Road safety man guilty of crashing into police in Maidenhead

Hayden Brown was convicted of three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving

A man has been convicted of crashing into two police officers leaving one of them needing to have his leg amputated.

Hayden Brown was found guilty of three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Reading Crown Court heard PC Thomas Dorman and PC Wai-man Lam were "thrown into the air like ragdolls" when Brown drove into them.

The crash also flung a passenger out of the car in Maidenhead and pinned her underneath it.

Michael Roques, prosecuting, said Brown, of Suffolk Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, had been driving a group of people from a party to buy more alcohol and nitrous oxide balloons.

The 25-year-old road safety technician crashed into the officers in Norden Road on 2 September.

"The defendant had lost control of the vehicle. It slid straight into the two police officers," Mr Roques said.

The Ford Focus crashed into the officers before hitting a taxi and a police car

The car then hit a taxi, before spinning into the police car the officers had been in moments before.

The jury heard PC Dorman, despite suffering massive leg injuries, directed residents to find a tourniquet to stop him dying from blood loss at the scene.

The officer, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, had surgery but his leg could not be saved.

PC Lam required stitches for leg wounds and has been unable to return to frontline duties at Thames Valley Police after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The passenger, Annie Butt, suffered 24 broken bones in the crash.

PC Thomas Dorman had to have his leg amputated following the crash

Mr Roques said Brown fled the scene before being found hiding in a bush.

Brown, who was nearly two times over the legal alcohol limit and had tested positive for cocaine, had claimed Ms Butt had been at the wheel of the car when it crashed .

However, Ms Butt told the court that Brown took over driving shortly before the crash in 2018.

Brown will be sentenced on 9 December.