Jail for Spalding driver who caused life threatening injuries to passenger after colliding with tree at Cowbit after night out
A man who caused a catalogue of life-threatening injuries to a passenger after his car left the road and hit a tree following a night out has been jailed.
Self-employed solar panel fitter David Camara, 21, was heading to an after party when he was seen swerving across the road shortly before the incident at Cowbit’s Barrier Bank on December 23, 2023.
The Spalding resident - who had cocaine and alcohol in his system - had only passed his driving test ‘two or three months’ earlier.
Boston Magistrates’ Court was told the female victim was left hospitalised for 47 days and on three occasions her heart had stopped beating, one time for seven minutes.
Due to the crash the passenger - who was sat in the front seat and not wearing a seat belt at the time - suffered nine fractured ribs, a fractured shoulder, two fractured vertebrae, a collapsed lung and kidney damage.
While in hospital she had her spleen removed, half her liver removed and needed to have 135 pints of blood transfused.
The victim, who was a factory worker, has not been able to work since the incident.
Judge Daniel Church told Camara he had ‘assumed the responsibility’ for the safety of his passengers before jailing him for eight months.
Prosecutor Kerry Close said the incident took place at 6.45am when Camara was transporting a female and male passenger.
“Around 10 minutes earlier the defendant was seen driving his Peugeot 208 by an independent witness who described the vehicle as driving erratically, crossing the centre white lines and onto the opposite side of the carriageway,” she said.
Describing the collision, Ms Close added: “The Peugeot left the carriageway, travelling down an embankment before colliding with a tree.
“Only Mr Camara was wearing a seatbelt.”
Ms Close added the victim was ‘unsure as to exactly what led up to her being in the the vehicle, because she went out with a friend that evening an consumed alcohol’.
The court was told a toxicology report found Camara - who suffered a head injury in the crash - was under the legal limit for drink and drugs.
The prosecution argued that, due to ‘the delay in proceedings’ before samples were taken from the defendant, it was calculated he could have been over the limit at the time the vehicle left the road.
Ms Close added that a police report stated ‘there was no defect found to the vehicle and a slight defect to the road, but that wouldn’t be the cause of the collision’.
“He had only passed his test two or three months before,” she added.
In mitigation, Danielle Lunn said Camara’s car was ‘following another vehicle to an unknown location for an after party’ following a night out.
“He was not driving at speed,” she continued.
“A statement from the Audi driver in front said he was not speeding.”
Miss Lunn added her client had suffered ‘trauma’ and regret since the incident.
“His memory is hazy,” she said. “It’s been two years since the incident and he also suffered a head injury.
“But he does believe the incident was caused by either changing a song on his Apple CarPlay or adjusting the heaters.
“It was a momentary lapse of concentration that has changed his life and the life of others drastically forever.
“For a year after the incident he stayed isolated in his room. He has flashbacks and nightmares.”
Camara, of Sunningdale Avenue, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by careless driving when he appeared in court on Wednesday (May 14).
“I’ve no doubt that until things went catastrophically wrong you were all having a good time in the car,” Judge Church told Camara.
“Clearly you had been drinking before driving the vehicle and earlier you had taken cocaine.
“As the driver you assumed the responsibility for the safety of the people to get them to the after party.
“It’s down to the good work of the staff at the NHS that kept her (the victim) alive. She suffered life changing injuries.”
As well as being jailed for eight months, Camara was banned from driving for five years and four months and must also pay a £187 victim surcharge.
