Driving in crash was ‘as bad as one could ever see’

A JUDGE criticised the maximum prison sentence for dangerous driving as insufficient after he jailed a Yeadon man for just 16 months over a four-car crash on the A65 near Skipton.

Judge Jonathan Rose said 25-year-old Grant Parr’s highspeed, aggressive driving that morning in April was “as bad as one could ever see on a British road” and said the maximum jail term of two years for dangerous driving was “woefully inadequate”.

Builder’s labourer Parr, of St Andrew’s Close, Yeadon, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving yesterday and his plea at the first opportunity meant the judge also had to give him a one-third reduction on the two-year prison term.

“So I have to reduce the sentence to 16 months imprisonment because if I do not your case will go to another court where they will reduce it,” said the judge.

Parr also admitted being four times the drug-drive limit for cocaine, but Judge Rose said because it was all part of one incident his four-month jail term for that offence had to be concurrent instead of consecutive.

Bradford Crown Court heard how Parr, whose partner was pregnant with their third child at the time of the crash, was seen overtaking vehicles at up to 90mph in his SEAT Leon on the 60mph stretch of road near to the Chelker Reservoir.

Prosecutor Philip Adams said Parr crashed at 9am into an oncoming Renault Clio containing a father and daughter. The Clio driver swerved to his nearside to avoid a head-on collision and the Clio ended up going through a wall into a field. Another car was overturned. Parr was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary, but his injuries were not serious and a later blood test found that he was four times the legal limit for cocaine. Barrister Alasdair Campbell, for Parr, said his client realised he was lucky to be here and everybody else involved was lucky they were not killed.

He must take an extended test before driving again.