Danger driver's 98mph overtake crash injured woman

A dangerous driver who injured a woman when he crashed head-on into a car while overtaking on a country road at 98mph has been jailed.

Ross Jackson, 26, overtook up to 15 vehicles at speed on the A697 near Wooler, Northumberland, before "inevitably" hitting an oncoming car and "cartwheeling" into multiple other vehicles, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

A woman who suffered a broken breastbone and ribs in the November 2023 crash said her life had "completely changed for the worse".

Jackson, of Bridge Street in Selkirk, admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.

Traffic was busy on the single carriageway 60mph road when Jackson reached speeds of up to 80 and 90mph in his VW Golf to overtake between 10 and 15 vehicles, as he headed north near Haugh Head on 10 November 2023, prosecutor Lucy Todd said.

At about 11:40 GMT, he caused a southbound driver to "steer heavily" on to the kerb to avoid hitting him, but he collided head on with an Audi Q3 behind, which was being driven by a woman who had her mother as a front seat passenger, the court heard.

Jackson's Golf "cartwheeled", flinging his dog Mabel from the car who had to be put down due to her injuries, and hit three other vehicles before coming to rest on its roof.

Subsequent investigations found he was travelling at 98mph at the point of impact, the court heard.

The mother in the Audi suffered a broken breast bone and ribs, which led to her spending 10 days in hospital and having to sleep sitting upright for several months afterwards, the court heard.

In a statement, she said her life had "changed completely for the worse".

She said she had been healthy and enjoying an active life before the crash, but had been left living in near constant pain.

Her daughter, who was driving the Audi and was also left with severe whiplash, said she felt "extreme guilt" for her mother's injuries and had lost all confidence.

She said she lost two businesses due to her inability to work in the aftermath and had been left with post-traumatic stress disorder, for which she received weekly counselling.

She said her life had been "fundamentally and negatively impacted in every aspect".

Jackson was also injured and could not recall the crash or the lead up to it, the court heard.

Judge Graham Robinson said rather than sit patiently in the moving traffic, Jackson decided to make a number of "highly dangerous manoeuvres".

"The decision to overtake a line of traffic on a busy road at speeds approaching 100mph is unfathomable to any rational driver," the judge said, adding there would have been a "combined impact velocity well in excess of 100mph".

He said Jackson showed a "total disregard" of both "common sense rules of the road" and for the "inevitability of a collision" with a "near certainty of causing death or serious injury".

Jackson was also banned from driving for four years and two months and will have to pass an extended test.

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