He took a wide left-hand bend at too fast a speed and collided into a car on the other side of the road, a court heard
Lewis Chapman, pictured outside Hull Crown Court(Image: Hull Live)
A woman had to wear a neck brace for up to 12 weeks – and she was off work for about nine months – after a young driver crashed into her car late at night after he lost control of his vehicle on a bend. Lewis Chapman was driving too fast seconds before the horrific crash in wet road conditions.
The woman suffered “horrible” pain, had to give up her beloved “rock ‘n’ roll dancing” and could not cope with the demands of walking both her dogs together, Hull Crown Court heard. Chapman, 21, of Riverside, Rawcliffe, near Goole, admitted causing serious injury by careless driving on March 1, 2024.
Oliver Shipley, prosecuting, said that Chapman was driving a Ford Fiesta westbound on the industrial road Tom Pudding Way, near the Siemens factory, Goole, off the M62 motorway, in darkness at about 10.30pm. He took a wide left-hand bend at too fast a speed and lost control.
The Fiesta crashed into a car being driven by a woman driving the opposite way. She was seriously injured and was taken to Scunthorpe General Hospital.
She suffered a broken ankle and a fractured upper neck vertebra. The woman told the court: “They found that I had got several breaks on my ankle.
“I have had a hell of a lot of physio on my ankle. I am still having physio and paying privately for physio. I am still struggling with my ankle. It’s very, very stiff.”
She had to wear a neck brace for eight to 12 weeks and she was off work for nine months. The pain was “horrible”.
She could now not go “rock ‘n’ roll dancing” and could not walk both her dogs together because of the physical difficulties of doing so. “I work in retail so I stand on my feet,” she said.
“That has been a struggle. I struggle at work to stand for a long time. I was a brilliant, confident driver, now I am not so confident. I am really hyper alert to anybody on the road now.”
Her car was written off. Chapman and his male passenger were not hurt in the crash. The roads were wet at the time after rain.
There was a suggestion that Chapman might have driven over manholes in that area, contributing to the incident. He later admitted that he knew where the single and double manholes were because he was very familiar with the road.
Benjamin Donnell, mitigating, said that Chapman was aged 19 at the time of the crash. He was driving his passenger to collect his own car at the time.
Chapman had passed his driving test about six months earlier. The car was bought for him at about the time that he had passed his test.
Chapman told the court that there had been no problems with his driving since the crash and he now had a Ford Focus. “I have definitely calmed down a bit and stick to the rules of the road,” he said.
Chapman worked as a concrete operative at a factory near Snaith and he realised that a driving ban would mean that he would have to find another way to get to work. He had no previous convictions.
Chapman was ordered to do 200 hours’ unpaid work and he was banned from driving for one year. He will have to pay a £114 victims’ surcharge.
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