Isle of Wight Jaguar driver crashed and injured passengers

Perry Powell, of Station Road, Wootton, was sentenced after he admitted drug driving on the outskirts of Newport on March 24. Tailgating a woman’s car in Wootton, before he overtook her, heading towards Newport, Powell crashed his car a matter of minutes later. The overtaken driver then came across the Jaguar, on its roof, on Staplers Road.

A second motorist, just before the crash, said he took evasive action to avoid a head-on collision with Powell — described as being “all over the road” at a speed estimated to be as high as 90mph, said Liz Miller, prosecuting, at the Isle of Wight Magistrates’ Court on Friday. On a bend, Powell lost control, over-corrected — clipping a tree and hitting a fence of railway sleepers before flipping onto its roof. Powell’s three injured passengers were taken to St Mary’s Hospital.

His partner, a front seat passenger, suffered multiple fractures, including to her spine, while her teenage daughter, in the back, badly cut her leg, and her teenage male friend suffered bruises. Powell, who failed a roadside drugs test for cannabis, was also taken to hospital. Another drugs test revealed the 29-year-old had 5 microgrammes of cannabis derivative THC in his blood.

The legal limit is 2. For Powell, Michael McGoldrick said: “He drove too quickly. There was an accident, people were injured, but thankfully all the passengers have fully recovered.”

Mr McGoldrick said his client has suffered trauma and flashbacks since. “It will be a lesson to him. Hopefully, he can wean himself off cannabis.

Probation would serve as a reminder of the dangers he posed.”

When sentencing Powell, magistrates described the accident as “a horrible incident with dreadful consequences, in which someone could’ve died.”

Powell was handed a 12-week jail term, suspended for a year, with an order to complete 150 hours’ unpaid work and 25 rehabilitation sessions, with GBP85 costs and a GBP154 surcharge.