RECKLESS DAD
Shocking moment drink-driver ploughs into lorry at 84mph after EIGHT pint binge – with his son, 3, in the car with him
THIS is the shocking moment a drunk-driver hurtles into a lorry at 84mph with his son in the car after an EIGHT pint binge.
Declan Webster, 32, has been jailed after crashing into a lorry with his three-year-old son in the car after downing drinks in a pub.
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Webster raced his brothers Robert and Michael Bower through the streets of Chesterfield, Derbys, with his partner and toddler in the car.
Heart-stopping footage shows his Toyota Corolla flying along a road at breakneck speed before he smashed into the side of a HGV at a roundabout.
Incredibly, nobody was injured in the horror crash, which happened at around 9.30pm on August 8, 2020.
The drivers all fled the scene but were later arrested and charged with dangerous driving, which they pleaded guilty to at Derby Crown Court.
The court heard the trio had spent several hours in a beer garden drinking together before driving off in their high-powered vehicles to race each other.
Webster was jailed for 16 months on Wednesday, while Robert Bower, 33, was caged for 14 months and Michael Bower, 28, was handed a 12 month prison sentence.
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Webster was also banned from the roads for three years while both Bower brothers were disqualified from driving for six months.
Sentencing Judge Robert Egbuna told them: "I cannot think of a worse piece of dangerous driving.
"It is sheer luck that no-one died.
"Mr Webster feels fortunate to have his family and son alive.
"On that day at the Red Lion pub CCTV shows that a significant amount of alcohol was consumed.
";You left that pub and all three of you were racing in powerful vehicles."
Judge Egbuna said Webster's Corolla came "from nowhere" and "disintegrated virtually" as it smashed into the side of the lorry.
He added: "In that vehicle was your three-year-old child with his mother — how they managed to survive is a miracle.
"What you do afterwards with assistance of the Bowers is leave the scene.
"The purpose of leaving the scene is quite clear.
"You do not want to be apprehended because your level of alcohol would be available to the court."
Prosecutor Katrina Wilson said the trio had been at a pub for six hours before the crash — with Webster drinking seven pints, Robert Bower, six, and Michael four-and-a-half.
CCTV footage captured the "state of inebriation" they were in at the Red Lion Pub in Brimington, Derbys, minutes before the crash.
It showed Webster's Toyota Corolla and Robert Bower's white Range Rover collide as the pair tried to reverse in the pub carpark.
As the trio raced in convoy along along Brimington Road North — which has a 30mph limit — Webster's speed was clocked at an average of 81mph.
Michael Bower was captured careering his Jaguar XE onto the opposite carriageway at the moment of impact to avoid the collision.
Robert Bower's Range Rover was seen rolling towards the roundabout when he climbed out to help pal Webster — having forgotten to apply his handbrake.
As Webster climbs out of his car with his son and partner he is shown leaving the scene in one of the Bower brothers' cars.
The court heard Webster's son was seen "bleeding from his nose and mouth" by one of the Bower brothers moments after the crash.
The unhurt HGV driver can be seen on the camera "in dismay" to find all three gone — however police eventually tracked them down after viewing CCTV from the pub.
Representing himself, Webster, who appeared via video link from HMP Leicester, told the judge: "That was a very shocking an eye-opening night for me two years ago.
"I'm very grateful that my family came out alive — I've lost my partner but I've still got access to my son.
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"I'm just grateful that I didn't kill my family or anyone else — it was foolish, reckless and dangerous."
PC Stu Smith, from Derbyshire Police's Roads Policing Unit, said after the case: "It is pure luck that no-one was seriously hurt, or killed, in this incident."
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