Drink-driver left boy, 15, ‘looking like pile of clothes’
MOTORIST IN PAL’S CAR REVERSED OVER TEEN WHO ENDED UP IN INTENSIVE CARE
A DRINK-DRIVER reversed over a 15-year-old boy in a ‘reckless and dangerous’ manner – with the child left looking like a ‘pile of clothes’ on the ground.
John Burton, 40, had reversed at speeds of 20 miles per hour over almost 50 metres in his friend’s VW Golf before striking the boy.
The teenager was left with numerous injuries and spent two-and-a-half months in hospital, including in intensive care. Fortunately he has made a good recovery.
Burton, from Wythenshawe, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol and using a faulty tyre and was jailed for 34 months.
Manchester Crown Court heard that the teenager was on a footpath walking along Newall Road at the junction with Crowland Road when he was hit by Burton at around 7.50pm on October 12, 2020.
He was carried and fell to the ground, before the car drove over him and then collided with a brick post.
One witness overheard a car driving outside his house, describing the engine to be ‘revving loudly’ and said it sounded like it was being driven quickly. Another witness heard the screeching of tyres and then a ‘very loud bang,’ prosecutor David Toal said.
A third heard a loud thud before running out of the house to see the boy in the road.
“She also saw a male, the defendant, who was saying ‘I didn’t see him, I was reversing and I didn’t see him,’ he was just stood in the road with his arms in the air,” Mr Toal said.
A GP who was in the area came to assist and saw what she thought was a ‘pile of clothes’ on the pavement at the side of the car but she quickly realised it was actually a body, the court heard.
She saw Burton in a state of distress and shouted at him to call an ambulance, but he did not react so she phoned 999 herself.
Mr Toal said: “She then saw the defendant pulling at the body on the floor saying ‘get up.’ She asked the defendant what had happened and he replied ‘I hit him and I swerved.’”
The boy was found to have severe bleeding and swelling to both lungs, blood in the right and left chest cavities and bruising and swelling to the front of his scalp. He also sustained fractures to both thighs and fractures to the pelvis which had to be treated with external fixators, the court heard.
Burton was arrested and smelt of alcohol, so officers conducted a roadside breath test, returning a reading of 78 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – twice the legal limit of 35 milligrams. A further breath test at the police station recorded a reading of 46 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
He later told the police that he was insured on his friend’s car and paid £70 per week for its usage. He said that prior to the collision he had drunk a can of cider before going to visit his mum.
Burton was said to have a number of previous convictions including for an offence of drink-driving in November last year for which he was disqualified for 15 months. Mitigating, Michael Johnson said his client was genuinely remorseful and added that the offence is ‘not the worst’ of its type.
Sentencing, Recorder Imran Shafi QC Burton’s driving was ‘reckless and dangerous behaviour.’
Burton, of Newall Road, Wythenshawe was also banned from driving for three years and five months and must take an extended retest before he gets behind the wheel again.