A 22-year-old man from Carlisle has today been sentenced to two years in prison for causing serious injury after losing control of the car he was driving and causing serious injuries to his 21-year-old passenger. He was also banned for driving for three years.
Kyle Robinson, a car mechanic, was driving a Ford Mondeo car late at night in November last year and lost control whilst negotiating a bend on a narrow country road at speed. The car left the road and crashed into a garden in Dalston, Cumbria. He had been given permission by the car owner to drive it, but only to a garage in Carlisle for testing and repair. He then picked up a friend and drove around the Carlisle area during the evening.
After the car left the road it crashed through a hedge and fence and collided with a tree in the garden of a property in The Gill, Dalston. Kyle Robinson fled the scene and the owner of the property called police. His passenger, who was a friend, was trapped in the car and had to be freed by emergency services. Kyle Robinson was arrested the following day after he had hidden in a campervan. A police collision investigation concluded that the car had left the road after the driver had failed to negotiate a bend in the road after driving too fast for the road and conditions.
Kyle Robinson, 22, of Hallin Crescent, Carlisle was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court today as follows:
- Causing serious injury by dangerous driving – 2 years imprisonment
- Damaging Property – 3 months imprisonment, concurrent
- Aggravated vehicle taking – 3 months imprisonment, concurrent
He was disqualified from driving for 3 years and must take an extended retest.
Rebecca McGregor from CPS North West said: “This case had a number of aggravating features. Kyle Robinson was driving dangerously by speeding in poor conditions without the permission of the car’s owner while under the influence of cocaine. He lost control of the car and caused serious injury to his passenger. He put his friend’s life and potentially the lives of other road users in danger. Instead of staying at the scene to call the emergency services and get help, he ran away and hid overnight and was only arrested when he was the found the next day by police dog handlers. This case clearly demonstrates the devastating consequences of such reckless driving.”
Kyle Robinson admitted the offences and pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, criminal damage, aggravated vehicle taking, driving without insurance, failing to stop after an accident and driving whilst unfit through drugs.