Danger driver avoids prison
A DANGER driver who left a woman badly injured in a head-on smash while driving without a licence or insurance has walked free from court.
Ronald Dodd, who has 140 previous convictions, was on methadone and is blind in one eye, smashed into an oncoming car after veering onto the wrong side of the road in Gateshead.
His dangerous driving left Neelam Noir with a fractured sternum and fearing she would be paralysed while her partner in the passenger seat was also injured.
Dodd, 35, turned up to court fearing he would be sent to prison after he admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and related offences.
But a judge freed him because he’s kept out of trouble for more than a year and his mother relies on his help.
Judge Robert Spragg, at Newcastle Crown Court, said: “He absolutely deserves to go to prison but we are a year and four months on and he has not been in any trouble.
“It’s whether it can be suspended with the hope he could benefit from some help from the Probation Service.
“I don’t think it will benefit anyone by sending him to prison.”
Turning to Dodd, the judge added: “You help your mother who is in poor health and she relies on our for cleaning and washing and everyday life.
“I can suspend the sentence because you have stayed out of trouble and because of the effect on your mother.”
Dodd was behind the wheel of a Vauxhall Vectra in the area of Prince Consort Road, Gateshead, on January 2 last year, around 4.10pm.
He pulled up next to a car at traffic lights and was revving his engine aggressively and appeared to be trying to get a headstart on the other vehicle so he could change lanes.
The court heard he had to brake hard at a zebra crossing then undertook a car as it turned off onto Whitehall Road.
He then accelerated along Prince Consort Road, went over the white line in the middle of the road and smashed into an oncoming Nissan Micra.
Dodd tried to reverse away but his car was too badly damaged to drive. When witnesses offered to help he told them to “**** off” and stumbled as he jogged away from the scene.
But he left his mobile phone there so was easily traced as the culprit.
The driver of the Micra, Ms Noir, suffered a fractured sternum while her passenger had whiplash.
Dodd was sentenced to 16 months suspended for two years with a three month curfew between 8pm and 7am, a rehabilitation requirement and a three-year driving ban.