Six years for killer driver
A drink driver who crashed into a car killing its front-seat passenger after jumping a red light has been jailed for six years.
Carpenter Lee Philip Whettall was two and a half times the legal limit when his white Ford Transit van ploughed into a car on the A451 dual carriageway between Kidderminster and Stourport in March last year.
Father-of-one Scott Irwin, 23, of Staite Drive, Cookley, was a front-seat passenger in Daniel Clayton's Rover 216 car and died instantly.
Mr Clayton suffered a serious brain injury and cannot remember anything about the crash and another passenger Aaron Reynolds also received horrific injuries.
Whettall, aged 25, of Aldermere Drive, Kidderminster, was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving following a trial in Hereford last month.
He denied the charge, claiming the light was not on red, but was found guilty by the jury. During sentencing yesterday at Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Robert Juckes QC, called Whettall actions "a gross misjudgment".
Whettall was disqualified from driving for five years and told he would serve half the prison sentence in jail and half on licence.
A packed court room heard Whettall had been drinking with friends at a pub and had consumed "four or so pints".
Whettall was tested by the police with a positive reading of 90 microgrames of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.
Mr Nicholas Braslavsky, defending, said: "Mr Whettall was devastated that he stupidly got into the van."
