Grandfather ‘died’ 4 times after being run over in parking row
Victim’s fury as driver jailed for just 14 months
A GRANDFATHER who ‘died’ four times and was left disabled after being run over in a row about a parking space has spoken of his anger after the driver was jailed for just 14 months.
Peter Cox, 54, was standing in the last available parking spot on a busy shopping street to reserve it for his son.
But John Crowley, 44, drove up and slowly edged his car towards Mr Cox, knocking him to the ground.
When Mr Cox’s son Craig saw what was happening, he smashed the windscreen of Crowley’s car to try to stop him. As the pair began brawling, the car continued to move at slow speed, running over Mr Cox up to four times.
The father- of- one, who has three grandchildren, was left with life- changing injuries, including having his spleen removed. His heart stopped four times in hospital.
Crowley admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was banned from the roads for three years and jailed for 14 months. But Mr Cox, from Bridgwater, Somerset, said: ‘I think it’s disgusting he got 14 months; I’m disabled for life. I died four times in hospital. It’s lucky I pulled through, my surgeon said it’s a miracle. I haven’t got any stomach muscles where they removed my spleen and I can’t get in and out of bed.
‘I can’t do anything now, I can’t lift my grandson up, I can’t take him out. I just feel justice hasn’t been done. He knocked me down deliberately and I was reversed over. I felt the car go back and forward over me three or four times.’
Mr Cox’s partner Donna Allen added: ‘He lay in the hospital bed, expected to die, for weeks and weeks. He just didn’t move. We didn’t know if he was going to survive.’
Bristol Crown Court previously heard that Crowley was not being held responsible for Mr Cox’s injuries as they happened while the driver was being attacked by Mr Cox’s son and was therefore under duress. The incident took place on November 30 when Mr Cox was standing outside a legal high store owned by his son in Weston- super-Mare, Somerset.
He spent four months in hospital because of his injuries, which also included broken ribs and both his lungs collapsing. Surgeons also had to rebuild his shoulder.
Crowley, who was driving a green Mercedes 350, lost part of his nose during the fracas with Mr Cox’s son and had to have an operation on the wound. Rebecca Bradbury, defending, said Crowley, of Flintshire, North Wales, was ‘shocked and remorseful’.
Judge Martin Picton said Crowley ‘ failed to exercise proper and careful use of the brake pedal’, which caused Mr Cox to fall down.
But the judge said this did not cause his injuries, which instead ‘arose directly from the reaction of Mr Cox’s son who attacked the defendant.’
He added: ‘It is understandable that he and his family will regard all of those injuries as being the responsibility of this defendant but the sentence I have to impose cannot be predicted on that basis.’
The court heard that Craig Cox would not face any charges because he was considered to be acting in defence of his father.
‘Justice hasn’t been done’