A drink and drug-fuelled driver who killed his friend and seriously injured a teenage Stafford girl has been jailed for three years.
Stafford Crown Court heard Elliott Hopewell was on his way to the V Festival in 2006 when he crashed a transit van outside the County Showground, sliding into a car in which Katie Riley was a passenger.
Her victim impact statement said she was left physically and mentally damaged with a knee injury making it difficult to stand or walk. “It has prevented me from leading a normal teenage life,” she said.
Hopewell, aged 24, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, admitted causing the death of friend David Salmon, 25, by careless driving while unfit through drink or drugs.
He was also banned from driving for five years and ordered to take an extended driving test before going back on the road.
On August 18 last year the two, along with friend April Bailey, set out from Sutton in the van Hopewell bought a week earlier.
They drank vodka and Hopewell took cocaine before colliding with a car and overturned, sliding along the road and hitting another car in which Miss Riley was the passenger. Mr Salmon was crushed.
Mr Andrew Wesley, for Hopewell, said he was remorseful and apologetic.
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