Teen has to have leg amputated after car driven by friend smashes into him
A teenage biker had to have part of his leg amputated after his friend smashed into him in his powerful Audi.
Luke Ferguson, age 19, also suffered a life-changing head injury and was in a coma for two weeks after a car being driven by Robbie Roden hit him while the pair were in Walsall.
Roden, also age 19, of Camden Street, Walsall Wood, has been jailed for 16 months after he admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
He was also banned from the roads for three years and two months and will have to take an extended re-test when he wants to drive again.
Birmingham Crown Court heard the crash happened in Brownhills, near Walsall, on February 1.
Mr Ferguson was riding an Aprilla bike while Roden was in an Audi A3 with a two litre engine. Two other friends were in a Vauxhall Corsa. The group met up at around 11pm at a Tesco car park in Brownhills.
They agreed to travel to another car park and set off in a convoy, all driving in excess of the 30mph speed limit, with Mr Ferguson at the front.
When they reached the car park Roden, who was at the back of the convoy, overtook the Corsa by speeding up to 72mph.
The court heard that after having travelled past the Corsa he turned right into the car park, and ploughed into the side of the motorbike knocking Mr Ferguson into the air with such force that his motorbike helmet came off.
He was rushed to hospital where he remained for 19 days - including two weeks in a coma.
He had to have his right leg amputated below the knee and suffered fractures to the base of his skull, with bleeding and swelling to the brain.
In a statement to the court his mum Cheryle Hammond said what had happened to her son had turned their lives upside down.
She said it had been touch and go over whether he would survive, and as a result of his injuries her son her son suffered from mood swings, his personality had changed and he had lost his sense of taste and smell as well as being deaf in one ear.
It is not known whether he would be able to live independently again.
Defending Mr Roden, Christopher Hopkins said he had been driving for less than a year and it was likely his inexperience must have impact the decision he took on the night.
He said Roden, who used a wheelchair because of a hereditary muscle wasting condition, was a childhood friend of the victim.
Passing sentence, Judge Heidi Kubic said it seemed like 'a moment of madness' that the teen would forget 'for the rest of his life'.
