Dangerous driver caused serious A30 crash injuring family

Christopher Michael Burden, 46, crashed his BMW into the family's Toyota on the A30 near Shaftesbury on November 17, 2023. It was dark when Burden, of Wilton Road, Salisbury, who had been drinking, drove on the wrong side of the road to overtake a van. He then cut back into the correct lane but struck the grass verge at the side of the road and swerved across the carriageway.

The woman and her children, aged 12 and 10, needed hospital treatment for fractures and other injuries caused by the resulting crash. One child had a 'foreign body' enter their eye. They were on their way to a tennis lesson when the crash happened.

Burden also sustained "critical" injuries and was taken to hospital, where he gave a sample of blood that showed he was over the drink-drive limit. Earlier that night, Burden had been seen riding his motorcycle on the pavement before he crashed it into a Nissan Micra near his former address outside Shaftesbury. A neighbour tried to stop him from returning to the road - but Burden ignored him and swapped his damaged bike for his BMW.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Salisbury Magistrates' Court on November 8, 2024. He appeared at crown court on February 7 to be sentenced. He brought a packed bag with him, expecting to be sent to prison.

Prosecuting, Julian Lynch said it should have been clear to him after he crashed his motorcycle that he was in no state to drive. He said the overtaking manoeuvre was "dangerous" and carried out in an "inappropriate" location, shown by a solid white line on the road. Offering mitigation, John Dyer said Burden has recently been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder but likely lived with it for years beforehand without being able to manage it.

He said Burden's mental health is "extremely poor", but he had seemed to be "getting his life back on track" when the crash happened. "It has been difficult for him for over 20 years," he said. "He was in the Army for three years, and one of the operations he went on was in Sierra Leone and was nicknamed 'Operation Certain Death'."

Mr Dyer said Burden was being supported by homeless charity Alabar? and Op COURAGE, an NHS mental health support scheme for veterans, after the crash. That, he said, meant there was a realistic prospect of Burden being rehabilitated in the community, allowing him to receive treatment. He is also living with "leg damage" sustained in the collision.

"He should never, of course, have got into the car after crashing his bike," he said. "He was behaving extremely erratically, and it's not clear why. He doesn't seek to minimise what he has done.

"It drives him crazy that he is not able to work anymore. He has always worked as hard as he can. "The unmanaged post-traumatic stress disorder was starting to creep up on him with nightmares and flashbacks, but now his mental health is extremely poor indeed.

"He knows he should be punished for causing so much suffering to three people who didn't deserve it who were just going to a tennis lesson. "He hasn't tried to get into a car again. This man clearly has taken himself to pieces by driving like this."

Burden will spend one year in prison before being released on licence. He had previously been sentenced for drink-driving by magistrates for the same incident, resulting in a 14-month driving ban. That ban will be extended by two years when he is released.

Sentencing, judge Timothy Mousley said: "It was only luck rather than any judgement that the injuries were not more serious than they perhaps were. "It was really caused by the fact that you were driving dangerously. Quite what got you to behave in that way is unclear.

"I've listened to everything that has ben said on your behalf, and it's clear there may have been undiagnosed mental health factors affecting you that day."

The judge said the earlier incident involving the motorcycle "cannot be wholly ignored" and the offences were too serious for the sentence to be suspended.

References

1. ^ Former Army sergeant jailed for fraud by abuse of position (www.salisburyjournal.co.uk)