Grieving mum tells of heartbreak after daughter is killed in taxi crash tragedy in Portsmouth

Football-mad Pompey fan Sheridan Harris suffered fatal injuries after being crushed the Skoda Octavia driven by Milton man, Sadettin Yalcin.

Sheridan, 20, had been drinking and was sitting on the roundabout between Lake Road and Cornmill Street when she was hit by Yalcin’s car, at 12.20am on May 13, 2017.

- Tragic crash in Portsmouth should act as a wake-up call for motorists, police say

After a jury found dad-of-two Yalcin, 38, of Seaway Crescent, guilty by majority of causing death by careless driving, Ms Harris’s mother, Eileen Mastin said her family could finally move on.

Speaking after yesterday’s trial at Portsmouth Crown Court, the grieving 40-year-old, of Hayling Island, said: ‘This has been the worst year of my life. She was my baby girl. I’m never going to be able to see her grow up. She was so bubbly and lovely.

‘It’s broken the whole family. She will be so, so missed.’

The court heard Yalcin, who had been a taxi driver for four years, was on his way to Gunwharf Quays after dropping off a customer in Baffins when the crash happened.

Prosecutor Anthony Bailey said Yalcin ‘failed’ to spot Ms Harris, of Fareham, as he approached the roundabout.

He said: ‘She was clearly a hazard. He failed to identify that as he should have done.’

Mr Bailey added in a police interview that Yalcin could ‘offer no explanation as to why he failed to see or take any evasive action’ to avoid her.

Forensic collision investigator Antony Johnson told the court an object would have been visible 106m away and that a driver would be able to clearly see Ms Harris before entering the roundabout.

This was disputed by another investigator, Michael Corrigan, who added in-car dashcam footage showed Yalcin was focusing on traffic to his right as he hit the junction.

Sentencing, Judge Roger Hetherington said there was ‘no suggestion’ Yalcin was ‘driving dangerously or erratically’ but that he had suffered a ‘momentary’ lapse in concentration.

He added Yalcin was driving at a ‘modest speed’ and was ‘keeping a lookout’ for traffic and pedestrians. But he said: ‘What you didn’t do, and what was of course your primary duty, was to make sure there was nothing in the road – some obstruction which could cause an accident.

‘It was that failing in that duty, through momentary inattention, that you failed to see there was an obstruction or in fact a person.’

Yalcin received a 12-month driving ban, 12 month community order and 200 hours of unpaid work.