Grieving dad makes plea after Bedford killer driver jailed

The father of a 25-year-old man killed after being hit on a pedestrian crossing by a speeding car has urged drivers to “pay more attention”.

Viorel Cosma said his son Rodrigo-Vasile Cosma was “in the grave” because of a driver’s “two seconds of not paying attention”.

Car worker Albert Jarosz, 28, of Brereton Road, Bedford, was jailed for four years and six months at Luton Crown Court on Tuesday.

Police described Jarosz’s driving, in Bedford town centre on 26 March 2024, as an “appalling display”.

Jurors were told how he had undertaken a line of traffic when approaching a junction in his turbo-charged Audi A6, then cut back into a right-hand lane near the crossing.

They found him guilty of causing death by dangerous driving after a trial.

Jarosz was driving at one-and-a-half times the speed limit when the accident happened, the trial heard.

A police crash investigator estimated he was travelling at 45mph (72km/h) in a 30mph (48km/h) zone.

The jury also heard the Audi had two defective tyres.

Passing sentence, Judge Allison Hunter had told Jarosz: “What you did was dangerous – an obviously dangerous manoeuvre.”

She also banned him from driving for seven years and three months.

Mr Cosma’s son had crossed just after the pedestrian light turned red, jurors heard.

The judge said he had stepped into the road in a way many others would have done and had been sent “hurtling” into the air.

“I’d ask all the drivers from this world to pay more attention and to be more kind,” Mr Cosma, who is Romanian, told the BBC.

“Look at us now: two seconds of not paying attention destroyed our lives; ruined our family.

“He was 25 years old with the entire life ahead – now he is in the grave.”

Mr Cosma, who spoke through an interpreter, added: “I want everyone who is driving to be more attentive, to pay more attention, to be more concentrated when they are driving.”

He said his son, a factory supervisor, had been taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge after suffering a “horrific” head injury, and died about a month later. accident.

“We were home expecting him back from work but instead the police came,” Mr Cosma said.

“When we heard this news we were in such a bad state of mind.”

He added: “The doctor said that there is possibility to make it, but in the end there wasn’t.”

Jarosz had admitted causing death by careless driving but denied causing death by dangerous driving.

He had stopped and called 999, jurors heard, and a witness told how he had his head in his hands, saying: ”I am sorry”.

Jarosz, who came to the UK from Poland in 2019, told jurors how he had been driving home from a garage in nearby Milton Ernest, where he worked.

He said he had been driving in the UK for four years before the collision, but had not read the Highway Code, and was unfamiliar with the road layout in central Bedford.

A lawyer representing him told the judge he had “struggled to live with the consequences of his actions” and was “utterly distraught”.

Barrister Daniel Higgins said the crossing light had been “set red” for pedestrians.

Prosecutor Sam Barker told the trial that Jarosz had made a “selfish” move.

Det Con Rochelle Eves, a member of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire serious collision investigation unit, described what Jarosz did as “an appalling display of driving”.

She added: “The road was wet; he chose to use the incorrect lane to gain an advantage, whilst speeding, with two defective tyres.”