‘Lunatic’ drink-driver left family of cyclists for dead
A “LUNATIC” driver ploughed into four cyclists on a country road, leaving them for dead.
Louise Griffiths had been drinking for eight hours at a party the previous night, then drove to the Castle Inn in Usk and the Greyhound in Llantrisant, where she had further drinks with her boyfriend on Sunday, February 3.
At just after 4pm, while driving on Llanllowell Lane, between Usk and Llantrisant, she lost control of the Volkswagen Jetta she was driving and crashed into the group of family members.
Gerald Barnes was cycling at the front, with his wife Katherine Barnes behind, followed by her sister’s partner Martin Burrows and sister Caroline James.
Speaking at Newport Crown Court, prosecutor Gareth James said they were experienced cyclists and all had appropriate lights on their bikes.
Mr Barnes described seeing the car approaching them head-on, swerving across the central line, and he thought the driver had lost control.
The car hit the grass verge and threw up debris, then the driver seemed to overcompensate and skidded across the road. Mr Barnes described her driving “like a lunatic”. The car passed him and he described hearing the crash behind him.
Mr James said: “He ran back to help his friends and family.”
Three of the cyclists were injured, with Mr Burrows and Ms James most seriously so.
Mrs Barnes said the car’s wheels seemed to leave the road as it was travelling so fast. She thought it was being driven by a joy rider and described it as going at “motorway speeds”.
The court heard she thought: “We are all dead.”
The car struck her bike with a “glancing blow”, knocking her foot off the pedal and caused a graze to her shin, then carried on past her.
She got off her bike and rushed back to where her husband was helping her sister.
Mr Burrows saw the car hit the grass verge and thought to himself: “Oh my God, this is it.” Ms James, who had been at the back of the group, said: “He thought he was going to die.”
Mr Burrows suffered soft tissue injuries to his leg and was told problems with his knee and ankle may be longterm.
The prosecutor said: “The force of the collision knocked her off her bike and up over the crash barrier.”
Mrs Barnes, who was a registrar at the University Hospital of Wales, initially thought her sister was dead.
The anaesthetist and her husband, who was in the military and trained in treating battlefield injuries, gave first aid. They could not find a pulse and had to resuscitate her.
Mrs Barnes was able to help the emergency services, as her sister was wearing a fitness monitor on her wrist and she managed to detect internal bleeding from her heart rate.
Mr James said: “The prosecution say had it not been for the presence of her sister and Mr Barnes, the outcome could have been far, far more serious, if not fatal.”
Judge Daniel Williams told Griffiths: “The remarkable reactions of those in the group to save her life in the immediate aftermath could not contrast more starkly with your reaction.”
Ms James suffered the most serious injuries and stopped breathing twice on the way to hospital.
She was treated for injuries including concussion, spinal injury, multiple pelvic fractures, bleeding around her pelvis and nerve damage in pelvis and lower back.
The court heard she had problems with her kidneys and had to have dialysis for three weeks. She also had to undergo skin grafts.
Prosecutors said the defendant reversed out of the hedge and drove off, before abandoning the car and asking her son to pick her up. Mr James added: “Having caused this carnage, the defendant drove away from the scene without stopping to help.”
She did not try to contact the police to report the collision and was asleep when officers came to arrest her that evening.
Griffiths was taken to Newport police station and the car was examined by the police, who found the bonnet buckled and extensive damage.
A calculation by a forensic scientist indicated she would have been one and a half times over the drink-drive limit at 6pm that day.
He said it was not possible to provide an accurate estimate for what her alcohol level would have been at the time of the collision.
In her police interview, Griffiths said she swerved to avoid a rabbit in the road and her passenger, Mr Cook, fell into her.
She stated he squeezed her leg and told her to drive faster.
Griffiths told officers she was driving between 35mph and 40mph, but a collision investigator found she must have been going “significantly” faster than that.
She said she remembered seeing cyclists, but did not realise there had been a collision and her boyfriend told her to drive off.
Prosecutors said Ms James’ injuries were “terrible” and “life-changing”.
Griffiths, 46, from Beddick in Greenmeadow, Cwmbran, admitted dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The court heard she had a history of being in controlling relationships and was in a brief relationship with the passenger.
Judge Williams told the defendant: “To have left the scene in those circumstances was beyond heartless.”
In his sentencing remarks, the judge said Griffiths had been drinking for eight hours the night before the incident into the early hours of the morning. The next day she chose to drive.
She had not expected to drive her partner’s car, but he drank in the morning.
Griffiths was jailed for 27 months and disqualified from driving for four years from the time of her release.
A man also arrested was not charged with any offences as a result of the incident.