A HOTEL owner who feared his girlfriend was dead after a motorist crashed into her on the A590 has criticised the driver's sentence as "lenient".

Dominos delivery driver Anthony Johnson was handed six penalty points and a £200 fine when he pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention at Furness Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

The 56-year-old, of Bay View Grove in Barrow, blamed a lapse in concentration for the four-vehicle crash at Rusland Pool which caused tailbacks of five miles in both directions and led to a 35-mile diversion.

Johnson had failed to see 63-year-old Gillian Tomason's indicators on her Mazda as she waited to turn right into the Rusland Pool hotel, which she runs with her partner Bob Pound.

During Tuesday's court hearing, magistrates were told no one involved in the collision suffered serious injuries, an assessment Mr Pound strongly disputes.


Partner: Bob Pound, who runs the Rusland Pool hotel Mr Pound, who has run the hotel with his family for 10 years, said: "When the crash happened, we came running outside, we thought she was dead. The car was completely written off.

"She was off work for six weeks and spent five days in hospital with a perforated bowel. Yet the court made it sound like it was a tiny bump, something and nothing."

After Johnson's car smashed into Miss Tomason, her car was shunted into oncoming traffic and collided with a number of vehicles.

Mr Pound said a van driver and a driving instructor who were involved in the crash had both been in touch since the collision to check on Miss Tomason, who has now fully recovered.

"The driving instructor said the guy just drove straight in the back of her. Quite frankly we thought she was dead," Mr Pound, 67, said.

"And yet the court was told no one was seriously injured. It is incredibly frustrating and I don't believe that six points and a fine is enough."