Jailed for two years, the ‘fatigued’ driver who crashed and killed her boyfriend
A SLEEP-DEPRIVED young woman whose boyfriend died when her car smashed head-on into a lorry has been jailed for two years.
Hannah Bowman, 21, had been warned not to drive home when she got into her car with Jordan Wilson, 20, at about 5am on May 30 last year – just hours after an evening out drinking.
The victim’s sister had told them it was ‘stupid and dangerous’ to try to drive after ‘minimal’ sleep following their night out in Whitehaven, Cumbria, but she was ignored, a court heard.
A motorist driving behind Bowman about an hour later said her Suzuki Swift was travelling ‘ too slowly’ before it started to straddle the centre white lines of a country road. The car then swerved across the road, mounted a grass verge and swung back, narrowly missing an oncoming HGV, before it veered to the wrong side again and collided head-on with a flatbed lorry.
Mr Wilson, a keen musician who had been due to start a degree at London’s Institute of Contemporary Music and Performance, suffered catastrophic injuries in the crash on the A66, between Keswick and Penrith in Cumbria. He died two days later at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
Bowman, who initially appeared uninjured but
Couple: Hannah Bowman and Jordan Wilson later developed serious back ‘ minimal’ sleep but still and neck problems linked to wanted to head back home the crash, gave a ‘nil’ alcohol to the village of Nenthead, breath test when police Cumbria, at around 5am, arrived. She admitted causing despite the warning from Mr death by dangerous driving Wilson’s sister that it was at a previous hearing. ‘stupid and dangerous’.
Mr Wilson’s mother Lynne Mr McEntee told the court: said, in a victim impact ‘The conclusion is she was statement read out to the suffering the effects of court: ‘My family and I have fatigue. This was the major to live with the consequences cause of the collision. of her actions for ‘Ultimately the cause for the rest of our lives.’ the sad loss of Mr Wilson’s
The couple had spent the life was the decision of previous evening drinking in this defendant, against the pubs around Whitehaven. clear advice given that she
Francis McEntee, prosecuting, should not have set out told Carlisle Crown having had no rest and, Court that Bowman had had albeit clearly not over the limit, one would anticipate jaded by the effects of the night before.’
Bowman’s Suzuki Swift was completely destroyed in the crash.
Judge James Adkin told her: ‘ You must have fallen asleep at the wheel.
‘ You say that you had rested a little that night, but it is clear you had not had anything like sufficient sleep to undertake the journey you did.
‘You were in no fit state to drive, but you stupidly and selfishly persisted onwards with tragic consequences.
‘The very articulate and deeply moving victim personal statements that I have read in this case show the shocking emotional impact on those that loved Jordan, of his life being prematurely curtailed.
‘His family, with whom he was very close, are unlikely ever to recover fully from their loss.’
Bowman wept as she was sentenced to 27 months in prison by Judge Adkin and called out ‘I love you’ to her father, who was sitting in the public gallery.
David Wales, for the defence, said: ‘ She [Bowman] has asked me to express to the court and to Jordan’s family her deep sense of sorrow; her deep sense of regret. She has asked me to apologise for her actions, her transgression on that day.’