Market Drayton death crash: Family want sentence appealed after speeding driver killed best friend but avoided jail
Relatives of a man who was fatally injured in a car crash say they hope the Crown Prosecution Service will lodge an appeal against the suspended sentence given to the driver.
Front passenger Will Bye suffered a serious head injury when the silver Honda Civic left the A529 carriageway on a bend in Audlem, near Market Drayton, on November 27 last year.
The 23-year-old, of Red Barn Road, Market Drayton, died at the Royal Stoke University Hospital later that evening.
Driver Stephen Whilde, 24, was given a two-year jail term suspended for two years when he was sentenced at Shrewsbury Crown Court last week for causing death by dangerous driving.
But Mr Bye’s grieving family said the sentence was too lenient and have asked the CPS to consider an appeal. In an impact statement read aloud at the hearing Will’s family described him as having “a great sense of humour and personality”.
“The effect of Will’s untimely death has had on everyone who knew and loves him is impossible to explain in words even as I write this I know it will not be able to convey the sheer devastation his death has caused,” it said.
“The gut-wrenching pain of visiting the hospital to be told he was already gone was a moment no family, parent, sibling or loved one should have to go through, especially when it was for such a young, vibrant man only 23 years old and with so much to look forward to in his future. Will is the last thing we think about at night and the very first thought every morning.”
“Six months on and it isn’t any easier, tears come from nowhere at any time and there is a sense that we will never all be truly happy again, like a ceiling on happiness that we will never be able to rise above, nothing brings us any deep joy anymore.
“We’ve lost a devoted son, a loving brother, fiancee and friend. We’ve lost every future memory that would have been made, that love and humour, that amazing smile.
“Individually His mom and dad will never see him grow through life, getting married as planned - his sister and brothers have lost a part of them no one can replace or make right the pain they feel. His fiancee and her family have lost a boy they loved as he grew into a man and who would have been a part of their family forever. Naomi has lost her future with the man she loves,” it stated.
Mr Bye, a qualified paint sprayer, and his childhood sweetheart Naomi Baxter, a teacher, were due to marry in 2019. They met when they were pupils at Grove Comprehensive School, in Market Drayton.
He is also survived by his parents Lesley Snook and Alan Bye, stepmother Tracey, siblings Rachel, Jack and George.
Judge Jim Tindal Judge Tindal said he had considered Whilde’s sentence “carefully and in its proper context” under the guidelines due to “the unusual circumstances” and the close relationship between the two men who had been out driving together when tragedy struck. Whilde had been driving at 79mph on a 60mph road when the car left the road.
