Walker hit by car forgivesspeeding teenage driver
A PEDESTRIAN who miraculously survived being hit by a car travelling at twice the speed limit has said he forgives the teenage driver who was sat behind the wheel.
The shocking moment pedestrian Jake Harris was hit by a speeding car on a quiet residential street in Cwmbran was caught on camera in January 2019.
When police arrived on the scene and saw the state of the car involved, they were fearing the worst.
But the 26-year-old survived the high impact crash and was able to leave hospital 24 hours later with injuries to his foot and head.
Now, his story is being told in BBC Wales’ The Crash Detectives, the series that follows a team of officers from Gwent Police sent out to investigate at the scene of accidents. The CCTV officers found from the scene shows the BMW 1 series hurtling down a residential street in Pontnewydd, near Cwmbran, before hitting a wall and careering into Jake.
A court hearing later heard the 19-year-old driver, Daniel Hawkesford, was driving at 64mph in a 30mph zone and may have been distracted by a cat running across the road.
Jake told the programme about the crash in January 2019: “It’s all still a bit of a blur, if I’m honest.
“It all happened in such a flash. I don’t remember being unconscious, I think I was still awake through all of it. The first thing I remember thinking was ‘where’s my shoe gone?’
“I just remember a really heavy force hitting me from behind. It all happened in a split second. It is difficult to put into words. I have watched 20 or 30 seconds of the CCTV footage, seeing it on camera for the first time was a shock.
“Everyone says I should have done the lottery that day.”
When the investigating officers came to talk to Jake in his hospital bed, they asked: “How are you still alive?”
Jake told the BBC: “They said ‘you shouldn’t be here right now. Lucky you’.
“Because they’d all seen this CCTV already before I’d had chance to. They said it should have been a lot worse.”
He also told BBC Radio Wales how he had forgiven the driver: “I spoke to him in a private room before a court hearing and he apologised.
“He seemed like a genuinely nice guy it was just a bad call on his part. I didn’t want to see him go to prison.”
Daniel Hawkesford, from Cwmbran, who was 19 at the time of the crash, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving at a hearing at Newport Crown Court in September 2019.
The court heard his actions were “out of character”, but he was banned from driving for three years and sentenced to 16 months in jail, which was suspended for 18 months.
The Crash Detectives is on BBC One Wales on Tuesdays at 8.30pm and available to watch on catchup on iPlayer