A 21-year-old man from East Sussex has been jailed following a serious drug driving crash while resulted in a tractor driver with serious facial injuries and temporary blindness.
Such was the impact on May 18 last year that the tractor overturned and the BMW driven by the defendant ended up on its side.
The driver was taken to hospital, also with serious injuries, where tests found him to be over the legal drug driving limit for cannabis.
Extensive investigations discovered that the BMW had been travelling at up to 120mph on a 60mph stretch of road and had just overtaken another vehicle – a Honda Civic – just before the collision.
While the drivers denied racing, CCTV and witness statements proved that both cars had been driving at speed and in convoy.
The 22-year-old Honda driver left the scene of the accident before emergency services arrived, but dialled 999 to say he had witnessed the collision. He later signed a witness statement to police saying that he didn’t see what happened.
The 21-year-old BMW driver was charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving and drug driving, while the 22-year-old faced charges of dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and perverting the course of justice.
PC Tom Van Der Wee, the investigating officer from the Sussex Roads Policing Unit said: “Although the defendants pleaded guilty and received credit for this, neither were willing to provide an honest account or take responsibility for their actions.
“[The Honda driver] denied that he or [the BMW driver] were driving dangerously and denied seeing the crash – despite us having a recording of the 999 call he made to the ambulance service where he admitted to seeing the whole thing.
“[The 21-year-old] blamed the crash on a momentary lapse of concentration and said he was travelling at just over the speed limit. We were able to prove that he was deliberately driving at speeds far, far in excess of the speed limit – up to 120mph – just before losing control and crashing into the victim who was a tractor driver simply going about his business.
“Although the tractor driver sustained significant injuries, the outcome could have been much worse for both him, the occupants of the racing vehicles and indeed other completely innocent members of the public. Both defendants can count themselves lucky they didn’t kill themselves or anyone else with their selfish and mindless actions.
“I am pleased the court has recognised the severity of what they did and didn’t do, and now both defendants have the chance to do some serious growing up before getting behind the wheel of a car again.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to the members of public who came forward following our witness appeal, and the expert witness who determined the speed of the vehicles from the CCTV footage. As a result, we were able to piece together a jigsaw of the defendants’ driving leading up to the collision, which has helped secure their convictions and take them both off the roads.”
The 22-year-old Honda driver pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 18 months, but was found not guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. The offence of perverting the course of justice is to lie on file.
He was also disqualified from driving for 12 months and must carry out 80 hours of unpaid work, as well as being subject to an electronic tag for three months.
After pleading guilty to the dangerous driving and drug driving charges, the 21-year-old BMW driver was sentenced to 16 months in prison and banned from the roads for two years and eight months.
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