Jul 26 – “Reckless Driver” Jailed Following Devil’s Tower Road Race
A “reckless driver” who raced against another car in Devil’s Tower Road and caused a collision that left the passenger and driver suffering from serious injuries was jailed for one year and two months today.
Manuel Hernandez, 29, of Edinburgh House pleaded guilty to two charges of dangerous driving relating to an incident which happened in December 2014.
At the Supreme Court this morning, prosecutor Robert Fischel QC said Hernandez had reached speeds of up to 160km per hour as he raced against a black Honda Civic along Sir Herbert Miles Road and Devil’s Tower Road.
Hernandez’s lawyer Leigh Debono said his client was 25 at the time and had moved on since the accident.
In mitigation, Mr Debono added that his client did stop to call the police even though he wasn’t involved in the accident. He added that he had not been carrying passengers and that there were no drugs or alcohol in his system. He also said his client had been disqualified from driving since March 2015 and had not committed a traffic offence since.
However Mr Debono’s argument in favour of a suspended sentence was rejected by Puisne Judge Karen Ramagge Prescott who said the fact that this happened at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon was an aggravating factor, adding that it was reckless and dangerous and it was lucky that no road users had been hurt. She also said the defendant’s various previous traffic offences “showed a disregard for road traffic laws”.
With regards to the injuries suffered by the driver and the passenger in the other car, Mrs Justice Ramagge Prescott added: “You were equally at fault, but you were merely lucky no damage was caused to your vehicle or to your person, but that does not translate into lower culpability.”
She said it was hard to imagine a more serious example of dangerous driving when she sentenced Hernandez to one year and two months in prison for one count of dangerous driving in Devil’s Tower Road, with no separate penalty for dangerous driving along Sir Herbert Miles Road.
Hernandez was also disqualified from driving for a further six months.
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