locality saw the accident and criticised organizers for not providing adequate signage or ensuring that stewards were present along the route.
She stated that there weren’t enough signage at the intersection. It is easy to make a mistake if you don’t know the area. The system was poorly organized. It is an enormous junction. It should have had stewards.
“When the lorry struck, the passengers flew high into the sky like rag dolls. It was horrible. It was horrible.
The 2019 registrations included more than 400 vehicles that date back to before 1905. Alan Titchmarsh (television gardener) was also part of the 2019 run.
The rally is a tribute to the Emancipation Run in 1896, which marks the freedom motorists gained after speed limits were raised to 14 mph. A man wearing a red flag was no longer required to pass cars while they are being driven.
At dawn in London, Hyde Park, the 60-mile route took drivers along the A23, through Gatwick and Crawley, before arriving at Madeira Drive in Brighton shortly after 10.
Since then, the listing for Mr. Carey’s vehicle at London to Brighton Veteran car Run, which stated it had been registered in Arizona, was removed.
Black, of Peppard Road Crawley West Sussex denies the charges of causing fatalities by dangerous driving as well as causing severe injury through dangerous driving.
The trial is continuing.