A life ruined by driver on wrong side of the road
A YOUNG woman was left wheelchair-bound after a headon crash with a Slovakian van driver who was ‘not used to driving on the left’.
Lauren Woodward, 21, had been travelling to work in the Cotswolds with her father Tim when Lubomir Tokoly came around a bend on the wrong side of the road and smashed into their car.
Mr Woodward stepped away from the wreckage relatively unharmed, but his daughter suffered devastating injuries, including multiple fractures to her pelvis and lower vertebra, as she was crushed between her seat and the glove box. She had to be cut free from the car by emergency services.
Prior to Tokoly being sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court, the court was read an emotional victim impact statement on behalf of Miss Woodward, who had been running her own business before the accident last March.
She said: ‘The driver of the van’s blank expression will haunt me for ever, as will the last image: the headlight right in front of me. Waking up in pain every single day has been life-changing. It is exhausting and draining.
‘Even the simplest of tasks become impossible.’
She added: ‘I am still unable to walk. About four months after the accident I reached the lowest point in my life, I began suffering from depression. I have a lot of bad dreams and nightmares.
‘All the weeks roll into one as there is no break in this cycle.
‘I have been left vulnerable and dependent on my Dad. I’ve gone from being an ambitious and successful person to somebody now who has no confidence. I’ve been left with no quality of life.’ The court heard that Tokoly, who had arrived in the UK that morning to make a delivery and planned to leave later that day, had told police through an interpreter: ‘I am not used to driving on the left in the UK as I drive on the right in Slovakia.’
Lisa Hughes, who was travelling behind Tokoly’s van, told the court that before the collision the van driver began straddling the white lines, which was a ‘constant manoeuvre for the next few miles’.
Tokoly pleaded guilty to dangerous driving on the A436 near Seven Springs, Gloucestershire.
He was jailed for 16 months and banned from driving in the UK for four years. Mr Woodward, who is now his daughter’s full- time carer,
‘My worst nightmare’
described the months since the accident as a parent’s ‘worst nightmare’. He said: ‘Lauren was confined to a single bed in the dining room of the family home after the accident.
‘She has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and her quality of life is poor.
‘My entire life has been put on hold. The pressure has been relentless. This has been my worst nightmare and I’ve no idea when it’s going to end.’
Matthew Harbinson, defending, said Tokoly had never broken the law before in this country or Slovakia and the prospect of being sent to prison had come as a shock.
But Judge Julian Lambert told Tokoly: ‘You didn’t just stray on to the other carriageway, you went fully over.
‘The passenger in that car... is now suffering from permanent disability. The effect on the young woman is extreme. I consider your offending is so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified.’