Teen who killed two men in police officer dad’s Audi claims cannabis didn’t ‘impair’ his driving and tells coroner to ‘Google it’
THE teenage son of police officers who mowed down two people in his dad’s Audi after smoking cannabis told a coroner to ‘Google it’ after insisting the drugs in his system did not ‘’impair’’ his driving.
Max Coopey had been spared jail after driving the powerful A5 into two pedestrians while over the drug-driving limit for cannabis last year.
The 18-year-old told the inquest into the deaths of Jason Imi, 48, and John Shackley, 61, yesterday that just because he had smoked the drug it didn’t mean that he was “under the influence.”
Coopey had been smoking with friends before getting behind the wheel of the car while still 17, having only passed his driving test two months before the fatal collision near Ascot in August of last year.
He hit Mr Shackley and Mr Imi, who had been on a works night out, with such force that they were thrown over the top of the car and died instantly when they hit the ground.
Coopey, who lives at his parents’ Russel and Catherine’s £1million home in Ascot, Berks, was giving evidence at the double inquest in Reading, yesterday.
'GOOGLE IT'
The arrogant teen told lawyers and Assistant Coroner for Berkshire Alison McCormick: “Just because something is in your blood doesn’t mean you’re under the influence of it and it can impair your ability to drive and that is in any research.
“Google it and you can find it.”
A representative for Mr Imi asked Coopey if he knew that a combination of cannabis and opiates was found in his blood while driving.
Coopey denied that he had taken codeine on the night of the crash, and that he had only smoked a cannabis vape at 6pm that day, adding: “Any drug combination can affect your ability to drive safely, but I wasn’t, in my opinion, under the influence of cannabis.”
The inquest had heard that Coopey must have been driving within a range of speeds at around 50mph but it was not known exactly what speed he had driven at.
His father Russel, a police sergeant in the Metropolitan Police, gave a written statement to the hearing and rushed to the scene on the night of the crash after his son called him.
He had allowed his son to borrow his car because his own, a BMW, was in for repairs after being involved in a collision.
His son denied “rushing” home to meet a curfew of midnight imposed by his parents , calling it “absurd”, and claimed that the “same thing would have happened” whoever was driving.
If anyone else here was in the same situation, the same thing would have happened.
Max Coopey
He added: “I may have slowed down slightly. Even if I didn’t, even if I hadn’t it would have been perfectly fine because that is how they teach you to drive.
“You don’t slow down for the possibility of someone being on the other side of a blind corner.
"I don’t expect there to be someone in the road, you drive in the ordinary fashion, as any driver would.
“If anyone else here was in the same situation, the same thing would have
happened. You can keep asking me questions to try to make it look like...”
Coopey was only charged with drug-driving after being arrested at the scene and was found to have 3.3mcg of cannabis in his blood, over the legal limit of 2mcg.
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Despite calls from the deceased family that a verdict of unlawful killing should be found, Ms McCormick recorded a verdict of “road traffic collision” on both deaths.
She told the inquest that an unlawful killing verdict was not appropriate because she could not be sure that Coopey was speeding at the time of the crash or that the drugs had impaired his driving.
Ms McCormick added: “Can I just pay tribute to both families who had the most difficult of days. Thank you for being brave and for sticking with the process.”
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