Wellesbourne 85mph garden crash was like ‘movie stunt gone wrong’
A man who drove through a garage at 84mph, over a garden and into another one has been jailed, following "scenes akin to a movie stunt gone wrong". Tadiwanashe Matemadombo's two female passengers were seriously hurt in Wellesbourne during the crash in 2021. The driver, now 24, had admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was jailed for 20 months.
The vehicle's speed was calculated to have been 84mph in a 40mph area, Warwickshire Police said. Matemadombo, from Gun Lane, Coventry, was also banned from driving for two years and ordered to pay a GBP156 victim surcharge, when he appeared at Warwick Crown Court on Wednesday 13 December. Police said that in "scenes akin to a movie stunt gone wrong", at 03:30 BST on 4 July 2021, the defendant lost control of his black Vauxhall Astra, when it hit "the middle of a roundabout and was propelled off the ground".
The vehicle passed over a parked car, through a brick-built garage and over the garden behind it into an adjacent residential garden, where it landed on its side. The crash, on the A429 at Wellesbourne, happened as the defendant was driving his now 24-year-old female passengers home from a party in Ettington. Whilst his front-seat passenger was able to get herself out, his rear-seat passenger was left unconscious and had to be removed by police.
All three including Matemadombo, who was found still inside the car, were taken to hospital. The Astra's speed at the time of the crash was calculated from CCTV footage, police said. PC Drew Ballantyne said: "The standard of Mr Matemadombo's driving fell far below that of a reasonable and competent driver - it was dangerous.
"He had no consideration for his passengers or the public. We hope the two female passengers take some comfort from the sentence." Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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