Motorist who drove for 150ft with man trapped under his car is jailed
VICTIM SUFFERED BROKEN SKULL, RIBS AND LEGS IN HORRIFIC HIT–AND–RUN
A HIT-AND-RUN motorist who drove for 150ft with a man trapped between the axles of his car has been jailed.
Earlier this week Colin Bowler, 41, told the M.E.N. his life had been ‘ruined’ by Marc Dightam, who had passengers in his Mercedes when he knocked down Colin outside the George and Dragon pub in Cheadle on Boxing Day.
Dightam, 32, claims Mr Bowler ‘fell’ in front of his car, and that he panicked when he realised there was a body under the wheels.
Mr Bowler was finally released as one of the rear wheels passed over his body, having been dragged for a total of 45m. He was rushed to hospital where he was placed in an induced coma, having suffered a fractured skull, broken ribs and legs, and severe grazing, cuts and bruises all over his body.
He can no longer walk more than a few metres at a time, and is now dependent on benefits.
Dightam claims he sped off in an attempt to free the man beneath his wheels in what his lawyer described as ‘flawed decision.’
In the aftermath of the incident, at 7.50pm on Cheadle High Street, Dightam dropped off his friends and drove his car down a lane off Wilmslow Road, where he rammed into a gate, before dumping it and discarding his phone in a bid to foil police.
Officers caught up with him two days later, however, and he was charged with attempted murder, before later pleading guilty to a lesser charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The pipe fitter, of Turves Road, Cheadle Hulme, has now been jailed for 32 months.
Mr Bowler, who worked as a pub chef, was celebrating Christmas with friends when his life was changed forever.
Dightam had also been drinking in the George and Dragon that night, and their paths met again when Mr Bowler crossed the Ashfield Road junction.
Prosecutor Gary Woodhall told court what happened during the collision, saying: “Mr Bowler went to the floor; the defendant continued to drive forward, so that the nearside front wheel drover over Mr Bowler causing a significant moving of the car as it lifted up and over the body, of which the defendant must have been aware.”
An eyewitness told police she saw the car speed up and heard the engine revving, before Dightam drove for another 30m, on the wrong side of Cheadle High Street, dragging Mr Bowler’s body underneath throughout.
The woman, who asked not be named, later told the M.E.N: “All I could see was his body bobbing up and down, and I screamed and just fell to the floor. I could have sworn he was dead.”
Paul Bryning, defending, said of Dightam: “He makes it plain he didn’t realise he had clipped anyone, it’s quite feasible that the victim, in drink, fell in front of Mr Dightam’s vehicle and was out of his line of vision. The initial running over of Mr Bowler was tragic as it involved no criminality, the criminality started when he continued to drive and failed to stop. He’s ashamed of his own actions. He accepts he has caused Mr Bowler serious harm as a result of that flawed decision – it could perhaps be attributed to shock and panic.”
Sentencing Dightam to jail and disqualifying him from driving for six years and four months, Judge Martin Rudland told him: “What you did was to accelerate away, knowing Mr Bowler was trapped beneath your vehicle ... he has sustained grievous injury as a consequence. Others would have stopped immediately, got out of their car and attended to the immediate needs of the man they’d knocked down.”
After Dightam was jailed at Manchester Crown Court yesterday, Mr Bowler, from Reddish, said he was satisfied with the sentence and wants to ‘close the book’ on the incident.
He said: “I’m just concentrating on my recovery, which is going slowly.”