Edinburgh road menace cheats death after lamppost crash at 70mph during high-speed chase

A serial road menace has been jailed for leading cops[1] on a high-speed chase before smashing into a lamppost at 70mph. Jye Slater raced through a string of red lights on the streets of Edinburgh, hitting speeds of up to 80mph. The 22-year-old finally lost control of the Skoda Octavia in Musselburgh’s[2] High Street, crashing and sending the vehicle into several 360-degree spins.

Slater wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and his life was only saved when the car’s airbags deployed. Sentencing dad-of-two Slater to 20 months in prison[3] and banning him from driving until 2030, Sheriff Kevin McCarron said his actions had been “frankly outrageous.”

In November we told how Slater was jailed for 37 months after police pursued him during a similar incident which saw him drive a car at a constable.

Slater appeared via video link from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday and pled guilty to charges including dangerous driving. Fiscal depute Matthew Miller said a police officer was on patrol in a marked car at 1.45am when the Skoda passed him on the city’s Bonnybridge Drive. Mr Miller said the officer followed the car after carrying out a system check and finding it was uninsured.

The court heard Slater was driving and took off at seeing the police with his lights turned off. Other police officers joined a pursuit of Slater as he hurtled through the streets. Mr Miller said Slater shot through two sets of red traffic lights on Milton Road at up to 70mph in a 30mph zone, still with no headlights on.

Slater travelled at up to 80mph on Willowbrae Road and went through a red light at the junction between London Road and Portobello Road. Join Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here[6] and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. On Marionville Road he raced at up to 80mph in a 20mph zone before going the wrong way down a one-way street at similar speed and through more red lights.

The court heard Slater travelled on the wrong side of the road at 70mph along Portobello Road and through another red light. Mr Miller said: “On Portobello High Street he drove at 50mph in a 30mph zone, narrowly avoiding collisions with parked vehicles and straddling the lanes.” After passing through another red light, Slater reached Musselburgh High Street and drove at up to 80mph along it on the wrong side of the road.

Mr Miller said: “He lost control and swerved across the road before mounting the pavement and hitting a lamppost and fence. The car spun 360-degrees several times and came to a stop.

Sign up for Edinburgh Live’s newsletter

Get all the latest news and headlines from Edinburgh, Fife and the Lothians sent straight to your inbox twice a day by signing up to our free newsletter. From breaking news[7] to the latest on the coronavirus[8] crisis in Scotland, we’ll have you covered.

The morning newsletter arrives every day before 9am and the evening newsletter, manually curated by the team, is sent at 6.30pm, giving you a round up of the most important stories of the day. To sign up to any of our newsletters, visit this link here[9]. “Mr Slater was the only person in the car where the airbags had deployed.

A large knife was seized from inside it. There was extreme damage to the vehicle.” The court heard Slater was taken for checks at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary before being taken to the city’s St Leonards police station.

Defence agent Chris McFarlane said the pursuit had lasted for around ten minutes “when fortunately the roads weren’t busy and no one was injured”. Mr McFarlane said his client had been “turfed out” of the house after falling out with his partner on the night of the incident on January 24 last year, and “panicked” when he saw police. Slater also pled guilty to knife possession, and driving while disqualified and without insurance.

Sheriff McCarron noted it was Slater’s “fourth or fifth” conviction for dangerous driving as he banned him from the roads for 80 months.

The sheriff told Slater, of the city’s Clermiston area, it was had been a “horrendous piece of driving” and he was a “danger to the public both now and in the future”.

References

1. ^ cops (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
2. ^ Musselburgh’s (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
3. ^ prison (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
4. ^ Huge Edinburgh police presence at banana flats over Marc Webley shooting (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
5. ^ Police guarding Edinburgh block of flats after ‘armed officers’ lock down street (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
6. ^ Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here (chat.whatsapp.com)
7. ^ breaking news (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
8. ^ coronavirus (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
9. ^ here (data.reachplc.com)