‘Sentencing after road collisions must consider the consequences’

Dean Fellows was forced to undergo a through-knee amputation of his left leg in April 2022, after he was hit by a car while out riding near Wolverhampton.

The motorist was charged with driving without due care and attention and received a £500 fine and six penalty points on his licence.

Dean, an IT engineer, has been left not only physically injured but also psychologically scarred by his ordeal – something he says has been compounded by the sentence given to the driver of the car.

And now, 49-year-old Dean would like to see a review of sentencing that recognises the severity and consequences of driving offences, which take into account the suffering of the victim.

Research conducted by law firm Slater and Gordon to mark Road Safety Week this week shows that over 60 per cent of people agree that tougher sentencing for traffic offences is needed.

“Clearly the fact I had to have an amputation has been absolutely devastating, but the one thing that made me angry more than anything else was the sentence the driver of the car received,” says Dean, from Stafford.

“In many ways, that has been as hard to deal with as my injury. At the very least, I hoped for some length of disqualification, so the consequences impacted the driver in some way as a reminder of what he had done.

“But what he actually got was so far from that – he was given the same amount of points as if he had used his mobile phone while driving. This does not in any way recognise the impact of what had happened, and the sentence he received was a shock.

“I really want sentencing to be looked at and for Judges to apply this routinely. There doesn’t currently seem to be any kind of rationale behind the sentences that are being given, what the motorist has done rarely seems to be recognised through the penalty they receive. This needs to be changed.”

The life-changing collision happened on Burnhill Green Road, a rural road through the West Midlands countryside, just before 10am on April 30, 2022, at a junction where Dean had right of way. The car driver said the junction had faded ‘give way’ markings, although there were also signs indicating the need to stop.

Dean credits the Midlands Air Ambulance for saving his life, with both a vehicle first responder and helicopter attending the scene as he lay critically injured.

The faded markings influenced the decision by the CPS not to pursue a more serious charge against the driver – something Dean says he “just cannot comprehend”.

Since the collision, Dean has struggled with ongoing pain and psychological problems, and has also been forced to scale back his job to three days a week, such is his struggle with the mental impact and fatigue after his traumatic injury.

He has been fitted with a prosthetic leg, which has allowed him to regain some independence, and has had to change to an automatic vehicle and reconfigure his mountain bike to enable him to get out.

“I do still flinch sometimes when I’m behind the wheel because of what happened to me. I used to love my motorbike but I can’t think of going out again just yet,” says Dean.

“I’m an engineer so I’m very practically minded, so I will always find a way to get on. But I have been extremely frustrated at finding the limitations of what I can do as a result of what happened. My energy levels, my ability to play sports like badminton, the drumming I enjoyed doing, my ability to get upstairs in my own house – they’re just nothing like what they were before. And that is very hard for me to live with.”

Dean has been supported in securing a settlement against the driver in the collision by law firm Slater and Gordon. Interim payments were secured to enable adaptations to Dean’s home, and to allow him to access rehabilitation and a range of therapies including physiotherapy and psychological support, and recently a final package has been agreed.

“This has been an unimaginable ordeal for Dean, whose life was changed in an instant through this collision, which was absolutely no fault of his own,” says Richard Crabtree, Principal Lawyer in our personal injury team, who supported Dean in his claim.

“While Dean has been able to benefit from bespoke rehabilitation and therapies, which have supported his recovery well and have enabled him to begin to rebuild his life, the physical and psychological impacts have been profound. Understandably, the sentence given to the driver has been difficult for him to deal with.

“We would echo Dean’s calls for a review of sentencing for motoring offences, so that justice can be seen and felt to be done by survivors.”