Five years for new driver who killed friend in 108mph crash
A NOVICE driver who had passed his test just three weeks before killed his friend when he lost control of his car at 108mph and smashed into a wall.
Teenager Luka Laybourn, now serving five years in a young offender institution, walked away from the crash. But passenger Joseph Callender was thrown from the car and died of his injuries in hospital.
Durham Crown Court heard every section of the Ford Fiesta came apart in the accident near Barnard Castle, County Durham, in January last year.
Swerved
The court heard Laybourn reached 108mph on the B6278 when the car swerved and crashed through a wall before hitting a tree. It tumbled 90 yards down a hill before careering into another tree and a stone wall.
Trainee electrician Joseph was airlifted to hospital but died four days later. The court heard an experienced police driver in a test reached 90mph on the same stretch of road before his vehicle became unsteady. Videos found on Laybourn’s phone, taken by a different passenger, showed him driving between 90mph and 110mph two days before the accident.
In a police interview, Laybourn insisted that he was driving within the 60mph speed limit when he hit something in the road.
In a victim statement Joseph’s mother Lisa Mawdsley said her “popular, funny, intelligent, handsome and cheeky” son had just turned 17 and was “full of enthusiasm for the future”. She added: “I simply can’t comprehend that my gentle giant of a boy has gone.”
Laybourn, now 19, of Barnard Castle, admitted causing death by dangerous driving. Judge Jo Kidd told him: “It’s possible you were simply showing off in front of other people. You had no regard for your own safety or for that of your passengers.”