Two 22-year-olds from Pembrokeshire have been handed suspended prison sentences after a late-night car journey ended with the vehicle crashing into a tree, leaving a backseat passenger seriously injured.
Joseph Lawrence Jones, of Wesley Way, Spittal, and Sioned Tesni Povey, of Duncan Terrace, Spittal, both pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving. The incident happened on the night of September 30 last year, after the pair and their friend Harlie Smith finished a shift at the Wetherspoons pub in Haverfordwest and stayed behind to drink and socialise before Povey drove them home.
Steering wheel grabbed twice
Swansea Crown Court heard that as the trio drove towards Spittal, with Jones giving directions and Smith in the back, Jones leant across and pulled the steering wheel. The prosecutor, Sian Cutter, said Povey did nothing to stop him. When Jones repeated the action a short time later, the car veered off the road to the left, hit an embankment and then a tree.
Povey called the police and told officers Jones had grabbed the wheel. Jones gave a roadside breath test reading of 45mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, against the legal limit of 35. He told officers he had been "messing about" and had consumed about six alcoholic drinks that night.
Serious injuries and impact
The court heard Smith suffered a fractured right thigh bone requiring an operation to fit a metal nail and screws, as well as fractures to the base of her skull. She was taken to Cardiff for specialist treatment before being discharged to a local hospital. Povey suffered a suspected fractured wrist and sternum but discharged herself before treatment, while Jones suffered a ruptured bladder requiring an operation.
In a statement read to the court, Smith said she spent 12 days in hospital and needed a wheelchair, Zimmer frame and crutches after discharge. Some five-and-a-half months later she was still on painkillers and receiving physiotherapy, with her consultant saying it may take two years for muscles and tendons to fully repair and that further surgery may be needed.
Sentences suspended
Judge Huw Rees described the events as "immature behaviour born of inexperience and a lack of attention to road safety" and "larking around". He told the defendants: "This was a very stupid thing to do, and the consequences could have been much greater. There could have been a death of one or more than one."
With a one-third discount for his guilty plea, Jones was sentenced to 16 months in prison, and Povey, with a one-quarter discount for her later plea, was sentenced to 18 months. Both sentences were suspended for two years, with each ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work. Both were banned from driving for two years and must pass extended tests before driving again.
