A WOMAN who caused a West Oxfordshire death crash that killed a new father has been spared jail.

Speaking of her late husband in an emotional statement, Victoria Smith said after repeatedly trying for a baby the couple had only just learned they were to have a child for the first time.

Amy Hill was set to stand trial for one count of causing death by careless driving.

At Oxford Crown Court on Monday, the 46-year-old of Hook Norton Road, near Chipping Norton, had a change of heart and pleaded guilty.

After the plea had been entered the court heard a poignant victim personal statement from 32-year-old Nigel Smith’s widow Victoria.

She said that before the fatal collision, on June 29, 2018, she and her husband had long been trying for a baby.

On the day of the crash in West Oxfordshire she had just learned that she had finally become pregnant after ‘rounds of IVF and a devastating miscarriage’.

She said: “I was eight weeks pregnant when he was taken so unexpectedly.

“I write this as our newborn son smiles happily in his cot, unaware that he will grow up without a father.

“We never talked about what we would do if it was just one of us, nor should we have.

“We were young and had so much ahead of us.

“He was my partner, my best friend, he was fiercely intelligent and he made anything possible.”

Outlining the details of the crash, prosecutor Matthew Walsh said that Hill was driving a Skoda car along London Lane when she approached the B4437.

It was shortly after 8am when the victim, Mr Smith, was riding a Triumph motorcycle travelling from Charlbury.

At the junction Hill ‘failed to stop’ and as she emerged she collided with Mr Smith.

He died from multiple injuries as a result of the crash.

Prosecutors went on to say that, when detailing what had happened to emergency services, Hill claimed ‘something had hit into her out of nowhere.’

In mitigation at Monday’s hearing, Jonathan Rose said that his client was sorry for what she had done.

He said: “The defendant is truly remorseful for what has happened and the tragic loss of life that has occurred.

“Regrettably there is nothing she can say or do to turn the clock back.

“What started out for her as an ordinary day has ended up in devastation.”

He said Hill, who works at Elsevier, which has an office in Kidlington, had a clean driving licence before the collision and had also suffered post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.

Explaining the collision he said that his client ‘failed to appreciate the junction and overshot it, having expected to turn left.’

Sentencing, Judge Ian Pringle QC called the victim statement ‘moving’ and said he would be ‘failing in [his] duty’ to order anything other than a jail term.

That term, however, was one which he said could be suspended.

Hill was handed a six-month jail term, suspended for two years.

She was also made subject to a community order to include 120 hours of unpaid work and she was disqualified from driving for two years.