Aspiring paramedic caused crash which left Oswestry man with serious head injuries

Benjamin Oliver Young, 20, had denied a charge of causing the crash on July 16 last year by driving without due care and attention.

But magistrates found him guilty after a trial at Welshpool Magistrates Court.

The crash on the A483 near Arddleen, on the Shropshire border, left Matthew Owen, from Oswestry, with serious injuries from which he has not fully recovered.

Giving evidence at the trial Mr Owen told magistrates he had been driving north on the A483 when he began to overtake a line of slower traffic.

He said: "I remember being about third in the line of traffic. I indicated and gave about four or five seconds for the car in front to move out if it was going to. "There was no indication that the car was going to pull out.

"I overtook the car that was in front of me and started to overtake the 4x4 in the front of the queue. At that point there was a big bang at the back of my car and that's all I remember."

Mr Owen's black Vauxhall Astra was pushed off the road by the impact and into a fence and a ditch.

He suffered a fractured skull, eye socket and right hand, and had fluid leading from his brain which required surgery on three occasions.

As a result he now suffers from constant headaches and short term memory loss, and was only able to give evidence for a short period of time before being taken ill again.

He had been working as an electrician, but had not been able to return to work since the crash.

Young, of Hope, Leighton, near Welshpool, said he had not seen any other car coming up on his right when he moved out to overtake a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

He said: "I was on my way to a family meal at a pub. I was behind slow moving traffic and I was in no rush so I stayed behind through Pool Quay.

"I looked in my mirror and indicated and moved to overtake. I was on the rear quarter of the 4x4 when the Astra scraped all the way along my car and smashed my mirror and then went along the road before it went into the grass verge.

"I parked and ran back to give first aid to Mr Owen. He was walking around in a haze, stumbling around."

Young, who is planning to begin training as a paramedic in September, said he stayed with Mr Owen for 15 minutes stemming the bleeding from his head injury before emergency services arrived.

David Colohan, who had been driving the four-wheel-drive vehicle, said he had seen Young's car pull out into the path of Mr Owen's car, but said he could not remember if Young had indicated first.

He said he had been travelling at about 45 to 50mph at the time of the crash.

Magistrates commended Young for his actions following the crash and agreed it was a lapse rather than a pattern of bad driving. Young was fined £110 and ordered to pay costs and charges of £520. He was given three points on his driving licence.