the times | Wednesday December 22 2021 V2 27
News
A car owner who defied a warning to re-
place dangerously worn tyres has been
jailed for causing the death of another
driver despite being in the passenger
seat at the time of the accident.
Henry Reynolds, was being driven by
a drunk friend who ploughed head-on
into a car driven by Winston Chau, 36.
Chau died at the scene and his mother
Chau Chau, now 59, suffered life-
changing injuries. The accident hap-
Car crash passenger jailed because he ignored tyre warnings
pened in wet weather. The worn tyres
on Reynolds’s Mercedes lost their grip
on the road, causing the car to “fishtail”
out of control.
Reynolds, 31, admitted aiding and
abetting causing death by dangerous
driving and a similar charge of causing
serious injury.
Judge Michael Kay QC said that no
precedents could be found for the case,
before sentencing Reynolds to 30
months’ jail at St Albans crown court
and banning him from driving for four
years and three months. The court wastold that an MoT centre had warned
Reynolds in February that the rear tyr-
es were near the legal limit. The car was
then driven more than 6,000 miles
before the fatal accident in May 2018.
Judge Kay said experts had conclud-
ed the Mercedes should not have been
on the road and that the state of the tyr-
es contributed to the collision.
He told Reynolds at the sentencing:
“You knew the effect the tyres were
having on the vehicle in wet weather.
You were not driving the vehicle, but
you were allowing someone else todrive the car when it was unroadworthy
and in a dangerous state.”
Chau’s family told the Daily Mail they
were “relieved” Reynolds would serve
time but said the sentence was too leni-
ent. “He is responsible for taking my
brother’s life,” Lee Chau, 42, said. “He’ll
be inside for a maximum of 15 months
with good behaviour. We will be im-
pacted for the rest of our lives.”
Reynolds, an unemployed father of
two from London Colney, had spent the
day drinking with a friend, TJ Sam
Quirke, before they went to get food.CCTV video from Redbourn, near St Al-
bans in Hertfordshire, showed the back
of the car sliding on a roundabout. It
veered into oncoming traffic, hitting
Chau’s Honda Civic head-on. Emer-
gency workers could not save Chau, who
worked for easyJet at Luton airport.
Last year Quirke, then 28, admitted
causing death by dangerous driving,
drink-driving. causing serious injury by
dangerous driving and having no insur-
ance. He was jailed for five years and
three months and banned from driving
for seven years and three months.Ben Clatworthy
Transport Correspondent
Poor biosecurity on farms is contribut-
ing to the UK’s worst outbreak of bird
flu and has resulted in two million birds
being culled in the past two months, the
chief veterinary officer has said.
Dr Christine Middlemiss urged poul-
try keepers not to be complacent and to
obey emergency rules introduced last
month requiring all keepers to confine
poultry and captive birds indoors and
follow strict biosecurity measures.
Bird keepers are required to cleanse
Get your henhouse in order, says chief vet after bird flu cull of 2m
and disinfect clothing and equipment
before and after contact with their birds
and also cleanse and disinfect bird
housing continuously.
Cases have been confirmed at 65
infected premises, up from 40 less than
two weeks ago.
The number of birds culled on farms
and in backyard flocks with confirmed
cases of bird flu has quadrupled from
about 500,000 on December 9.
They include chickens being reared
for meat, egg-laying hens and turkeys.
However, the Department for Environ-ment, Food and Rural Affairs said that
there was no threat to supplies of poul-
try meat or eggs as the total number
culled was a very small proportion of
the one billion birds reared annually.
Middlemiss wrote on Twitter: “In
many cases it is poor biosecurity
causing birds to become infected. Don’t
walk #BirdFlu into your poultry
house!”
In a statement, she said: “We are see-
ing a growing number of bird flu cases
both on commercial farms and in back-
yard birds. Many poultry keepers haveexcellent biosecurity standards but the
number of cases we are seeing suggests
that not enough is being done to keep
bird flu out.
“Whether you keep just a few birds or
thousands you must take action now to
protect your birds from this highly in-
fectious disease.
“Implementing scrupulous biosecu-
rity has never been more critical.
“You must regularly clean and
disinfect your footwear and clothes
before entering enclosures, stop your
birds mixing with any wild birds andonly allow visitors that are strictly
necessary. It is your actions that will
help keep your birds safe.”
The disease is spread by geese, swans
and other wild birds migrating to the
UK from Europe, where there have
been severe outbreaks. The housing
order is intended to prevent poultry
from mixing with these wild birds.
The UK Health Security Agency has
said that the risk to public health from
bird flu is very low and the Food
Standards Agency has said that it poses
a very low food safety risk.Ben Webster Environment Editor
Lonely farmers
call helpline as
BBC storylines
touch a nerve
“In my mind I came to the conclusion
that the best solution to the problem
overall would be to take myself out.”
Milly Fyfe, a farmer’s wife from
Northamptonshire, told the pro-
gramme that the isolation had exacer-
bated the issues of looking after her and
her husband’s two young children, one
of whom fell ill during the lockdown
while her husband had to work.
A storyline on Radio 4’s The Archers
about the character Alice Carter’s
alcoholism also had an impact. One
episode, broadcast in May, covered
Alice’s child possibly being born with
foetal alcohol syndrome, prompting
6,000 visits to the support page.
The BBC broadcast a range of pro-
grammes covering suicide, grief and
emotional distress, including the play
Sadie and the documentaries Gary
Speed: 10 Years On and Lumo: Too Young
to Die. These generated more than
120,900 visits and calls for support from
Action Line.
There were more than 209,000 re-
quests for support in relation to sexual
abuse issues, accounting for more than
a sixth of the total contacts. In total,
calls and online visits increased by
170,000 compared with last year.
Stuart Roberts, president of the
National Farmers’ Union, said: “We can
all do more to listen and make time for
each other and remove any stigma that
too often exists around mental health.”
Nick Mason, head of BBC audience
services, said: “Our second pandemic
year has not seen a let-up in contacts,
particularly about mental health. We
will continue to offer vital support and
information in 2022 and beyond.”George Sandeman
WILL EVANS/BNPSRiding the waves A daredevil took advantage of choppy conditions in Highcliffe, Dorset, to perform a few stunts with a jet
ski. Winter is said to be the best time of year for watersports at the beach, when the northerly winds create a helpful swellProgrammes including Countryfile and
The Archers prompted more than
1.2 million phone calls and online visits
to the BBC’s support service this year
after covering topics such as depression
and alcoholism among farmers.
Issues around sexual abuse and
racism also prompted a high number of
viewers to get in touch with Action
Line, the broadcaster said.
In an episode of Countryfile that was
shown in February, the presenter Tom
Heap spoke to farmers experiencing
economic uncertainty because of the
pandemic. He heard that some were ex-
periencing social isolation after the few
events in the farming calendar were
cancelled because of lockdowns. After
the programme was shown there were
2,000 visits to the BBC’s support page.
A survey that month of 450 farmers
under 40 published by the Farm Safety
Foundation found that 88 per cent
thought poor mental health was the
biggest hidden problem they faced.
The show broadcast an interview
with a farmer called Tony who said that
he had considered suicide. “In respect
to how low I was getting, it was, prob-
ably, the isolation and not being able to
share things when I wanted to,” he said.
Milly Fyfe, a
farmer’s wife,
spoke about
lockdown isolation