Dr Alex Boorman pictured on holiday with his girlfriend Alex Bellard
A driver high on cannabis who killed a doctor in a head-on crash while overtaking two cars at 87mph has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years.
The life of Dr Alex Boorman, 27, was ‘needlessly taken and wasted’ due to the ‘idiotic’ driving of Jake Rogers, a court heard.
The 22-year-old was attempting to pass cars in front of him on a blind bend at night when he smashed into Dr Boorman’s motorbike.
Dr Boorman, a talented rugby player, was on his way to work as a junior doctor at York Hospital when his life was ended in a crash he had ‘no chance’ of avoiding.
Teesside Crown Court heard that Rogers tested positive for cannabis and had amassed 10 speeding points in just 16 months prior to the smash.
The horrific crash, which also badly injured his two passengers, happened only two months after his latest speeding offence.
One witness on the road that night in December 2017 told police Rogers was driving like a ‘f***ing idiot’.
A teenage girl who was in the back of his Vauxhall Viva pleaded with him to slow down on their way back to his house from a trip to Burger King, the court heard.
His speedometer stuck at 87mph after the crash which happened in a 60mph zone on a sweeping bend on an unlit section of road.
Other drivers had seen Rogers’ car overtaking dangerously before the smash and it was estimated the period of criminal driving lasted for one and a half miles.
Heather Gilmore, prosecuting, said: ‘[The witness] described hearing a massive bang, she saw a massive fireball flash and black smoke and saw the motorbike flying around in the air.’
His car flipped over three times and landed on its wheels, and Rogers was later heard to say: ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’
His female passenger broke her back and now finds walking and exercise painful, while the friend in the front seat suffered a badly broken leg and was flown to the Leeds General Infirmary.
Teesside Crown Court heard that Jake Rogers (pictured) tested positive for cannabis and had amassed 10 speeding points in just 16 months prior to the smash
Rogers admitted causing death by dangerous driving, two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving while over the limit for cannabis.
He told police he smoked cannabis every night and had up to three joints the night before the crash.
Rogers wept in the dock as Judge Simon Bourne-Arton told him: ‘Alex Boorman was 27 years old when he died.
‘When you killed him, he left behind a loving and devoted family and partner.
‘He was a doctor, he devoted his life to that job, that profession. He devoted his life to the care of others.
‘He spent many years of hard work achieving that ambition. That career was taken from him by you.’
Dr Boorman’s mother Liz Cinnamon read a moving statement to the court, describing her family’s devastating loss.
She said: ‘He was a bright lad, a complex character, hugely talented, scarily intelligent, fiercely loyal.
‘He was funny and irreverent, challenging and questioning always, he had an insatiable thirst for knowledge.’
The junior doctor worked in orthopaedics, lived in Thirsk with his partner, and planned to helped out in a rural hospital in South Africa.
He had been heading in early ahead of his night shift when he was killed.
Rogers wrote a letter to the judge to express his remorse and shame, apologising to the doctor’s family and to his own.
He said: ‘I put so many lives in danger because of my idiotic driving that night.
‘My actions were unforgivable and like the poor family I have destroyed, I will have to live with this for the rest of my life.’
The judge said he will be banned from driving for four years once he is released from prison.