Teenage driver admits he caused crash injuring girl, 3

A TEENAGE motorist from Ashbourne has admitted being responsible for a crash which left a three-year-old girl seriously injured.

Alexander Lewis pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving when he appeared at Derby Crown Court.

The Mitsubishi Evolution car in which he was behind the wheel collided with a Ford Fiesta on the afternoon of May 30, last year.

Lewis was just 17 years old at the time of the crash and now faces an anxious wait to find out if he will be given a first taste of prison.

The hearing was told the girl, a passenger in the Fiesta, was not secured in the car and that other children were also inside it.

The extent of the injuries she suffered were not revealed.

A Derbyshire Live reporter was at the scene of the crash, at the junction of Brackensdale Avenue and Greenwich Drive South, in Mackworth. The road was closed for a number of hours while the collision investigation unit carried out its work.

Sergeant Darren Muggleton, from the team, confirmed that afternoon that an arrest, now known to be Lewis, had been made.

Judge Shaun Smith QC adjourned the sentencing hearing until next month so that a pre-sentence report can be obtained by the probation service on Lewis, who has no previous convictions of any kind.

Handing the 18-year-old, of Premier Avenue, bail, he said: “Obviously this is a serious matter you have pleaded guilty to and the fact I am handing you bail is no indication I am not sending you to prison.

“In the meantime you are disqualified from driving.” It was initially reported that the injured child taken to hospital was a five-year-old boy.