Senior Airman Mikayla Hayes, an aerospace ground equipment maintainer at RAF Lakenheath in England, was acquitted Dec. 21, 2023, of causing a motorcyclist's death in a crash in 2022. ( Donna L. Burnett/U.S. Air Force)
RAF LAKENHEATH, England — An American airman who was behind the wheel of a car that fatally struck a British motorcyclist last year was found not guilty this week of causing his death.
Senior Airman Mikayla Hayes was on trial for a crash Aug. 26, 2022, on the A10 highway at Southery in West Suffolk that killed Matthew Day, a 33-year-old father of one, British media reported. She had been charged with causing death by careless driving.
On Thursday, a Norwich Crown Court jury acquitted Hayes after a weeklong trial.
An aerospace ground equipment maintainer at RAF Lakenheath, Hayes was driving home from work at the time of the crash, U.S. Visiting Forces spokesperson Maj. Keavy Rake said in a statement Thursday.
As she pulled out from the B1160 Lynn Road onto the A10, her Honda Accord hit Day, who was driving a Yamaha motorbike.
Eyewitness Graeme Pratt told the court that he saw Hayes look both ways before the collision, according to media reports.
In her testimony, Hayes wept and said, “I still to this day have no idea why I didn’t see that motorcycle,” the BBC and other news outlets reported.
A defense expert, Robert Wagstaff, said Day had a small amount of THC in his system, indicating that he had taken marijuana before driving. That slowed Day’s reaction time, Wagstaff testified, according to British media reports.
Day’s mother, Trudi Betson, said the family respects the verdict and thanked prosecutors for bringing the case to trial, ITV News reported.
Hayes will remain in England under the supervision of her command, Rake said.
The Air Force had asserted jurisdiction in Hayes’ case. Her attorneys contended that because she was on active duty at the time and was returning from a work shift at Lakenheath, she should be tried by a U.S. military court.
But in November 2022, a judge sided with prosecutors and ruled that the case would be handled by the British justice system. Hayes requested a jury trial and pleaded not guilty.
