Learner driver who crashed car into a wall while taking a video call is jailed for 18 months

Hairdresser Danielle Cooper was so engrossed in her mobile phone she crashed into a wall without braking causing catastrophic injuries to two passengers

A learner driver who crashed her car whilst making a two minute Facebook Messenger video call has been locked up for 18 months. 

Hairdresser Danielle Cooper, 19, was so ‘engrossed’ in her mobile phone she crashed into a wall without even braking in North Lincolnshire.

Cooper caused ‘catastrophic’ injuries to two passengers in her Ford Ka as a judge said it was pure chance that no-one died in the accident.

One of the victims who suffered ‘life-threatening and life-changing injuries’ was her half-sister and a male passenger who was friends with her sister was also badly hurt, Grimsby Crown Court heard. 

On August 20 last year Cooper had stalled at a petrol station and forgot to put on her light while she had made hundreds of calls and messages, mainly to a 40-year-old man.      

She had been socialising in Epworth and after making hundreds of calls and messages before the accident drove to a petrol station. 

There, she had been making a video call and stalled the car as well as initially having no lights on. 

She made a Facebook Messenger video call to the man while leaving the petrol station and it lasted two minutes and 11 seconds before it was ‘suddenly and abruptly cut off’.  

The court heard she was driving on the A161 from Belton to Epworth at 12.50am when she lost control on an ‘innocuous’ right-hand bend at Brick House Farm on the outskirts of Belton.

She drove head-on into a wall, badly damaging the car and leaving the windscreen smashed – both backseat passengers weren’t wearing seatbelts.

The woman, a nurse, ended up wedged between the two front seats and was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary for intensive care and her injuries included bleeding and bruising to the brain. 

The 19-year-old who admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving feels deep-seated anguish for a crash that almost cost her half-sister's life and the other passenger

The 19-year-old who admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving feels deep-seated anguish for a crash that almost cost her half-sister’s life and the other passenger

She suffered fractures to the base of the neck, spine, ribs and jaw as well as lacerations to her forehead, temple and hand. ‘It was not believed that she would survive the nature of her injuries,’ said Mr Evans, prosecuting.

She suffered lung problems and, on August 27, her heart stopped and she had to be resuscitated. 

The next day, she needed a tracheotomy to help her breathing. She was intensive care for 19 days before transferring to a trauma ward. 

She was sent to a Sheffield rehabilitation unit on September 13 and would be having an operation in about 20 days. 

‘She has no memory of the incident and the weeks leading up to it,’ said Mr Evans. 

The male passenger suffered a fractured ankle and hip, vertebrae damage, a scalp laceration and abrasions to his knees and legs. 

He was discharged on August 23 last year but also could not remember the crash. He had been working as a delivery driver but had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and could not work. 

Cooper was on a Facebook Messenger video call when lost control of her Ford Ka in the outskirts of Belton, Lincolnshire

Cooper was on a Facebook Messenger video call when lost control of her Ford Ka in the outskirts of Belton, Lincolnshire

Cooper, of King Oswald Road, Epworth, North Lincolnshire suffered a broken chestbone, a ruptured spleen and breaks to her back, shoulders, wrists and six ribs.

She admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, having no insurance and driving unsupervised with only a provisional licence.   

‘She feels shame,’ said Mr Godfrey, defending. 

‘She feels a deep-seated anguish at what she did. She has found it very difficult to come to terms with. 

‘Like her passengers, she has very little memory of what occurred that night. 

‘She knows that she has shattered lives. Her sister was one of the victims and that’s a burden she will have to carry for the rest of her life.’ 

Judge David Tremberg told her: ‘If ever there was a driver who ought to have been paying full attention to their driving, it was you.’ 

But she had been ‘persistently and continuously distracted’ by her phone and was ‘engrossed in it’ at the petrol station earlier. 

Any competent driver paying attention would have negotiated the bend with ease and avoided ‘impending disaster’.     

‘The victims’ lives have been turned upside down. ‘It’s a matter of pure chance that you didn’t end up killing somebody.’

Cooper was sent to a young offenders’ institution for 18 months and was banned from driving for three years and nine months. She must pass an extended test. 



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