AN uninsured driver who killed a friend by driving after drinking alcohol and taking cocaine has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.

David Ashley Manning, 28, drove a Mercedes so fast and overtook in such a way during his journey to Flamingo Land that one of his three passengers, Leah Coles, was so frightened she almost tried to get out of the car, said Michael Morley, prosecuting.

On their return journey, he got 450 metres from the gates of the theme park and zoo at Kirby Misperton, near Malton, before losing control on a bend that police experts later assessed could be negotiated at over 90mph.

York Press:

The car caught a wheel in a gully, spun round, hit objects on both sides of the road and became airborne before hitting a tree and overturning. Passenger Lucy Pinder, 19, was thrown from the car to her death.

After the crash, Manning told witnesses: “What have I done? What have I done?” “I have killed her” and “It’s all my fault, it should be me who’s dead,” Mr Morley said.

He had just finished an 18-month driving ban for drug-driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance, had other previous driving convictions and did not have a licence at the time of the crash on June 16, 2016.

A victim impact statement from Lucy’s family said: “She has left such a big hole in our lives.

“Lucy had grown up to be a beautiful, loving, caring, thoughtful young lady. We have all been robbed of seeing her enjoying her life.” It was the second tragedy to befall the family from Thornaby in less than ten years – Lucy had lost her mother a few years earlier.

Judge Andrew Stubbs QC, at York Crown Court, said the group spent 90 minutes in Flamingo Land to celebrate a birthday before Manning drove them out of its car park faster than the car park attendant had ever seen a car in a car park.

In addition to the six-and-a-half year jail term, Manning, of Coleton Gardens in Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees, was banned from driving for 13 years and three months and ordered to take an extended driving test.

He pleaded guilty to causing death while drink-driving, two charges of causing death while drug-driving and one each of causing death while driving without insurance and causing death while driving without a licence.

Mr Morley said blood tests revealed he had been one-and-a-half times the drink-drive level and had cocaine and a cocaine derivative in his body.

Mitigating, Andrew Turton said he was remorseful for his actions. “It is an accident which never leaves him. It is in his thoughts day and night.”

He still felt he should have died in the crash rather than Lucy.

Mr Morley said police could not calculate the speed Manning had been doing at the time of the crash. All four people in the car had been at a party the previous night where partygoers had drunk alcohol and taken drugs.

It had been Manning’s suggestion that they go to Flamingoland and the car had not belonged to him.