‘Dangerous’ driver told "you were lucky you didn’t kill someone"

Saturday 20 January 2018

A teen driver who crashed his car, seriously injuring three of his four passengers, has been sentenced to 200 hours’ community service and a four-year driving ban.

Sentencing George Cookson (18), who was 17 at the time of the incident, for the relatively new offence of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, the Bailiff Sir William Bailhache told him: "A motor vehicle is a potentially lethal weapon."

Crown Advocate Richard Pedley said it was only a "matter of luck that Cookson hadn’t killed anyone." And even Cookson’s lawyer admitted his client’s driving had been "appalling, shocking, and very dangerous."

Just before midnight on Friday 12 May last year, Cookson, who often posts on Facebook that he can pick people up after a night out and drive them home, collected four youngsters – some of whom he loosely knew – from a house at Maufant and headed towards Five Oaks.

Pictured: The case was heard at the Royal Court.

Very early on, the passengers became seriously concerned about Cookson’s driving. The car’s wheels spun as they set off, the engine was being revved excessively, and on occasion the car crossed the central dividing lines of the road. One passenger felt Cookson was trying to show off, and two of them asked him several times to slow down.

Although Cookson later claimed he was driving at about 40 miles an hour – the speed limit in the area is 30 - evidence from the dashcam of a passing taxi was later used to calculate the car’s speed in the region of 50 to 55.

As the car approached St Saviour’s School, Cookson seemed to loose control. The car hit the left-hand pavement, veered across the road, hit the right hand pavement, and then crashed almost head on with a Mercedes driving in the opposite direction. Both cars were written off. A taxi driver just in front of the Mercedes who witnessed the accident said he was "absolutely shocked at the speed" Cookson had been driving, saying it was "extremely dangerous and probably some of the worst he had ever seen."

The Mercedes’ driver was relatively unharmed but was taken to hospital to have small pieces of glass removed from his scalp. Cookson and one of his passengers were was also relatively uninjured.

Pictured: Cookson passed St Saviour's School around 23:50 before the crash. (Google Maps)

But the others weren’t so lucky.

One, who had to be cut out by the Fire Service, had fractures to his arm and fingers. A second sustained a broken wrist and nose. And the third – who was sat in the middle of the back seat and not wearing a safety belt – had a broken leg and dislocated shoulder. He later had to undergo surgery to set his leg and was in hospital for a week.

The Court was also told the accident had had a severe impact on the passengers’ studies in what was a crucial year, and that they now often have panic attacks in cars.

The Prosecution had asked for 264 hours’ community service, but this was cut to 200. Sir William also disqualified Cookson from driving for four years, although he can apply for a licence again after three, but it won’t be granted unless he shows "maturity and responsibility."

It’s the first time Jersey’s Royal Court has heard a case of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and is therefore a landmark decision. Because the Court’s decision will have a big impact on future cases, Sir William said they would be publishing a fuller explanation of how they came to their decision and decided on their sentence at a later date.