Golfer who injured six by swerving her car ‘for fun’ is jailed
A PROMISING young golfer has been jailed for causing serious injuries to six people after weaving her car around for fun.
Shannon Ashcroft drove erratically and swerved into the wrong side of the road at least twice as she took four teenage friends in ‘high spirits’ to a party at her home, a court heard.
But after she became distracted by something, her Volkswagen Polo crashed into a lorry head-on.
The victims, including two people from the lorry, had to be cut from the wreckage and needed hospital treatment. One of Ashcroft’s passengers, who were all male, was trapped for more than two hours.
The court heard that some of the injuries were life-changing. Ashcroft herself, who was 19 at the time, broke an ankle, rib and her collar bone.
She pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and was jailed for nine months on Friday – her 20th birthday.
Ashcroft, from Wadebridge, Cornwall, is a rising star on the golf circuit and a member at the prestigious St Enodoc Golf Club in the town, winning a string of trophies. Judge Simon Carr told Truro Crown Court it was a miracle that anyone survived the crash.
He said Ashcroft had ‘carried out a number of dangerous manoeuvres to shock and surprise those in the car’.
He told her: ‘You braked heavily when there was no need to do so and swerved the steering wheel a number of times.
‘You pulled out into oncoming traffic and pulled back in. Seconds later you were distracted by something that happened in the car. At that point you went across the lane and had a head-on collision with a lorry. The consequences were catastrophic.’ The judge accepted that university student Ashcroft had shown genuine remorse.
The court heard that she has struggled to come to terms with what happened on the A30 on May 22 last year.
Several of the casualties suffered multiple broken bones, internal bleeding, and one lost half a kidney.
One had to have part of his bowel removed. He also suffers from panic attacks and has problems with his memory.