{"id":529015,"date":"2026-04-13T19:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529015\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T19:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:19:12","slug":"driver-who-knocked-take-that-fan-off-flyover-said-oh-god-i-think-ive-killed-someone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/529015\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver who knocked Take That fan off flyover said ‘Oh God I think I’ve killed someone’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fiona Hodge denies causing the death of Donna Crossman by careless driving on the grounds of insanity\"Fiona<\/p>\n

Fiona Hodge arriving at Bristol Crown court where, Monday 13 April 2026 she is on trial for causing death by careless driving. The offence happened in June 2024 following the death of Donna Crossman on Brunel Way before a Take That concert at Ashton Gate Stadium(Image: PAUL GILLIS \/ Reach Plc)<\/p>\n

A woman who drove onto the pavement on the Brunel Way flyover and knocked a pedestrian over the railings and onto the ground below exclaimed: \u201cOh God, I think I\u2019ve killed someone\u201d, a court heard today.<\/p>\n

The woman hit by Fiona Hodge\u2019s red Citroen C1 car died of her injuries after falling more than 20ft onto the BMX track below, but Hodge denies a single charge of causing her death by careless driving<\/a> in a trial at Bristol Crown Court.<\/p>\n

Hodge\u2019s defence is that she suffered an epileptic seizure, causing her to lose control of the car she was driving and mount the kerb, knocking Donna Crossman<\/a> off the flyover and to her death below.<\/p>\n

Donna, who had led an extraordinary life that saw her work at the Pentagon<\/a>, and manage both the Welsh national women\u2019s netball and rugby teams, suffered \u2018catastrophic\u2019 injuries and tragically died, the jury was told.<\/p>\n

Donna, from South Wales, was walking with two friends from Clifton<\/a> to the Take That concert at Ashton Gate Stadium back in June 2024, while Hodge was driving back from an afternoon walking with two friends in the Mendips.<\/p>\n

Bristol Crown Court heard evidence from both sets of friends on the first day of the trial, as well as from two young women who were following Hodge\u2019s Citroen car from the Long Ashton bypass.<\/p>\n

Grace Hansford was driving into Bristol from Cheddar with her friend Charlotte Hicks, and both told police soon after the crash – and again in court under cross-examination – that they were concerned enough about Hodge\u2019s driving that Miss Hansford braked to slow down to stay back from the Citroen in front.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Woman denies careless driving after horror crash left Take That fan dead on way to concert<\/a>READ MORE: Family of ‘remarkable woman’ who died on her way to Take That concert still wait for answers<\/a><\/p>\n

The jury was played a body-worn video recording from a police officer in the aftermath of the crash, with Miss Hansford and Miss Hicks telling police the red Citroen in front of them kept swerving into the bus lane, and had its left indicator on but didn\u2019t turn off the A370 as it approached the Brunel Way flyover.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt swerved enough times for us to be concerned and to say something to each other,\u201d said Miss Hansford. \u201cThe car wasn\u2019t driving normally. Once we got closer to the bridge, I braked and I said to Charlotte \u2018I\u2019m going to give that car space, I don\u2019t trust it’.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we got more onto the bridge, I saw the car bump up onto the kerb. I noticed there were three women on the bridge walking along. I heard a bang, and one of the women was hit,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\"Fiona<\/p>\n

Fiona Hodge arriving at Bristol Crown court on Monday 13 April 2026. Fiona Hodge is on trial for causing death by careless driving, following the death of Donna Crossman on Brunel Way before a Take That concert in June 2024(Image: PAUL GILLIS \/ Reach Plc)<\/p>\n

Fiona Hodge, 69, from Tyne Street in St Werburgh\u2019s, Bristol, was driving her friends Juliet Harmer and Judith Rieser back from a day trip to hike up Crook Peak in the Mendips. Both Ms Harmer and Mrs Rieser told the court that they had no concerns about their friend\u2019s driving on the way back, and didn\u2019t notice anything untoward.<\/p>\n

Juliet Harmer was in the front seat, and said: \u201cThere was nothing unusual about her driving until the point we veered off the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were driving along, we had been chatting but weren\u2019t at the time, and then suddenly I was aware that the car was drifting to the left and up onto the kerb. It was a very surreal situation. I became immediately aware of three women on the pavement. It was so quick, I thought we had hit them all,\u201d she told the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a matter of moments and we were colliding with what I now know to be one of the pedestrians. She hit the bonnet and the windscreen right in front of me,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Judith Rieser, in the back seat behind the driver, said she also had no concerns about Hodge\u2019s driving, until she felt the car hit the kerb. \u201cI felt it and I leant forward to say \u2018I think you\u2019ve gone onto the kerb\u2019, but I didn\u2019t get a chance to say it before we hit the woman. I saw the impact of the woman on the windscreen.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The aftermath of the crash in June 2024 which killed Donna Crossman – police closed Brunel Way next to Ashton Gate Stadium (Image: Tristan Cork)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we stopped, she (Fiona Hodge) said: \u2018Oh God, I think I\u2019ve killed someone\u2019,\u201d she added. \u201cIt was immediately afterwards, she became immediately aware what had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Statements made by Donna Crossman\u2019s two friends Clare Smith and Angela Gassom, were read to the court. They said they were old friends from their days in the RAF in the 1990s<\/a>, and had met up at Temple Meads, travelled to Clifton to check into their hotel, had lunch and had only had one pint, before setting off to walk down to Ashton Gate for the Take That concert.<\/p>\n

They were walking single file along the Brunel Way flyover on the pavement, with Donna at the back.<\/p>\n

Both described the car narrowly missing them and turning to see Donna \u2018in the air\u2019 as she was knocked over the railings and off the flyover.<\/p>\n

They rushed down the steps to access the area under the flyover – where there were already many people – and tried to help Donna.<\/p>\n

\"Donna<\/p>\n

Donna Crossman, from South Wales, who was killed in an RTC on Brunel Way\/Plimsoll Bridge on her way to a Take That concert at Ashton Gate in Bristol, on June 9, 2024(Image: Price family handout)<\/p>\n

The court was told that although Fiona Hodge acknowledges her driving was careless and had caused the death of Donna Crossman, she had pleaded \u2018not guilty\u2019 to the charge on the grounds of insanity.<\/p>\n

Both the prosecution, defence and the judge explained to the jury that this was an archaic legal term still in use from around 200 years ago, which meant at the time of the incident she was affected by a \u2018disease of the mind\u2019 – which covered a range of what we now know as neurological conditions, including epilepsy.<\/p>\n

Defending, Ian Bridge told the jury that they would be shown expert evidence that Fiona Hodge had an \u2018undiagnosed and unforeseen medical condition at the time\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThis meant she would have had no conscious control of her vehicle when the collision occurred. She was in the throes of an epileptic seizure, and since the collision, Mrs Hodge has been formally diagnosed and received treatment,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"Donna<\/p>\n

Donna Crossman, from South Wales, who was killed in an RTC on Brunel Way\/Plimsoll Bridge on her way to a Take That concert at Ashton Gate in Bristol, on June 9, 2024(Image: Price family handout)<\/p>\n

But Adam Vaitilingham, prosecuting, told the jury that it is the Crown\u2019s case that, on balance it is more likely that this wasn\u2019t the case, and Fiona Hodge was simply driving carelessly.<\/p>\n

The jury was told it would hear an epilepsy expert witness for the defence on Tuesday, in what is expected to be a three-day trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fiona Hodge denies causing the death of Donna Crossman by careless driving on the grounds of insanity Fiona…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10581,163004,10678,1343,59,57,58,50,2207,74490,40621,2888,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-529015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-armed-forces","9":"tag-ashton-gate","10":"tag-clifton","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-gb","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-greatbritain","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-people","17":"tag-south-bristol","18":"tag-take-that","19":"tag-traffic-travel","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}