Mansfield driver who broke his own back and caused serious injury to others in eight-car collision is jailed

Ty Chapman fled from police while high on drugs in a car with a false number plate on August 30 last year, causing an eight-car pile-up at the junction of the A611 Derby Road and the B6139 Coxmoor Road, near Kirkby.

Chapman had been due to be sentenced on Friday, but Judge Julie Warburton adjourned her decision until after the weekend to give herself more time to consider his punishment.

On Friday, Nottingham Crown Court was shown video footage of the police pursuit – with officers reaching speeds of upto 113mph trying to catch him up.

He was seen overtaking rows of cars on the wrong side of the road and running red lights prior to the collision, which happened when he again tried to run a red light on the wrong side of the road and smashed into oncoming traffic.

Chapman’s silver Honda Civic smashed head on into a Kia vehicle, flipped around smashing into another car, then travelled through the air, crushing the roof of an Audi TT and trapping the female passenger inside, the court heard.

The woman received severe back and chest injuries and said in a statement to the court that “her life would never be the same again”, said Esther Harrison, prosecuting.

Chapman broke his own back in the collision and also had to be cut from his vehicle and his passenger, identified in court as Levi Robinson, was also left with spinal injuries and a perforated bowel.

Others involved reported more minor injuries but many said the crash had left them with severe emotional problems, with one woman saying she was now terrified of driving, the court heard.

Chapman, 26, of Rowen Close, Forest Town, had admitted two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, furnishing false particulars as the keeper of a vehicle, driving with no insurance and driving without a licence, when he appeared before Nottingham Magistrates’ Court in February.

Mitigating, Richard Thatcher told the court: “It’s one of those cases where it really is a genuine miracle that nobody was killed.

“Knowing that he should not have been on the road, he simply panicked and he drove in a truly horrendous fashion, but it was in many ways out of character.

“He knows he will go to prison because there’s no option and some will say, ‘so what, he’s brought it on himself’.

“He says he never wants to sit behind the wheel of a car again.”

The court heard that the three-and-a-half mile pursuit had started when Chapman’s false plates triggered a police camera and officers went to investigate.

Sentencing Chapman to 32-months in prison on Monday, March 8, Judge Warburton told him: “There didn’t appear to be any attempt to break or avoid the collision, and it must have been very traumatic for all those caught up in it as a result of your appalling driving.”

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