Driver jailed for killing teenager
HIGH-PERFORMANCE BMW PLOUGHED INTO CROWD WHILE ‘DRIFTING’ AT CAR MEETING
A DRIVER has been jailed after knocking down and killing a young woman as he attempted to ‘drift’ a BMW.
Scott Watkins, 25, was unlicensed and uninsured when he sent the powerful 3-series car into a crowd of people watching the unauthorised gathering, known as the ‘Magic Roundabout,’ in Trafford Park on the night of May 31.
Sophie Smith, 19, and her boyfriend Jordan Chidgey were among seven victims taken to hospital with a range of horrific injuries. Miss Smith died the next day. Other victims suffered broken legs, arms, a shattered pelvis, lost teeth and loss of kidney function.
Jordan and another victim, Colin Burton, remain in wheelchairs and came to Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court to watch Watkins be sentenced to nine years and nine months in jail for causing death by dangerous driving.
Watkins admitted a string of other charges including causing death by driving without a licence, causing serious injury by dangerous driving, failing to stop after a collision and failing to report a collision. He will serve those sentences concurrently. Judge John Potter described his actions as an act of ‘grotesque selfishness’ and said his offences had been exaggerated by his decision not to stop at the scene.
After the case, Insp Daniel Byrne, from GMP’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “Watkins’ behaviour that night was completely reckless, putting himself and innocent members of the public in danger.”
Around 60 cars and hundreds of spectators were in the area of Europa Way on the night of the tragedy.
The ‘meet’ was concentrated on a 500m stretch of road between two roundabouts where enthusiasts would drive up and down, showing off their ‘high-performance and modified cars,’ the court heard.
Prosecutor Rob Hall told the court how a number of drivers would spin the steering wheel as they reached the wide roundabouts at speed and attempt to slide around the road in a manoeuvre known as ‘drifting.’
The judge told the court how Watkins, of Worsley Road North, Salford, got into another man’s BMW having never driven it before, with the intention of copying the ‘drifting.’
Watkins approached the roundabout and lost control as he tried to ‘overcorrect.’ He dumped the car in Swinton and fled, but was tracked down two days later by police.