‘Maniac’ driver put behind bars

A YOUNG woman was lucky not to be paralysed when a teenage driver lost control of his mum’s Audi car and crashed into a tree in Halifax.

Bradford Crown Court heard that uninsured and unlicensed Tyler Horne, who was just 18, had been showing off when he told the three passengers he had picked up in the early hours that he was going to “floor it” after driving past a speed camera.

Horne, of Halifax Road, Ripponden, had taken his mum’s car while she was at work on the night of August 28, 2019, and had then offered to give a female friend a lift home after she had been to a nightclub in Halifax.

Prosecutor Ian Brook said the woman described Horne as driving “like an idiot” at very high speeds, but when she got a call from a friend he drove back to pick up two other women.

Mr Brook said one of the other young women said Horne was “driving like a maniac” and ignoring their pleas for him to slow down.

Horne ignored the pleas to slow down saying he knew how to drive, but he eventually lost control of the Audi on Huddersfield Road, veered across the road and crashed into a tree.

Mr Brook said one of the women collapsed because of pain in her chest and back and at hospital she was found to have suffered a fractured spine and a broken vertebrae.

She was in hospital for 11 days, had to wear a custommade body brace and the injury kept her off work for months.

Horne, who is now 20, initially denied a charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, but earlier this year he finally admitted the offence.

The judge sentenced Horne to 28 months in a young offenders institution, banned him from driving for a total of 50 months and ordered him to take an extended re-test at the end of the disqualification period.

Ripponden man ignored pleas of women passengers to slow down

ONLINE: More court reports at www.halifaxcourier.co.uk