Mum who lost her Jack, 19, to reckless speeding drink-driver says his life was taken ‘years before it should have been’
A SPEEDING drink-driver killed his teenage passenger when he lost control of his pick-up and crashed into a tree.
Jack Hotchkiss, 19, from the Foston area, was a rear seat passenger of a car being driven by friend Alex Swindell when he suffered catastrophic head injuries and died at the scene.
Front seat passenger Ben Pattinson suffered fractured vertebrae and a broken wrist.
In interview with police after the crash, the “hardworking” 25-yearold defendant claimed he had swerved to miss a deer on the road.
In a victim impact statement bravely read to the court by Mr Hotchkiss’ mother Kathryn, she told how her son’s life “was taken years before it should have been as a result of total recklessness and a complete lack of thought for another’s life”.
Jailing dad-of-one Swindell for five years, Judge Jonathan Bennett told him: “Your actions in driving this vehicle back following a night out have had a devastating impact. Nothing this court can do will do anything to alleviate the suffering and loss felt by Jack’s family and friends. They face a lifetime without him.
“You should have been travelling at less than 49mph, you were clearly driving significantly faster than this.
“Ben, who I appreciate was significantly under the influence of alcohol, said he felt you were travelling ‘way too quick – it felt scary.’
“You got into your vehicle and drove it, carrying two of your friends and they too had been drinking, but they were not taking on the responsibility of driving others home.
“Sadly, it would seem neither Jack, who was almost certainly lying across the back seat, or Ben were wearing seatbelts. If you had been sober, it is more likely you would have insisted your passengers put their seatbelts on.”
Sarah Slater, prosecuting, said the collision took place on the B5035 close to the junction for Brassington, near Carsington Water, at around 3am on February 13 this year.
She said Mr Hotchkiss and Mr Pattinson were best friends, and were both also friends with the defendant with all knowing each other through the farming community in Derbyshire.
The prosecutor said the three of them, and a fourth friend, went drinking in The Royal Oak, in Mayfield, and after having food a decision was made to carry on their evening in Matlock in Derbyshire.
Miss Slater said Swindell drove them there in an Isuzu D-max pickup truck and the group carried on drinking at two clubs – The Loft and Bulan – before the defendant told them he would drive three of them home at around 2.45am.
She said: “Ben Pattinson got into the front passenger seat, Jack Hotchkiss into the rear. He was stretched out across the rear seat and was not wearing his seatbelt.
“Mr Pattinson says that he was sleeping most of the journey due to the amount he had drunk. He woke up at one point and asked the defendant to stop his vehicle so he could be sick.
“This was around five-to-10 minutes before the collision. When he got back into the vehicle, he could see that Jack was asleep in the rear. He thought he had put on his seatbelt, and then remained awake until the collision.
“Ben Pattinson felt that they were travelling too fast for the road and that it felt scary. He said that he was being flung around from side-toside within the pick-up as they went around corners and bends.
“They hit a sharp left-hand bend and the defendant took this too wide. This resulted in the vehicle travelling onto the wrong side of the road.
“It hit the verge and then a tree. Ben Pattinson describes ‘the biggest bang I have ever heard in my life’ as they hit the tree.
“They stopped with the vehicle facing towards a field on the wrong side of the road. The airbags had deployed.”
Miss Slater said Mr Pattinson looked behind and could see blood everywhere. She said Mr Hotchkiss was leaning against the door with his head down.
Mr Pattinson got out and phoned for an ambulance. The prosecutor said: “The defendant got out of the vehicle too and was told by Ben to get Jack out of the rear – but he just looked at him in shock.
“Ben then opened the door and Jack fell towards him. He was asked by the ambulance operator if he was breathing and checked for a pulse – he could not find one.
“He was instructed to start CPR.
The defendant did start, but Ben Pattinson had to take over. He thought he had gone but did not want to give up on him. He continued CPR until the paramedics arrived.
“Ben Pattinson recalls that there was not much conversation between him and the defendant, although he did say something like, ‘I think there was something on the road.’”
Miss Slater said Mr Hotchkiss was declared dead at the scene and that a post-mortem exam gave a cause of death as a severe head injury.
She said Mr Pattinson suffered a fracture to his left wrist and three fractured vertebrae, and he was provided with a collar for his neck and a wrist splint upon his release from hospital the next day.
The prosecutor said a collision reconstruction concluded that to safely negotiate that bend, he should have been travelling at less than 49mph, but he “must have been driving significantly faster than this”.
She said: “The force of this impact caused Jack Hotchkiss to be thrown across to the offside of the vehicle, and in doing so he sustained a massive head injury.”
Miss Slater said the police arrived shortly after 3am and the defendant was found sat in an ambulance. She said he provided a roadside breath sample at 4.08am, which gave a reading of 76mg in breath, when the legal limit is 35.
The prosecutor said a blood sample was taken from him nearly four hours after the collision, which gave a reading of 119mg, when the legal limit is 80mg. In interview three weeks later, he said that as he was driving around the bend, a deer was right in front of him and he had to swerve.
Last week Swindell, of Turlow Fields Lane, Hognaston, near Ashbourne, pleaded guilty to causing the death of Mr Hotchkiss through dangerous driving and causing serious injury through dangerous driving for Mr Pattinson.
As well as the jail sentence, Judge Burgess disqualified the defendant from driving for nine-and-a-half years. An inquest into Mr Hotchkiss’ death has already been opened and adjourned while the criminal proceedings took place.