A DRIVER has received a suspended sentence after a prank in a supermarket car park ended in tragedy, leaving a teenager in a coma for 13 days.
Victim Oliver Hall, 19, ended up with a brain injury and part of his skull had to be removed after he had been “bonnet surfing” in a car park.
He remains in hospital five months after the thrill-seeking incident in August.
The teenager had got onto the bonnet of his friend’s car and asked to be given a ride.
Car driver Lain Bishop, also 19, initially refused but then agreed to drive in a circle.
But Mr Hall fell off the bonnet when the car stopped, hit his head on the ground, and suffered life-changing injuries.
Bishop, of Conwy Close, Gwersyllt, admitted a dangerous driving charge after the incident involving his father’s silver Corsa on the car park at Lidl, off Mold Road, Gwersyllt and received a suspended youth custody sentence at Mold Crown Court, sitting at Chester, yesterday.
Judge Niclas Parry said: “This matter can only be described as a tragedy – truly a prank gone wrong, the consequence of youthful immaturity and irresponsibility.
“The fact remains you did deliberately carry out a course of driving that was extremely dangerous which caused an obvious risk of injury. Such serious consequences were entirely foreseeable.”
The judge said Bishop was an intelligent young man and would have appreciated the risk he took.
“I am entirely satisfied you made every effort not to become involved in this appalling incident.
“Having eventually succumbed to peer pressure, you made every effort to drive as slowly as possible without losing face.”
The catastrophic consequences were wholly unintended – he didn’t mean to cause any harm at all.
Judge Parry said he would be given maximum credit for his guilty plea. He was truly remorseful. He was an industrious student with no previous convictions.
“It is to your credit and to the eternal credit of your victim your friendship continues,” the judge said.
In the exceptionally unusual circumstances of the case, he would be given a 52-week youth custody sentence, suspended for 12 months.
He was ordered to do 300 hours unpaid work and was disqualified from driving for 18 months. Bishop must take an extended re-test.
Judge Parry said the issue of substantial compensation for the victim would be left to the civil courts but ordered him to pay £1,000 prosecution costs.
Jonathan Austin, prosecuting, said Oliver Hall was in a coma for 13 days and was still in rehabilitation at Clatterbridge Hospital.
A group of young people had met in the supermarket car park and one of the witnesses described how Mr Hall had been joking and messing about, which was part of his character.
He asked Bishop to drive the car around the car park with him on the bonnet – bonnet surfing as it was apparently called, said Mr Austin.
Witnesses said Bishop refused but Mr Hall persisted and eventually Bishop gave in.
Mr Hall got onto the bonnet facing the windscreen and was apparently holding on to the door frames through the open side windows.
An independent witness saw the car come to a stop and Mr Hall slid off the bonnet like a rag doll. His feet came down first but he fell back and there was a thud as his head hit the ground.
The speed of the car was no more than 10 or 15 mph and initially the young people thought that he was messing about when he did not get up.
But the alarm was raised when it was realised he was seriously ill. He was taken to hospital and had been in intensive care at Wrexham and Walton Hospitals.
Part of his skull had to be removed and it was intended a plate should be fitted during further surgery.
Witnesses said they had heard him shout out to slow down but in interview Bishop said he had not heard that. He told how he drove one lap of the car park at 10 mph, braked and Mr Hall fell off.
Maria Massellis, defending, said it was a sad and unusual case. Her client’s remorse was genuine and if he could swap places with his friend then he would.
Both would have to live with what had happened for the rest of their lives.
They remained friends. Bishop visited him weekly and it was accepted his behaviour had been reckless and stupid.
It did not excuse his actions but it was accepted that it was the victim who asked to be driven on the bonnet. Bishop, a welding and fabricating student at Bersham College, fully accepted what he had done and its consequences.