A TEENAGER who took her uncle’s car and drunk drove it into the side of a taxi, killing a Coventry mother-of-two, has been jailed.
Unqualified driver Danielle Bartlett, originally from Leamington, was speeding and over the legal alcohol limit when she ploughed her uncle’s Vauxhall Astra into the side of the taxi before fleeing the scene of the crash.
Bartlett, aged 18 of Westleigh Road, Leicester, pleaded guilty to causing Ms Downey’s death in October 2015 by careless driving while unfit through drink, having no insurance and driving without a licence.
She was jailed for three years by a judge at Warwick Crown Court and banned from driving for three-and-a-half years.
Prosecutor James Armstrong-Holmes said the teenager had been staying at her uncle’s house on October 10, 2015 after drinking two glasses of wine at a child’s birthday party.
After the party she was dropped off at a local pub, and returned to her uncle’s home at about 10.30, crying because she said she was being pestered on her phone by an ex-boyfriend.
But, just when she was about to go to bed at 11.45, she took her uncle’s car keys and drove off in his car without his knowledge.
Bartlett, who had been due to take her test two days later, drove through a 50mph speed limit on the A45, clocking 65mph before racing past the Chace Hotel on London Road at 69-74mph – nearly double the 40mph limit.
Ms Downey was returning to her home in Whitley, travelling in the rear of a black cab with her seatbelt on, when Bartlett ploughed into the door next to the mother-of-two at 52mph as the taxi turned into Abbey Road.
The Astra spun out of control before coming to a stop, while the impact forced the cab onto the grassed area at the side of London Road.
But despite the efforts of paramedics, Anna Downey was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple injuries to her head, chest and pelvis.
Anna Downey.
The taxi driver was knocked unconscious, and after being discharged from hospital had to pick fragments of glass out of his head.
Passers-by stopped to try help Ms Downey and the taxi driver, one taking Bartlett to sit in their car.
But after asking if the driver was OK, she fled the scene and took a taxi to her grandfather’s home in Leamington, where she told him she had ‘done a stupid thing’.
When she was breathalyzed after being arrested, Bartlett gave a reading of 37, just over the legal limit of 35.
But as this was three hours after the crash, it is thought the reading at the time would have been 60.
Isabel Wilson, defending, argued that Bartlett’s driving had been ‘over the speed limit, but not excessively so.’
She continued: “She is still a young person.
“She was 17 at the time of the offence and without convictions.
“She is genuinely remorseful of her actions and aware to the extent of the devastation caused.”
Ms Wilson also argued that Bartlett was just 17-years-old at the time and in the care of the local authority and living with foster parents, but since entering her pleas had been hospitalised after taking an overdose and had returned to live at her parents’ address.
Describing Anna Downey as a ‘woman who left a legacy of love and achievement’, sentencing Bartlett, Judge Stephen Eyre QC said: “On that night she behaved responsibly, in a way which was typical of her. Because she had been drinking, she arranged to take a taxi home.
“This is in marked contrast to your behaviour.
“You had been drinking, you had only a provisional licence, and you went out driving at night when you were under the influence of alcohol.
“You drove at excessive speed for a significant period of time.
“This is in the upper bracket of cases of careless driving, and matters are made worse by the fact that you left the scene of this accident.
“I accept you have genuine remorse, and that you realise and truly regret the effect your irresponsible actions have had.
“One of the sadnesses of this is that your conduct killed a woman working in child protection, working to protect other children from the kind of damage you have suffered.”
