A driver has been found guilty of causing the death of a woman after his car hit her while travelling at more than twice the speed limit.
Vanessa Sagnay de la Bastida, 28, the daughter of the Ecuadorian former presidential candidate Carlos Sagnay de la Bastida, was hit so hard she somersaulted in the air before landing on a railing and suffering a fatal head injury, the Old Bailey was told.
Octavian Cadar, 39, was driving at 48mph in a 20mph limit when his Mercedes struck Sagnay on the approach to Wandsworth Bridge in London in March 2022.
Sagnay had been holding hands with her partner, Michael Williams, before they fled in different directions as Cadar’s speeding car approached.
Cadar admitted causing death by careless driving, but claimed he was trying to avoid the couple. He had accused them of “messing around in the road”, the court heard.
On Monday a jury found him guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Sagnay’s mother was holding hands with Williams in court as they showed relief when the unanimous verdict was delivered.
The judge, Anuja Dhir KC, told them she had no words to make up for the pain the tragedy had caused them.
Sagnay and Williams, who had known each other since school in Scotland, were on their way home from a trip to the gym at the time of the tragedy.
Williams told the court they had been holding hands as they began to cross the road, after checking it was clear at the pedestrian crossing.
He told jurors: “We got halfway across the road when I heard a loud revving sound of a car accelerating and backfiring.
“The car was coming toward me startlingly fast. I think it was in the centre lane.
“At first I froze. I was so confused. And then I took a couple of steps forward to get towards the central reservation.”
Sagnay had run back the way they had come and got as far as the bus lane when she was hit on the left-hand side by Cadar’s car, jurors were told.
Williams told the court: “She fell on the front of the car. She went on to a street sign. There was a loud bang. I screamed and I crossed the street. I tried to call the ambulance.
“I was on the phone to the emergency services and that is when the driver of the car came out.
“He was shouting. He was angry and he was saying: ‘Why did you freeze? Why didn’t you keep walking?’
“I said to him: ‘Because we were terrified.’”
Cadar admitted to jurors that he had wrongly tried to blame the couple in a subsequent police interview.
A forensic expert, who had estimated that Cadar was driving at 48mph, told the court that had he been driving at 30mph, the couple would have been able to safely complete their crossing to the traffic island.