A student knocked down and killed a junior doctor after failing to clear frost from his car windscreen.
Alexander Fitzgerald, 26, had an obscured view when he hit Dr Jasjot Singhota as she used a zebra crossing close to her home in Tulse Hill at around 7.20am on January 25, 2017.
Dr Singhota, who worked as an anaesthetist at St Thomas’ Hospital, was rushed into emergency surgery but did not survive brain injuries she suffered in the crash.
Fitzgerald, from Brentwood in Essex, admitted causing death by careless driving as he had not fully defrosted his windscreen.
He also confessed to not being insured on the Ford Fiesta he was driving.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Friday at Kingston crown court to 10 months in prison.
He was also banned from driving for 23 months and must take another driving test to regain his licence.
His father, Gary, 54, pleaded guilty in May last year to permitting the use of a motor vehicle with no insurance and was given eight points on his licence and a £250 fine.
After the hearing Dr Singhota’s sister Neha Santasalo, said the sentencing provided “closure” for her family.
Detective Constable Sejal Unadkat said the fatal crash “could have been avoided entirely if only Fitzgerald had taken the proper precautions.”
The court heard Dr Singhota, who studied medicine and physiology at the University of Edinburgh, was an organ donor and her liver and pancreas have helped save patients’ lives.
She had spent time working on conservation projects in Madagascar and children’s hospitals in New Zealand, and had ambitions to work for Medicin Sans Frontieres to help people in warzones.
