Police explain reasons for sharing 'distressing' video showing aftermath of fatal crash

William Hubbard died when a fence post penetrated the car he and three friends were travelling in after it left the A464 in Shifnal on May 27 last year.

The 19-year-old was impaled in the white BMW being driven by his friend, Oliver Barber, was was speeding while over the drink drive limit.

Barber, 20, was jailed for eight years on Thursday for causing death by dangerous driving. The court heard that he had been out drinking in Shifnal town centre with two friends, when they decided to go a late night bar which required one of the group to go home to get changed.

Prosecutor Ms Suzzane Francis said Hubbard flagged down Barber and asked to travel with them.

She said the four travelled out of Shifnal down “singing” with with Barber travelling “substantially over the speed limit” causing one of the passengers to tell him to “chill out”.

The two surviving passengers had said in statements that Barber had missed a left turn to his friend's house and turned his head, distracting him from the road ahead, with one estimating his speed at 60mph – twice the speed limit of the road.

The court was then told the BMW hit a bollard on the opposite carriageway before hitting another “head on” in the centre reservation, which caused the car to career into a hedgerow and then a fence.

It crashed less than 725 metre from Shifnal town centre.

After police arrived, Barber was breathalysed and found to be over the drink drive limit and a further blood sample taken showing he had 134mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood – the legal limit being 80mg.

In the video, West Mercia Police warned that the footage "may be disturbing to some viewers". It shows Hubbard getting into Barber's 1 Series BMW, before it driving away at speed.

Warning of viewer discretion, the footage then cuts to the wreckage of the car with the fence post that inflicted the fatal injury clearly visible. Officers talk about a "possible fatality".

Releasing the video, PC Helen O’Connor, from West Mercia Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit said: "The message I want to get across is that this collision could have been avoided if Barber had not got behind the wheel that night knowing he had drank more than the legal limit."

Judge John Butterfield KC told Barber, of ,Juniper Way, Shifnal, he could have to serve two thirds of his sentence before being eligible for release.

He also disqualified him from driving for 11 years and four months.