A man who killed one teenager and seriously injured three others as he drove one-handed at 90mph so he could smoke a vape, has been jailed for 10 and a half years.
Finley Wood, then 20, ignored repeated pleas from his passengers to slow down and careered around winding country lanes, using only two fingers to steer the car. He took one corner too fast and veered onto the wrong side of the road and ploughed into a tree.
Barman Felix Davies, 19, who was in the front passenger seat suffered multiple fatal injuries in the impact outside a former monastery near Whitchurch, Cheshire and died at the scene. University student Isobel Smith, 19, Fin Hares, 18, and Daniel Kettle, 23, who were in the back of the car were badly hurt.
Moments before the crash on Easter Sunday last year, Wood had been "showing off" in his Ford Fiesta and was trying to "keep up" with another driver as they were travelling in convoy to the annual Nantwich Jazz Festival.
Miss Smith who suffered a dislocated shoulder, damage to her hip, broken ribs and crushed sternum said: "Easter Sunday of 2023 will be a day I wish I could forget for the rest of my life. A day, we were supposed to enjoy the last day of a music festival and it turned to the worst day of my life when I lost one of my best friends and almost lost two more."
Mr Hares who suffered injuries to his hip, right eye socket and and thigh, plus fractured ribs and broken nose, said: "The trauma and memory of the accident will always be with me. It still affects me to this day. I suffer with severe anxiety because of the crash and I still have recurring nightmares that I am trapped, waking up terrified, believing that I was still there. This tragedy shows how the actions of one person can change the outcome of so many people's lives."
Wood, of Whitchurch suffered minor injuries in the crash and in the immediate aftermath was overheard talking on the phone to his parents saying the car was "totalled." He passed drink and drug tests but gave no comment in police interview. At Chester Crown Court he admitted causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving and will be banned from driving for five years when he is freed.
Sentencing Judge Steven Everett told him: "So many lives have been totally ruined for what was on that one occasion a selfish disregard for anyone's safety in your car. You drove on what was not the easiest of roads far too fast, regrettably, I am afraid like some young people do. When will they learn that a motor vehicle can be a lethal weapon in the hands of the wrong person?
"Your Fiesta was the lethal weapon on this occasion and it was not as if you did not have any warnings. People in the car told you to slow down. You were holding a vape in your hand, driving effectively one handed at ridiculously high speeds, 90mph at one stage certainly, if not at that stage of the crash. You were far too fast. That is why the crash occurred because you could not control that vehicle."
"I find it astonishing that you were driving with effectively two fingers and holding a vape. At least two of your passengers told how frightened they were and how you were told to slow down. Goodness knows why you did not."