A tragic hit-and-run incident occurred when a reckless driver struck a woman and dragged her for 58 meters while traveling at 77mph in a 30mph zone, during what should have been a simple errand to buy milk.
The victim, 59-year-old Diane Jones, was crossing Durham Road on her way home after a night out in Sunderland when she was hit by a Volvo XC90 driven by 27-year-old Reece Roberts on February 14.
Roberts, described as ‘cowardly,’ was prohibited from driving at the time. Dashcam footage shows him fleeing the scene, leaving Ms. Jones fatally injured on the road.
Ms. Jones sustained severe injuries, including the loss of her leg, as she was caught under the vehicle and dragged for a considerable distance while Roberts continued to speed away.
Newcastle Crown Court was told that Roberts made no attempt to brake or avoid the collision before fleeing and subsequently hiding the vehicle.
Roberts has been sentenced to ten years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, as well as driving while disqualified and uninsured.
Prosecutor Omar Ahmad told the court Roberts was driving dangerously just before the collision.
A man walking his dog saw him driving at ‘very high speed’ and said the car wobbled as if not under control.
Diane Jones, 59, was crossing Durham Road as she made her way home from a night out in Sunderland city centre when she was hit by a Volvo XC90 driven by Reece Roberts, 27, on February 14
‘Coward’ Reece Roberts was jailed for 10 years and eight months with an extended licence period of a further five years. He was banned from driving for 20 years and one month
Roberts, who was banned from driving at the time, was then captured on dashcam footage fleeing the scene, leaving Ms Jones to die in the street
The man instinctively pulled his dog off the path and away from the road.
Mr Ahmad said: ‘Within seconds of it passing him, he heard a very loud bang and saw it further up the road.
‘It didn’t brake and continued driving out of sight. He went to the site of the collision and saw Diane Jones lying in the road.’
An Uber driver reported having been undertaken by the Volvo at high speed shortly before the collision and he described the driving as ‘erratic and dangerous’.
When he approached the scene of the collision, his passenger pointed out Ms Jones lying in the road.
Mr Ahmad told the court: ‘Ms Jones suffered catastrophic injuries. Her left leg had been dismembered, such was the force of the impact.
‘She was pronounced deceased at the scene. She had major torso injuries which were fatal.’
The court heard the registered keeper of the Volvo was Roberts’s then-partner and she was the only person insured to drive it.
She had been at her home, which is around a mile-and-a-half from the scene, with Roberts that night.
Between 10pm and 10.30pm, he left without telling her what he was doing and she didn’t see him again that night.
He returned in the morning, telling her he had taken her car and had hit somebody with it.
When she realised her car was not outside, Roberts told her he had hidden it but did not tell her where.
She advised him to hand himself in to police, as did his father when he told him what he had done.
Roberts later contacted his solicitor and handed himself in to police around 1.30pm the day after the collision.
The offence had been captured on CCTV and the footage was analysed to ascertain the speed of the car before the collision.
Some 60 metres before the impact, he was driving no less than 77mph on the 30mph road.
Roberts, from Sunderland, was jailed for 10 years and eight months with an extended licence period of a further five years. He was banned from driving for 20 years and one month.
The court heard Roberts has nine previous convictions, including for blackmail and causing serious injury by dangerous driving – for which he received the driving ban he was under when he killed Ms Jones.
In February 2019, he drove an Audi A6 at 40 to 50mph in a 30mph zone and struck a man.
He made no effort to brake and fled the scene at a high speed before abandoning the car.
The victim sustained serious, life-changing injuries, including fractures to his spine, pelvis and leg and a laceration to his liver.
Sentencing him, Judge Tim Gittins said: ‘You said to probation what you did was a silly mistake. Nothing could be further from the truth.
‘You deliberately, arrogantly and selfishly ignored that disqualification and chose not just to drive but to do so in the most obviously dangerous fashion.
‘You were, regrettably, a fatal accident waiting to happen and sadly, so it proved to be, all for the pathetic reason of going out for some milk.’
The judge said Ms Jones ‘stood no chance’ and was ‘wholly blameless’.
He added: ‘Despite the obvious imminent collision, you don’t appear to have braked at all or otherwise sought to avoid her.’
Judge Gittins said Roberts then continued to drive at excessive speed in a ‘cowardly and callous’ attempt to get away.
He added that Diane’s injuries were ‘gruesome’ and said: ‘The only small comfort is she’s likely to have known nothing of what befell her.’
Judge Gittins said: ‘She was very much the diamond at the centre of a ring of a large and close family. It’s clear you have ripped the heart out of that family.’
He added that Roberts’ previous conviction for causing serious injury by dangerous driving was a ‘hauntingly similar serious accident’.
Sophie Allinson-Howells, defending, said Roberts acknowledges there is no mitigation and that the suffering caused is ‘immeasurable and utterly inexcusable’.
