‘IDIOT’ DRIVER KILLED BOY, COURT TOLD
AN “IDIOT” motorist killed his partner’s young son and seriously injured four others when he crashed head-on into another car, a court heard.
Dean Collins, 23, who had passed his driving test just three months earlier, had borrowed a grey Ford Focus and was seen by witnesses to be undertaking other drivers and pulling away quickly from traffic lights.
He is alleged to have drifted across the road into the opposite carriageway, colliding head-on with another vehicle, killing his partner Laura Bright’s five-year-old son Joseph Smith.
Others suffered a range of injuries including fractures to the spine, arms, legs, ribs, memory loss and blindness in one eye during the collision on the A48 Western Avenue in the Llandaff area of Cardiff on September 13, 2015.
Collins had been seen to be holding a mobile phone to his ear and before the collision had taken cocaine.
Cardiff Crown Court heard Collins’ grey car struck headon a white Seat Ibiza being driven by Shane Strevins. Mr Strevins’ car was then struck from behind by a green Ford Focus driven by Victoria Matthews.
Mr Strevins was knocked unconscious by the force of the impact and spent 16 days in hospital recovering from his injuries. His wife, Joanne, who was a front-seat passenger, suffered a fractured spine and was in hospital for 33 days. Both were cut free by firefighters.
Mrs Matthews and her passenger walked away from the crash unhurt.
Miss Bright, a front-seat passenger in Collins’ car, suffered memory loss, a bleed to the brain and was unconscious for five days.
Her mother, Michelle Holmes, who was behind Collins, fractured both her arms and lost the sight in her left eye.
The court heard that Joseph was sitting next to his grandmother in the rear of the car but was not using a child booster seat, as required by law. A toddler was sitting next to him in a child safety seat.
Joseph was declared dead at the scene a short time later. A post-mortem examination found he died as a result of a blunt force injury to the neck.
Janet McDonald, prosecuting, told the jury that it was not alleged Collins was exceeding the 40mph speed limit.
“The defendant crossed three lanes and only the impact of Mr Strevins’ vehicle halted him,” she said.
“He had not braked or altered his course to take him back to his side of the road.
“The prosecution allege this was all brought about by his dangerous driving. He left the correct side of the carriageway and drove into the oncoming traffic with catastrophic results.
“A child of five died and four others received serious injuries. He drove impatiently and people describe him as a speedy driver and an idiot.
“He gave the impression of someone in a rush.”
Miss McDonald said other drivers described Collins as “impatient” and, while stationary at traffic lights, his car was rocking back and forth.
“He went from the inside lane, into the outside lane and then across into the outside lane of the opposite carriageway,” she said.
“Even then, he didn’t react, re-adjust or stop until he struck Mr Strevins’ vehicle.”
Two experts have found no evidence of any mechanical failure with Collins’ car or the road, which could have caused or contributed to the crash. The court heard that Collins has no memory of the crash and disputes his driving “fell below that of a competent driver”.
Collins, of Coleford Drive, St Mellons, Cardiff, denies one charge of causing death by dangerous driving and four charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The case continues.