Nuclear sub seaman who killed two in car crash jailed for 10yrs
A ROYAL Navy submariner killed two women when he smashed headon into their car in a high-speed crash.
Benjamin Lewis, 31, had been driving his BMW 420M Sport at up to 93mph minutes before he tried to ‘dangerously’ overtake two cars on a dark and rainy night in November 2021.
He lost control and ‘fish-tailed’ along the carriageway, smashing into Ellie Crossley and Rebecca Doughty, both 20, who were travelling in the opposite direction.
Driver Ms Crossley and Ms Doughty, who was in the front passenger seat, were killed instantly.
Chester Crown Court heard the friends had been returning home from a Christmas shopping trip to the Cheshire Oaks retail outlet, in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, when the accident happened at about 9.30pm on November 25.
Yesterday, Lewis was jailed for ten years after admitting two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
The court heard he was a tactical systems operative on HMS Vengeance, one of the Royal Navy’s Vanguard Class of four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, based at Faslane on the Clyde.
He was considered a ‘dependable crew member’ by his commanding officer and was in line for promotion at the time of the crash.
His work helped maintain the sub’s ‘tactical fitness’ at sea and was ‘important’ for ‘the country’s nuclear deterrent,’ his barrister, Caroline Harrison, said.
Judge Simon Berkson told the submariner, who faced a maximum of 14 years in jail, that he had taken his ‘service to his country’ into consideration. But he added: ‘The sole cause of this tragic accident was your dangerous driving.
‘There was no reason to be driving so fast. It was an unnecessary overtaking manoeuvre. You made a deliberate decision to overtake and two young innocent lives were needlessly taken.’
The court heard experts estimated Lewis had been speeding at between 62mph and 78mph at the time of the impact on the 60mph-limit A5117 at Dunkirk, near Chester.
After the crash, Lewis, of Neston, Wirral, admitted visibility was poor and that he lost control when he tried to move back into his lane after he realised there was a car coming the other way. He also told officers he didn’t like to sit in traffic or get stuck behind a truck.
In an emotional victim impact statement read to the court, Ms Crossley’s father, Steven, 49, said that ‘every moment of every day’ was a ‘struggle’ since his daughter’s death.
‘From the moment I wake up in the morning I have an overwhelming feeling of complete dread at the thought of struggling through another day without Ellie,’ he said. ‘I am so angry at the world.’
Her mother, Amanda, 44, added: ‘From the moment that Ellie died, a part of me died too.’
Ms Doughty’s father, Paul, 52, said ‘the brightest light’ in their home had gone ‘out forever’.
Lewis, whose barrister told the court that he was genuinely remorseful, will serve two thirds of his sentence before being eligible for parole.
He will also be banned from driving for four years on his release.
‘Two young lives needlessly taken’