Sittingbourne driver jailed again after grandad he seriously injured in M2 Gillingham crash dies three years later
A driver jailed four years ago for leaving a grandfather brain damaged and paralysed in a horror smash is back behind bars after his victim died. In an unusual case, Hughie Coyle has been prosecuted for a second time in relation to the same incident, but for a more serious offence.
The 26-year-old was just six days from being released from his prison sentence for causing serious injury by dangerous driving when the man he had ploughed into at the Medway Services on the M2 at Gillingham in 2019 died in July 2022. When Coyle was jailed for just over four years in August 2020[1], his victim Ray Rennalls, then aged 60, was said by his family to have been "condemned" to a life of round-the-clock care.
As well as suffering multiple fractures and having to undergo numerous operations, he faced relearning simple tasks, including his relatives' names and how to eat. Sadly, however, Mr Rennalls continued to deteriorate until he passed away, leading to the decision by the CPS in April this year to charge Coyle with causing death by dangerous driving. Coyle, of Oak Lane, Upchurch, near Sittingbourne[2], subsequently pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court last month and returned on Tuesday (November 19) to once more learn his fate.
In the intervening time, the maximum sentence for such an offence has increased from 14 years to life imprisonment.
But although the judge said he had "little sympathy" for Coyle's "predicament", he has been handed a prison term less than the one he received for the original offence.
The court heard that having been previously banned from the road and wanted on recall, Coyle, then aged 20, was fleeing an unmarked police car at around 45mph through the service area when his Volvo V70 ploughed into Mr Rennalls' Citroen Berlingo on May 18, 2019. Prosecutor Craig Evans said the force of the impact was so severe that the van driver, whose seat belt may not have been fully secured in place, was thrown out of his now open door as the vehicle spun and flipped over onto its roof. The electrician's catastrophic injuries included broken ribs and spine fractures, and his left ear was torn off.
Despite the Volvo bursting into flames and losing a tyre after striking a high kerb, Coyle carried on driving before hitting and seriously damaging a second vehicle, a VW Golf. 'The dad I knew has gone. My children have lost their grandad.
We have been robbed of a dad and a grandad...' He then fled on foot, callously leaving his teenage passenger behind in the burning car, as well as the seriously injured Mr Rennalls on the ground. He was chased, arrested and brought back to the scene in handcuffs, only to be described as "acting as if it was a joke" in front of friends who had recognised him at the services.
Described by his own passenger and long-term friend as a "good and sensible" driver, Mr Rennalls had been traveling below the Medway Services speed limit of 15mph when the Volvo crashed into his door.
In stark contrast, Coyle was driving at three times the limit and ignoring traffic calming measures including bumps and purposefully-designed bends in the road layout. The court also heard that during the time he had been tailed by police from junction five of the London-bound carriageway of the M2, he had reached speeds between 70 and 90mph and also undertaken other vehicles. Even as he approached the services, instead of slowing down on the slip road as expected he "sped up considerably as it became clear he had realised he was being followed", said Mr Evans, before overtaking another vehicle on a right-hand bend.
Mr Rennalls and his pal had "popped to the shops" and simply stopped at the services to use the toilet.
When Coyle ploughed into the Citroen, both vehicles were heading for the exit back onto the M2. One eye-witness later recalled seeing the van "pootling along" when the Volvo approached "at mega speed". There were no vehicle defects, weather or road conditions that could have contributed to the smash.
"This was a highly dangerous manoeuvre committed while trying to evade police, significantly in excess of the speed limit, and wholly inappropriate for the nature of the road he was on," said Mr Evans.
"There was also a passenger in the defendant's vehicle....and in the vehicle hit by him. He was disqualified, failed to stop, subject to court orders and awaiting recall to prison for breach of his licence."
Coyle, who has previous convictions for several driving offences dating back to when he was just 15, gave negative readings for both drink and drugs. Mr Rennalls, who was airlifted to King's College Hospital in a coma, was left having to be fed via a tube in a specialist nursing home and with a severely compromised immune system.
In a victim impact statement, originally made for the court hearing in 2020 but re-read out loud on Tuesday, his daughter Mia Rennalls wrote: "As a man of 60, he has been condemned to a life of full-time care, brain damaged and paralysed. "He has spent the past year in and out of intensive care and high dependency units, undergoing operation after operation due to so much of his body being broken.
"At a stage in his life when he should be winding down and enjoying his grandchildren, he is having to learn basic tasks such as holding a conversation, eating, family members' names and faces. "I didn't hear his voice until February this year (2020) and he has only remembered my name twice.
I cannot express in words the devastation you feel when your own father doesn't know your face. My heart just breaks. It's like I'm grieving for someone who is still alive.
"The dad I knew has gone. My children have lost their grandad. We have been robbed of a dad and a grandad and are trying to find a way through the damage and pick up the pieces we have left."
The man described as someone who "lived for his grandchildren" died on July 30, 2022, after what was said to be a "long period of suffering".
"As a result of the catastrophic injuries he suffered as a result of the collision, he never fully recovered and complications lasted until his death," added the prosecutor. In an updated statement, Ms Rennalls said Coyle's reckless actions had "taken so much", leaving the family in "a perpetual cycle of a wound healing, only to then rip off the bandage and reopen". Her sister, Emma Rennalls, movingly added: "We have lost our dad twice; the day of the accident and now his death.
"Words cannot explain the unbearable pain and heartache we are suffering and will continue to suffer for the rest of our lives." At the time Coyle was jailed in 2020, his sentence consisted of 40 months and two weeks for causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving while disqualified, as well as eight months consecutive for an unrelated offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He later appealed his prison term but was unsuccessful.
The court heard that since his release however on August 5, 2022, Coyle had not re-offended, was working full-time, and in a stable relationship. He had also become a father. Referring to a letter written to the court, his lawyer, Alex Di Francesco, said his remorse was profound.
"He deeply regrets the circumstances surrounding those events and will be moved by the reading of the victim impact statements," he added. Jailing Coyle, who was supported at the hearing by several family members, for two years and 10 months, Judge Oliver Saxby KC told him: "What happened on May 18, 2019, caused in the lives of Ray Rennalls and those close to him nearly three years of untold misery, culminating in his death on July 30, 2022. "It is difficult to imagine their suffering - from that first phone call telling them he had been badly injured to the moment he passed away.
"And of course their suffering continues and will remain with them for the rest of their lives. "All of this has been and will continue to be down to you, Mr Coyle, and your selfish and dangerous and criminal behaviour. It is difficult to imagine their suffering - from that first phone call telling them he had been badly injured to the moment he passed away
"This court feels little sympathy for your predicament. You knew back in 2020 that Mr Rennalls' health was poor and you will have been advised that should he not survive, the more serious charge would likely be brought." As to the impact on his victim and his family, the judge continued: "What is clear is the extent to which, expected as it was, his death has added to the family's sense of shock, pain and loss.
"As Emma Rennalls puts it, and I quote, 'We have lost our dad twice'." But in deciding the appropriate punishment, having taken into account the jail term already served, his guilty plea, the "significant and relevant" delay in being charged, genuine remorse and progress, Judge Saxby stressed to Mr Rennalls' family: "First, I recognise that no sentence I pass will ease the pain they feel. "Second, it is not a question of trying to place a value on Mr Rennalls' life - that would be impossible and it is not my intention to attempt to do so.
"Rather, third, what I must do is identify the relevant structure and principles and, by applying the law, arrive at a sentence which is just and proportionate."
Coyle was also banned from driving for nine-and-a-half years.
References
- ^ Coyle was jailed for just over four years in August 2020 (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ Sittingbourne (www.kentonline.co.uk)