Rochester driver avoids jail after M2 crash left woman with serious injuries
A driver whose "ridiculous speed" resulted in his passenger suffering life-changing injuries has been spared jail after a judge remarked it was "horrendous" for him to miss the birth of his child.
Arron Bond appeared at Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday (May 8) just hours after his girlfriend had gone into labour.
As the 31-year-old expectant father stood in the dock he faced up to five years behind bars for the horrifying smash which left his friend Kerry Yates needing surgery for fractures to her arm, wrist and hand.
She had yelled at him to brake as another vehicle pulled into their lane on the coastbound carriageway on the M2 between Chatham and Gillingham.
But Bond was driving so fast that his "violent swerve" led to him losing control of his Volvo S40 which then flipped over several times and collided with the rear of a lorry.
Reports at the time of the crash on July 3, 2022, described numerous emergency vehicles, including the air ambulance, attending the scene.
Debris was scattered across all three lanes and along the hard shoulder, and firefighters had to use hydraulic cutters and spreaders to remove the doors and roof from the car.
Almost two years on and two operations later, the court heard Ms Yates is still at risk of having to have a finger amputated.
But while Deputy Circuit Judge Shani Barnes expressed her sympathies for the victim, she said the impact of immediate custody on Bond's partner and their as then unborn child had to be considered when deciding the appropriate punishment.
Imposing a suspended sentence, she told Bond: "Your partner is somewhere giving birth. It must be horrendous that you are not there, and horrendous for her.
"She has no idea whether you will be there when she gets back (home)."
Prosecutor Brian Reece said that on the morning of the crash, Bond and Ms Yates had been together on an earlier journey in which she had complained about him driving "extremely fast" and asked him to slow down.
About nine hours later, just before 7pm, and while heading eastbound on the M2, Ms Yates noticed her friend was again driving too fast and, as she later told police, "faster than everybody else".
Bond was travelling in lane two when another vehicle pulled out from the inside lane, possibly without indicating, to overtake a lorry.
"She has no idea whether you will be there when she gets back (home)…"
"The defendant needed to either slow down, as he clearly had no intention of doing, or move to the outside lane," said Mr Reece.
"Ms Yates saw the car move into the centre lane ahead of the Volvo, saw the obvious danger, and shouted to the driver 'Brake!'
"He left it far too late with the result being he couldn't move safely from the centre lane to the outside lane, swerved violently to the right, and then over-compensated, swerving to the left, losing control and rolling over several times before coming to a rest."
Dashcam footage played in court captured the shocking moment the Volvo flipped across the carriageway and into the lorry travelling in lane one.
Mr Reece explained the Volvo's excessive speed had caused it to "yaw" - when the weight of a vehicle shifts from its centre of gravity.
The speedometer and rev counters were both recovered and found to be locked at just under 100mph and 4,000 revs respectively.
The court was told, however, that at the time the car careered from the outside lane its speed had been calculated to be between 84 and 91mph.
As well as the fractures, Ms Yates also suffered a severe gravel burn from where she had been sitting with her arm outside the open front passenger window.
She had to have two operations, including one to fit a permanent metal plate with pins into her arm, and has not had full function return to her hand.
Ms Yates was also off work from her job in the security industry for several weeks and, although she has returned, it has been to a different role with a much-reduced income, said the prosecutor.
Bond, of High Street, Rochester, denied driving too fast when he was interviewed by police and sought to blame the collision on the car that had pulled out into his lane.
"However, when shown the dashcam footage he appeared not to be able to argue with that, saying 'Evidence is evidence," said Mr Reece.
"But he still denied he was driving too fast."
"Sending you to prison today would serve no purpose…"
The court heard Bond, who suffered a broken finger, was originally charged with causing serious injury by careless driving, an offence he admitted.
However, when the case reached the crown court it was decided by the CPS that he should face the more serious charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Bond denied this, only to subsequently plead guilty in March this year.
Appearing for sentence last week, his barrister Trevor Wright explained that although the friendship with Ms Yates had ended, his client wanted to tell her how "genuinely and deeply" sorry he was for what had happened.
But on revealing Bond's girlfriend had gone into labour in the early hours, Mr Wright urged the court to spare him jail, saying the family home would be at risk if his client could no longer work.
"This defendant has a new responsibility from today. His partner, if he is sent into custody, will not have a home," he explained.
"I don't seek to be dramatic or over-dramatic but the income from this defendant is vital to that woman but more particularly for the child."
In deciding his punishment, Judge Barnes said she had not only taken into account the impact of immediate custody on his girlfriend - who was "giving birth as we speak" - but also the current state of the prison population and the delay in court proceedings.
She also spoke of the "terrible shock" Bond must have had when the charge was elevated.
But on handing him a two-year jail term suspended for 18 months, she told Bond: "People drive too fast. People think they are in control of their car and they will be fine.
"It's usually what someone else does that makes you realise how dangerous cars are."
The judge added that although Ms Yates had been badly injured, Bond had not set out that day to cause her harm.
"This was, as everybody acknowledges in your (character) references, completely out of character," she told him.
"Sending you to prison today would serve no purpose."
As part of his sentence, Bond was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation activity requirements to, as Judge Barnes highlighted, "deal with your thinking that you thought you were safe driving at that ridiculous speed".
Bond was also banned from driving for two years and will have to take an extended test to regain his licence.