A 41-year-old man seriously injured when a police car struck him during a high-speed chase has said he no longer blames the officer behind the wheel, but the driver who was being pursued.
The victim was hit by a Ford Kuga patrol car driven by PC Sam Lockley, who was chasing a Seat Leon driven by Cameron Grainger through Rochdale in the early hours of November 19, 2023. The man suffered nine broken ribs, a fractured vertebrae in his spine, a broken leg and ankle, a broken arm, a punctured lung, and damage to his pancreas and kidneys.
Victim speaks out after sentencing
Speaking after Grainger, 25, was jailed at Manchester Crown Court for causing serious injury by dangerous driving, the victim said he blames Grainger even though it was not his car that hit him. PC Lockley was handed a suspended prison sentence in February after being convicted of the same offence; he lost his job and his pension and was ordered to carry out 15 days of community service and banned from the road for two years.
The victim, a father-of-one and forklift truck driver originally from Poland, described the devastating impact of the crash. He spent almost two weeks in a coma and four months in hospital, and was bedbound for a further nine months, needing a wheelchair until he could walk again. He will need a device to treat sleep apnoea for the rest of his life, and the damage to his pancreas has left him with type 2 diabetes.
Life-changing injuries
The man has been prescribed medication for depression, cannot work, and struggles to leave his home due to anxiety. He said he suffers from dizziness and feels 'exhausted and apathetic' as the collision has 'taken a severe toll on [his] mental health'. His relationship with the mother of his daughter 'fell apart' as he 'felt humiliated' at being unable to support his family.
In a victim impact statement read in court, he said: "I felt at times I have lost the will to live." He admitted becoming so angry he was 'impossible to live with' and his family returned to Poland without him. Grainger sobbed uncontrollably in the dock as the statement was read out, including the words: "My life will never by the same again. At the time for a long period afterwards I blamed the police driver for what happened to my life.
"Now I think about it, I do not blame the police driver. I blame the man that was drinking and driving and being chased by the police. It was all his fault. Mr Grainger is the one who has ruined my life and my family's life and probably this police man and his life, too. Why did he not just get a taxi?"
Details of the pursuit
The court heard Grainger, from Rochdale, had been drinking with three friends at Empire bar and the Cuban Lounge in the town centre before getting behind the wheel of his Seat Leon at 3.25am. His movements had been watched by council CCTV officials, who alerted police. PC Lockley pursued Grainger, whose vehicle was blocked in by a police van, but Grainger swerved away and sped along 30mph limit suburban roads at speeds up to 96mph, crossing onto the wrong side of the road and running red lights.
Following a mile-and-a-half chase, the Seat began to pull away on a right-hand bend on Rochdale Road where it crosses a canal bridge. Grainger sped away at around 80mph, while PC Lockley, roughly eight seconds behind, lost control at around 60mph, mounting the pavement and hitting the pedestrian, then aged 38. Prosecutor Rob Hall told the court it was 'only good fortune' that Grainger had not struck the pedestrian or any other road users.
Further offences and sentencing
Grainger handed himself into police at 11am the next day and was arrested. He at first denied causing serious injury by dangerous driving but admitted the offence on the second day of his trial following legal argument about 'causation'. He was released on bail and handed an interim driving ban, only to become involved in another police pursuit across 1.8 miles in a stolen van, reaching speeds of 70mph through roads in Rochdale where the limit is 30mph. He ran red lights, swerved onto the wrong side of the road and hit other cars before crashing down an embankment, then ran from police on foot and jumped into the River Roche on October 26. A rescue operation involving the fire service and police helicopter followed, and about 22 minutes later he was pulled from the other side of the river and arrested again.
The court heard Grainger had 15 previous convictions, mostly motoring offences, dating back to when he was 14. He was jailed for four years and five months after admitting causing serious injury by dangerous driving, driving without insurance, dangerous driving, and driving while banned. He will be released a third of the way through his sentence and was banned from driving for six years and two months. His girlfriend, Tegan Clements, 23, was handed a 20-week prison sentence suspended for 18 months after admitting making a false statement tendered in evidence; she had been a passenger in the Seat Leon and lied to police about it, and was also ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work. Recorder Daniel Lister said he had spared her a more severe sentence in part because she was the mother of Grainger's three children and was pregnant with his fourth.
Following the hearing, Detective Sergeant Louise Warhurst said: "Cameron Grainger made the conscious decision to get behind the wheel after spending several hours drinking alcohol and, when officers attempted to stop him, chose instead to drive at speed and in a manner that showed a complete disregard for the safety of others.
"His actions that morning set in motion a chain of events with devastating consequences. Nearly three years on, our thoughts remain with the injured man, who was the unfortunate casualty of Grainger's reckless behaviour. The serious injuries he suffered have had a lasting impact and have fundamentally changed his life."
She added: "This case serves as a stark reminder of the potentially life-changing consequences of drink-driving. Choosing to get behind the wheel of a vehicle after consuming alcohol can have devastating outcomes for innocent people, their families and the wider community."
