article_snippet: An 80-year-old driver who killed a grandmother when Thomas Gidman foot slipped on accelerator was seen laughing outside court after being handed only a £500 fine and a two-year driving ban.
article_snippet: Wheelchair-bound Thomas Gidman, 80, from Stoke-on-Trent, (pictured above with friends outside court) was sitting in his stationary car when  his foot slipped on the accelerator and the vehicle crashed into Irene Wills . '
article_snippet: However, Gidman pleaded guilty to causing Irene Wills’s death through careless driving at Irene Wills first appearance at North Staffordshire Justice Centre, and was immediately sentenced by magistrates. '
article_snippet: Magistrates heard Gidman was waiting for Gidman daughter in Gidman in a doctor’s surgery car park when Gidman slipped on to the accelerator.
article_snippet: Gidman's car leapt forward in a 90-degree arc, propelled by ‘high-level harsh acceleration’, crossed a road, then hit Mrs Wills, a retired kitchen assistant, as she walked just yards from she home.
article_snippet: ’ Outside court heard how witnesses reported a 'high-level harsh acceleration' of a car before a car crashed into Mrs Wills.
article_snippet: Gidman got in the car, which was an automatic, while his daughter in his car went to a chemist's shop nearby to fetch a prescription. '
article_snippet: The Ford Focus with the defendant at the wheel shot forward out of the car park in a 90 degree arc and ended up hitting Mrs Wills who was walking along Knypersley Road.
article_snippet: Gidmanpictured outside court) admitted causing death by driving without due care and attention and was handed a two-year driving ban and fined £500 . '
article_snippet: Right from the outset the defendant at the wheel said the defendant at the wheel foot had slipped from the brake pedal on to the accelerator.'
article_snippet: Police investigators found Gidman’s vehicle had no mechanical defects.
highlights_snippet: Thomas Gidman sitting in stationary car when foot slipped on accelerator .
  
highlights_snippet: Thomas Gidman admitted causing death by driving without due care and attention .
  