A banned driver who left his girlfriend with a broken back after speeding through a junction and flying off the road – causing his car to burst into flames – has been jailed.
Darren Barr – who has never sat a driving test – has been banned from the road four times in the past.
Despite that, he got behind the wheel of his Vauxhall Vectra on September 9 last year and set off with partner Kerry Wilson and two friends into the Angus countryside.
The trip turned to disaster, however, when the country road he was driving on met the A92 between Arbroath and Montrose at a T-junction.
Despite his passengers shouting for him to brake Barr careered at “excessive speed” through the junction and across both lanes of the main road.
The car then became airborne as it flew off the other side of the road and ploughed 100 metres through a field before coming to a rest and bursting into flames.
Fiscal depute Vicki Bell told Dundee Sheriff Court that all four passengers managed to get out of the car – but that Miss Wilson had suffered a serious injury.
Barr, 36, of Castle Crescent, Friockheim, pleaded guilty on indictment to charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.
Defence solicitor Anne Duffy said: “He lost control and he has no explanation for that. He is still on good terms with the occupants of the car and his partner.”
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael jailed Barr for eight months and banned him from driving for two years.
He said: “It seems rather lucky that nobody was badly injured in this crash.
“Apart from anything else if you learned to drive properly you might not cause this kind of mess again.
“I have to protect the public and mark the seriousness of this offence.
“Custody is inevitable.”
