Fit of rage led to head-on collision on County Durham road

Bradley Colin Smith told his girlfriend he would kill the two of them before he steered his van onto the wrong side of the road near Staindrop, County Durham, and hit an oncoming car.

The aftermath of the crash

Today, the 37-year-old was jailed for nearly four years for causing serious injury by dangerous driving and unlawful wounding along with assaulting an emergency worker after he lashed out at a police officer at the scene.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that Smith and his girlfriend had camped in Weardale on January 11 in his Fiat Ducato van, which was converted into a campervan.

They stayed up all night consuming alcohol, including vodka and beer, and Smith also took cocaine.

The following morning they began arguing and decided to drive back to Smith's home in Gregson Terrace, Seaham.After stopping for fuel and another bottle of vodka at the filling station at Barnard Castle, Smith drove through Staindrop and the argument escalated.

As he drove up Keverstone Bank, near Raby Castle, just before 9am on Tuesday, January 12, he swung his van round a right-hand bend and into an oncoming Nissan Juke.

The Nissan driver, Julie Douthwaite, saw the van but didn’t have enough time to avoid a collision.

Daniel Cordey, prosecuting, said she and a witness in a car behind said there had been no opportunity or time to avoid the collision, which left both vehicles with extensive front end damage.

He said Mrs Douthwaite initially refused medical treatment at the scene, when she was in shock, but spent the next two nights in hospital after suffering a fractured sternum, a liver lesion and bruising.

Smith’s partner was airlifted to hospital and put in a medically induced coma due to a head injury but subsequently recovered.

Mr Cordey said blood tests revealed that at the time of the crash, Smith was more than twice the drink-drive limit and had consumed 11 times the legal limit for drugs.

Whilst emergency services were at the scene of the crash a police officer tried to prop Smith up with his legs so he could receive treatment from a paramedic but Smith flung himself backwards, causing the officer a knee injury.

Smith was also seen trying to cut his wrists with a wood saw and swigging from the bottle of vodka before it was discarded at the roadside.

In a victim impact statement read out by Mr Cordey, Mrs Douthwaite said the collision had left her in pain, suffering flashbacks, anxiety and lacking confidence.

She was off work until late March which meant she lost £3,600 in earnings and, although the insurance company paid out after her car was written-off, the family used their savings towards replacing it.

She said: “On the day of the accident I declined medical treatment, on reflection I realise I was in shock and just wanted to get home.

“I spent two nights in hospital, after I was discharged I had to rely on my husband and son as personal carers to help me in and out of bed and to do household chores which I would usually be responsible for.

“I felt unable to drive, my husband transported me everywhere I wanted to go which was a big change for me, in my opinion I was an experience and competent driver but it took ten weeks before I decided to drive and initially I wouldn’t go out on my own.

“Even when confident enough to go out on my own my husband describes my driving as over-cautious and I’m more critical of my husband’s driving and stick to well known roads.

“I’ve had flashbacks at any time during the night which leave me feeling anxious, I’m awaiting counselling to hopefully help with the anxiety and sleepless nights.

“I missed my friends and going to work, I have to say my friends and family rallied round.

“I feel I’ve been penalised for something out of my control and had to come to terms with everything.”

Paul Abrahams, mitigating, said Smith had been remanded since January 16 and whilst in custody had made good progress with issues of anger management and drink and drug abuse.

He said: “Mercifully the injuries were not as serious as they could have been. Quite often we see people paralysed or lost limbs through road traffic collisions, it could have led to a death.

“The defendant entered into an argument and took an exceptionally dangerous decision to act in a fit of rage to drive into another vehicle which not only had an impact on his passenger but to Mrs Douthwaite.

“He has taken the matter seriously and seeks to address those matters of anger management, drug and alcohol abuse.”

Judge Penny Moreland sentenced Smith to three years and nine months for both the dangerous driving and wounding offences and three months for assaulting an emergency worker, to run concurrently.

She also disqualified him from driving for two years, with a 16 months and two week extension to cover the time he will be in custody.