Two years for driver after crash kills girl

A judge yesterday heard moving extracts from the victim impact statements of Charlotte Wilson's family about the devastating effect of her death last October when she was thrown from the back of a defective Renault Megane being driven by 18-year-old Curtis Markey.

Bradford Crown Court heard how Miss Wilson had been listening to music with Markey and another friend when the car crashed into a dry stone wall on Chat Hill Road, Thornbury, Bradford, in the early hours.

At the time of the collision the vehicle was found to have an insecure tailgate latch, a defective brake and a missing windscreen wiper.

Miss Wilson, who had not been wearing a rear seatbelt, was thrown out onto the road and fatally injured.

Markey, who admitted causing death by driving without due care and attention while over the prescribed limit, gave a breath alcohol reading at the police station of 38 micrograms, but an expert had back-calculated that his reading could have been 50 micrograms at the time of the crash. The legal limit is 35.

An accident investigator suggested that the car's defects had not contributed to the accident, but he concluded that Markey had been exceeding the 30mph speed limit when he lost control of the vehicle.

Prosecutor Richard Walters read parts of a victim impact statement from Miss Wilson's mother Jean in which she said not a morning went by when they did not think about their daughter.

The court heard that the family, who live in Buttershaw, Bradford, now have a large picture of Miss Wilson in their home and her mother described how she said goodnight to the picture every night before going to bed and "I love you" every morning.

Markey's lawyer Michael Reeves, said Markey had tried to revive Miss Wilson at the scene and still suffered flashbacks.

Sentencing Markey to two years in a young offender institution Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told the teenager that all good sense had deserted him that night with the most tragic consequences.

Markey, now 19, of Brighouse Road, Queensbury, was also banned from driving for the next three years and ordered to take an extended test at the end of the ban.