Drunk driver with child in car jailed for crash while racing

A man who crashed his car into a lorry while racing with friends has been handed a 16-month sentence.

Declan Webster had his ex-partner and a three-year-old child in the car when the crash happened on 8 August 2020.

The 33-year-old, who admitted dangerous driving last year, was also banned from driving for three years at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday.

Sentencing, a judge said he could not think of a worse piece of dangerous driving.

Two other men were also jailed.

Michael Bower, 28, of Hyndley Road in Bolsover, was given a 12-month sentence, while 33-year-old Robert Bower, of Corner Pin Close in Staveley, was jailed for 14 months.

Both had also admitted dangerous driving and were given two-year driving bans.

'Miracle' nobody died

The court heard the defendants had been drinking at the Red Lion in Brimington for hours on the day of the crash, with the three of them consuming "a significant amount of alcohol".

Despite a minor collision between two of the cars in the car park, they sped off, with Webster's average speed estimated to be 81mph (130km/h) on a road with a limit of 30mph (48km/h).

Footage showed Webster's Toyota crashing into the HGV at high speed as it approached a roundabout.

No injuries were reported but the Toyota was written off, and soon after speaking to the lorry driver Webster fled the scene with his fellow defendants.

As well as his sentence, Declan Webster will also be banned from driving for three years

Following a police investigation, the defendants attended voluntary interviews early last year, and in September they pleaded guilty when attending Chesterfield Magistrates' Court.

Representing himself, Webster, of Spital Lane in Chesterfield, said he was "very remorseful" for his "stupid" actions.

"I'm just so grateful that I didn't kill my family or anybody else," he said.

"I understand it could have been a lot, lot worse."

Judge Robert Egbuna, sentencing, said it was "a miracle" nobody in the Toyota died, adding that when viewing footage of the crash from the lorry "the instinctive reaction is to wince".

"The front end of the [Toyota] disintegrated virtually," he said.

"I can't think of a worse piece of dangerous driving - it's sheer luck that no-one died."