A LEARNER driver who crippled a soldier and badly injured several
others when he ran into a column of troops was yesterday banned from
driving for 18 months.
Mr Stephen Donnelly, 26, who was also fined #620, was almost twice
over the drink drive limit when his car hit the soldiers as he drove
from a public house near Tidworth, Wiltshire, last September, after
celebrating the birth of his nephew.
Magistrates at Chippenham, Wiltshire, heard that Donnelly had been
threatened after the crash and was assaulted on Tuesday night by two
soldiers.
Mr Frank Murphy, prosecuting, told the court a column of 16 soldiers
of the Green Howards 1st Regiment were on a 22-kilometre march as part
of exercises on Salisbury Plain when Donnelly's Bluebird car came up
behind them.
Staff Sergeant Adrian Broadbank had been following up the rear with a
warning torch to keep drivers away from the two lines of Servicemen.
Mr Murphy said: ''Sergeant Broadbank alerted the troops to the fact
that a car was approaching. They moved to the nearside but remained in
double file.
''The vehicle went towards the outside line of troops then swerved to
the nearside, striking the inner line of Servicemen.
''Eleven people were injured, four of them seriously. Seven were
slightly hurt and required hospital treatment.''
The court heard that Corporal Jonathan Bell was paralysed below the
waist, Privates Raymond May and Adam Gazzard needed skin grafts after
muscles and tissue were damaged in the impact, and Private Shane Mealor
had a metal plate inserted after his right arm was badly injured.
Donnelly admitted drink driving, driving without due care and
attention, having only a provisional licence, driving without insurance,
with no MOT certificate, and with a bald tyre.
Donnelly was banned from driving for 18 months and fined #200 for
driving with excess alcohol, given nine penalty points and a #200 fine
for driving without due care and attention, and fined #120 with seven
penalty points for no insurance.
He was also fined #50 for driving alone when only a provisional
licence holder together with four penalty points, and was fined #50 with
three penalty points for a defective tyre.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article