Drug-driver who fled fatal car crash is jailed
ADRUG-DRIVER who fled the scene of an horrific crash which killed his work colleague has been jailed.
Mark MacCormick was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from the roads for eight years during a hearing at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, following the smash in Councillor Lane, Cheadle.
Declan Blackburne, 21, had to be cut out of the car by firefighters and died in hospital 13 days later, after his family made the heartbreaking decision to turn off life support.
MacCormick, 30, had been on a works night out and had offered to take Mr Blackburne home in his black Honda Civic, the court heard.
The car was spotted by police as it travelled at about 50mph in a 30mph zone, just after midnight on November 24 last year. Officers put on their lights and sirens and pursued the vehicle.
MacCormick pulled into a pub car park and slowed down, as if to signal he would stop.
But prosecutor Lisa Boocock said MacCormick sped off away from the pub and ‘accelerated hard’.
During the chase he drove at speeds of up to 90mph and crossed onto the wrong side of the road.
MacCormick went into a left hand bend at about 84mph, and lost control of the car. It flipped onto a grass verge and collided into a telegraph pole, which snapped in the smash.
Mr Blackburne was left gravely injured but MacCormick was able to escape through the window of the car, fleeing from the scene and returning to his girlfriend’s house.
MacCormick, of no fixed abode, handed himself into a police station later that morning.
He told police he couldn’t explain his actions and that he panicked and had little memory of the collision.
Tests found that he was five times the legal drug drive limit, having taken cocaine and cannabis.
He pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving last month.
Defending, Richard Vardon said that MacCormick had told his lawyer to not offer any mitigation to the court on his behalf, saying his actions were ‘unforgivable’.
Mr Vardon said: “He is genuinely ashamed, he is genuinely sorry for what he has done. When he left the car he didn’t know [Mr Blackburne] was in the condition he was, otherwise he would simply have not left the scene.”
Judge Stuart Driver said there were aggravating features in the case, as MacCormick had failed to stop for police, and because he was serving a suspended sentence for a previous offence at the time.