When Sorry Isn’t Enough
The driver was drunk… and heading straight for Sophie
I was trying to live my life
Sophie Shaw, 21, Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire
When Aaron Swift said sorry to me, I was completely stunned.
‘Can you believe he’s actually apologised on Facebook?’ I cried to my mum Joanne, 47.
He’d found my profile. Then sent me the phoniest-sounding ‘sorry’ ever.
‘Hi it’s Aaron Swift’, it read.
‘I am really sorry for what I have done I never ment for it to happen it was a stupid mistake which I will regret for the rest of my life hope you are ok I wish you the best [sic].’
The thing is, I wasn’t OK.
Because in July last year, he’d run me over, then driven off. I’d been on a rare night out with my mate Molly, 22. Rare because I’d been diagnosed with leukaemia aged 12, and growing up, I had missed loads of nights out with my friends. Now, I was 20, and getting on with life. That night, we’d been to a club. I’d stopped drinking, and was just dancing. I left the club at 4.30am, but my mates were still going strong! As I crossed the road to the taxi stand, suddenly I heard the roar of an engine. Turning, I saw the flash of a car… Then, nothing. Doctors suspect I hit my head going over the car bonnet. At Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, Mum and my dad Gary, 48, were at my bedside. And the police.
‘You were the victim of a hit and run,’ an officer told me.
Someone had witnessed the whole thing and called 999. I was lucky to be alive. Officers had run the car’s registration through their system, but hadn’t found anything.
Which meant that the vehicle wasn’t insured.
‘We want your permission to release CCTV footage to try and get more information…’ ‘Release it,’ I insisted. I’d damaged the ligaments in my right leg, and suffered bruising to my face and neck.
My front two top teeth had snapped diagonally while another tooth on the top row had just shattered completely.
Days on, the Halifax Courier ran the police appeal for information. They included my name and photo.
Meanwhile, I started getting my teeth sorted, but chemo left me with weak gums, which made work complicated.
I had 10 procedures, had caps, veneers, the lot. Nothing stayed put. Then, a few days after the collision… that message arrived on my Facebook page.
‘He must have seen my name in the papers,’ I said.
I phoned the police but they’d already had a tip-off.
Swift had already been arrested, charged with dangerous driving and released on bail.
He admitted he’d been drunk behind the wheel. And stoned. Swift also admitted dangerous driving, driving without insurance, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident.
I wrote a victimimpact statement to read out at his sentence hearing. Except, in December, Aaron Swift, then 29, didn’t even show up at court. ‘Coward!’ I cried, frustrated. A month later, he was arrested and taken straight to Bradford Crown Court. ‘He got 54 weeks in prison,’ a police officer told me later. ‘He has been banned from driving for 79 weeks and he will have to take an extended driving test.’ He’ll probably be out in six months. Turns out he was also given a suspended sentence back in 2007 for dangerous driving.
Aaron Swift, if you’re reading this – show you’re really sorry by changing your behaviour.
If you don’t, next time you might kill someone.