A teenage girl was killed in a head-on car crash caused by a mentally ill woman who had been discharged from hospital just the day before. Josie Cartwright, 18, had only been driving for a couple of weeks when she was killed in the crash near Nantwich in Cheshire in June 2024. She suffered fatal injuries when Alexandra Bordas drove her Renault Clio into her Toyota Aygo as she drove her friends home following a trip to get ice cream.
Court Hears of Erratic Behaviour
Chester Crown Court heard how Bordas, 35, had been 'behaving in an erratic and bizarre fashion' before she decided to get into her car. Just the day before the incident, she had been taken to hospital over concerns for her mental health. Concerns were raised after she showed signs of 'erratic' behaviour at Euston train station. But Bordas was discharged after claiming she felt fine.
She caused the crash after crossing her car over onto the wrong side of the road and smashing head-on into Josie's vehicle, the court was told. Josie died the following day in hospital after her family agreed to let her donate her organs to save others. One of her passengers sustained broken ribs and fractures to her spine whilst a second suffered bruising and grazes.
Bordas's Behaviour After the Crash
When quizzed at the roadside, Bordas, who was uninjured in the collision, became argumentative with police. She falsely claimed the car's clutch was faulty and added: 'Has it been planned? Is it organised? You cannot arrest me. I need medical attention.' She has since been sectioned and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Josie's mother gave a heartbreaking statement to the court as Bordas was sentenced. Nicola Cartwright said: 'When our daughter left the house having done a shift at work, I had no idea this was the last time I would get to hear her voice. She took some of her friends for ice cream but my son was contacted to say there had been an accident. I thought she would have just broken a fingernail. However, just minutes later there were policemen standing at our door wanting to take us to hospital and our world began to crumble.'
'Before we had even seen Josie we were told that her injuries were so severe she would not recover and there was a feeling of pain and shock and unbelievable numbness.' She added: 'Josie is an innocent victim in an accident that should never have happened. She was killed because someone who made the decision to get behind the wheel and broke the law. This person still continues to have a life but our daughter, through no choice of her own, does not. On the day of the funeral we all buried a piece of ourselves. Our lives are incomplete and broken.'
Family Questions Discharge Decision
Josie's aunt Clare Alcock told the court: 'Josie's death was caused by someone said to be mentally unstable. Why was that person behind the wheel when clearly she was not safe to be?'
The court was told how the crash happened at around 2pm on June 2, 2024 when Bordas was driving on the A51 at Henhull near Nantwich. Prosecutor Myles Wilson told the court: 'She [Bordas] had been acting erratically in the days before. She had been in contact with a childhood friend saying the Russians and the Chinese were after her and wanted to kill her. The night before the collision she had been taken to a hospital for an assessment following concerns for her mental health. But the defendant told medical staff that she had been taking her medication and just felt tired and stable so she was discharged and allowed to return home.'
'Josie only had her car a couple of weeks, having recently passed her test. She was driving two friends home following a visit to an ice cream shop when the defendant who was driving in the opposite direction crossed over into their lane and caused a head on collision. It was obviously a hugely dangerous manoeuvre and it was deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road. Members of the public tried to help Josie and she was airlifted to Royal Stoke Hospital but she suffered an inoperable and unsurvivable brain injury.'
Bordas's Mental State and Sentencing
The prosecutor added: 'The defendant was apparently uninjured in the crash and remained in her seat in her car whilst police attended. Speaking to police officers she made comments, 'Has it been planned? Is it organised?' and saying that someone wanted her dead. She tried to blame the car for the collision, saying something was wrong with the clutch and she could not control the wheel. When the officer tried to take a drug test, she accused him of wanting to kill her. She became very argumentative, got out of the car, was walking around and saying she wanted to leave and adding: 'You cannot arrest me. I need medical attention.' She was taken to hospital where one minute she was lucid and the next she not making sense. She has been detained since that day under the Mental Health Act.'
Bordas, who appeared via video link from a psychiatric unit at Hollins Park Hospital in Warrington, initially denied the charges. Defending, Bordas' lawyer Adam Antoszkiw said: 'Miss Bordas is acutely aware of pain and suffering that she has caused notwithstanding her mental illness. Up until around 2024, there was no suggestion of any psychiatric illness but reports acknowledge a clear link between her psychiatric condition and her actions on that date. It is clear that Miss Bordas' car does indeed speed up and is consistent with the delusion that she was experiencing at the time.'
Bordas, previously of West Road, Congleton, earlier admitted causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving. In sentencing, Judge Simon Berkson ordered her to be detained in a secure psychiatric unit. The judge told her: 'You had been behaving in an erratic and bizarre fashion before you decided to get in that car. You were clearly not in a fit state to be behind the wheel and it is clear from the evidence that you sped up as you approached the Toyota Aygo and you deliberately drove into a collision. It took no more than a second but for Josie's family and friends that moment has led to a lifetime of upset and pain.'
Bordas was also banned from driving for eight years with a requirement that she takes an extended retest and satisfies the DVLA's 'fitness to drive' requirements.
