Jack Hale’s car left the road, went over a ditch and rolled into a tent that had a baby sleeping inside – he admitted four counts of dangerous driving
A teenager who admitted crashing his car through campsite and hitting a tent which had a baby sleeping inside has been spared jail.
Several people were injured and taken to hospital as a result of the crash which saw Jack Hale leave the road in Newgale, Pembrokeshire, on August 12, 2023. The 19-year-old, from Haverfordwest, was driving a Ford Fiesta and had passengers in the car when the crash took place. His car went over a ditch and rolled into tents, including one which had a baby asleep inside at the time. The baby escaped serious injury as it was in a cot, according to the campsite owner following the incident.
The car veered into the campsite just after the point where the speed limit changes from 60mph to 30mph. Today, Hale appeared at Swansea Crown Court for sentencing having already pleaded guilty to four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court earlier this year.
The court heard how Hale, who was then 17, had only passed his test three weeks before the horrific crash. Georgia Donohue, prosecutirng, said there were five passengers in the car – including one sat in the lap of the front-seat passenger.
Judge Huw Rees handed down a sentence of 20 months’ youth detention, suspended for 18 months, and told Hale to complete 15 rehabilitation days and 250 hours of unpaid work. He also banned Hale from driving for two years and ordered him to take an extended driving test.
Ms Donohue told the courts of the experience of holidaymakers Emma Lewis, Daniel Staniforth and Paul Warburton – who were sat outside their tents socialising when the crash happened just before 11pm. He said: “They heard a loud screech and turned to see the Ford Fiesta drifting sideways towards the campsite.
“The car travelled towards the campsite and hit the lip of the curb and flipped onto the side. As this happened it landed on a tent. The car travelled over multiple tents, one of which contained a two-year-old child. The vehicle then ultimately carried on and collided with the three complainants and landed on a tent which contained a young baby.
“Emma Lewis, Daniel Staniforth and Paul Warburton were all pinned under the car and unable to move. The complainants were pinned under the car for a number of minutes, until a number of bystanders were able to turn the car on its side and eventually free them.”
They suffered a range of injuries, including a dislocated hip, rib and pelvis fractures, and third degree burns, and were left requiring surgery. The fourth injured person was one of Hale’s passengers, Oliver Copeland, who suffered fractures to the vertebrae in his neck. In total nine people were hurt.
After the crash, witnesses told of the horror moment the car landed on the tent, prompting around 15 emergency service vehicles to arrive on the scene. Husband and wife Glen Mills, 48, and Michelle Nali, 42, were staying in a tent around 30 yards away. Mrs Nali told Wales Online: “[A woman] was just screaming ‘my baby, my baby’. That was the worst thing for me, the screaming from the lady. But luckily the baby survived.”
Her husband added: “It was carnage. You wouldn’t believe it. It was like somebody had set a little bomb off. There was stuff everywhere like broken seats and blood and people screaming.
“There was a woman screaming for her baby. There was a chap sat on the floor with blood pouring out of his head. There were a couple women tending to him.
“We heard the commotion and heard the car skid and go over. It’s an unusual sound isn’t it so I wasn’t really sure what it was. I’ve run over as people are running across the field with their torches on.
“When I got there the car was on its wheels and the guy was underneath it with his legs sticking out. So instantly, I grabbed the front wing of the car and was screaming at people to help me lift it.
“There was a chap in a tent that was next to it that the car literally just missed and he was next to me on the driver’s door. Then some others joined in on the back.
“There was about five or six of us and we turned it on it’s side. They dragged him out from underneath the car after we’d lifted it on to its side. I then dropped to my knees next to him and put my hand on his head. I was thinking ‘Is he alive, is he alive?’”
Dan Staniforth was socialising with friends on the campsite in west Wales with his little boy Sonny asleep in the family tent just a few feet away. The airborne Ford Fiesta flattened the tent but toddler Sonny escaped the “carnage” because he was protected by his £25 travel cot.