Teenage driver jumped red light then caused head-on smash in dangerous overtake
A teenage driver jumped a red light to speed ahead of other traffic before performing a dangerous overtake on a bridge which led to a head-on smash. The collision happened in April 2023, but the case only came to court on Thursday because Joshua Chappell, who was 19 at the time and is now 20, failed to attend interviews with Leicestershire Police.
The crash happened at about 10.20pm. At a traffic light junction in Loughborough, another driver saw Chappell's red Vauxhall Corsa pull up next to her in the right-turn-only lane.
As her light turned green to go straight ahead, Chappell, whose light was still red, sped in front of her and pulled into her lane. Moments later, on the canal bridge in Nottingham Road in the town, Chappell overtook another car, pulling into the oncoming lane despite having no clear view of oncoming traffic because of the rise of the hump-back bridge.
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Leicester Magistrates' Court heard on Thursday how a BMW driver coming in the opposite direction suddenly saw Chappell's headlights speeding towards him but had no time to react. The resulting head-on crash caused some injuries, and "substantial damage" to both cars, prosecutor Ryan Houghton told the court.
He said of Chappell's actions: "There was a deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road and he carried out an obviously dangerous manoeuvre and injury and damage were caused."
The police asked numerous times for Chappell to attend an interview at a police station, but he failed to show up. In January of this year officers instead went to his home in Whitwell Row, on Leicester's Saffron Lane Estate, and arrested him. Chappell pleaded guilty to dangerous driving at Thursday's hearing.
The court was told that in July 2023 - about three months after the Loughborough crash - Chappell had been arrested for driving with excess alcohol and whilst disqualified. He was banned from driving for that incident, and had been due to get his licence back next month.
Mr Houghton recommended that the magistrates - who can only jail people for up to six months - send the case to Leicester Crown Court for sentencing, and to disqualify Chappell so that he does not get his licence back next month.
Zara Cowan, representing Chappell, said she agreed that the case had to go to the crown court, and asked for a pre-sentence report to be prepared for her client. The chairman of the bench, Amrik Singh, told Chappell: "This is too serious for us to deal with."
Chappell was released on unconditional bail to appear at Leicester Crown Court at a later date. He was given an interim disqualification for the next six months.