Mum of boy, 11, who died following East Sussex collision, meets with minister at Westminster as part of crackdown on dangerous drivers

Harry Dennis died as a result of the injuries he suffered in the collision in December 2022.

The 11-year-old was critically injured and airlifted to hospital for treatment following the incident. He died two days later.

In November 2023, Russell Le Beau, a 34-year-old scaffolder from Alexandra Road, Eastbourne, was sentenced to four years in prison, and was disqualified from driving for seven years after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.

Harry’s mum, Maria, from Hastings, said a scaffolding board came off the scaffold truck through the windscreen of the car and struck Harry.

Last Monday (January 20), she met with Lilian Greenwood, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Future of Roads, as part of her campaign to improve road safety when it comes to commercial vehicles and carrying safe loads.

She was joined by Tony Atack, transport manager and DVSA approved trainer at EP Training Services Limited, as well as PC Barry Freeman, and chief inspector Karen Coin.

Maria said: “We discussed current legislation in place for HGVs, such as the CPC card (Driver Certificate of Professional Competence), which you must carry while driving a lorry, bus or coach professionally, and the Operators Licence, which is also required for any vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, which carry goods on public roads for trade or business purposes.

“Why are there no requirements of a governing body for 3.5 tonne vehicles? The number of vans up to 3.5 tonnes sold year to date as of October 2024 was a whopping 294,313 in the UK. That figure is a rise of 9,992 from the previous year.

“I also handed in a petition while in Westminster, of thousands of signatures I had received over the months to get an overseeing governing body for 3.5 tonne vans. I am beyond grateful for the support of every single person who signed this petition. I cannot thank you enough.”

Tony said: “Harry was a vibrant young man living his best life. He had a loving family, was full of energy, popular with everyone that he met and had a real passion for football at which he excelled giving him excellent prospects within a sport that he loved.

“The tragic events that took Harry’s life that fateful day were entirely and easily preventable.

“At EP Training Services we strive every day to improve road safety and load security within the world of goods vehicles and to that end we provide extensive courses to drivers to make sure as far as possible that they have the correct knowledge in order to carry out their job roles safety.

“As a DVSA approved training instructor I was deeply saddened to hear about the incident that took Harry away from his family and as a result firmly believe that changes need to be made. To be clear I believe that to accept something is to condone it and I for one am not prepared to allow Harry’s death to languish comfortably within the layers of statistics that seem to increase daily and then get lost in the mists of time.

“Whilst the vehicle involved in taking Harry’s life was too small to be included in HGV driver training, we at EP Training Services are fully behind Harry’s mother and will continue to offer support wherever possible along with the law enforcement authorities and the Government in her quest to bring about change.”

Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament for Hastings, Rye and the villages, Helena Dollimore MP said: “I have been greatly inspired by Maria’s bravery, and her determination to turn this tragedy into action.

“I was glad to facilitate this meeting with the Minister for Roads to discuss how to prevent further tragic accidents and ensure the safety of the public on our roads.”