A van driver who was drunk and under the influence of drugs deliberately drove into a relative and reversed back over his body, leaving him with multiple fractures and life-threatening internal injuries. Danny Calladine, 35, inflicted devastating injuries on his partner's cousin, Dion Eagle, in an incident that occurred on Scarborough Rise, Breadsall Hilltop, at around 4.15pm on 19th December last year.
Prosecutor Lauren Fisher told Derby Crown Court that both men had been drinking together and visited a shop to purchase more alcohol. During the journey back, an argument broke out, prompting Mr Eagle to exit the van 'to leave the situation.' Disturbing footage showed Mr Eagle bending down in front of the vehicle before Calladine drove into and over him, then reversed back over the victim.
Miss Fisher said: 'It was witnessed by a number of passing motorists and one who stopped could see the defendant was drunk and slurring his words saying "what's going on? I have not hit anyone." He then dropped the keys to the van which the witness picked up and placed in his pocket. He also noticed a can of Stella in the footwell. (That witness's daughter) then heard him on the phone saying "I have hit him and I don't know what to do, I have run over him."'
It is estimated that Mr Eagle was trapped under the van for 15 to 20 minutes. His partner arrived and described the scene as 'carnage.' Mr Eagle later told police he thought he was going to die while under the van, saying he thought he was 'pretty much done for.'
Roadside and custody tests revealed Calladine to be almost three times the legal drink-drive limit and four times the legal drug-drive limit for cocaine. The victim sustained multiple fractures, including two to his spine, extensive internal injuries, was placed into an induced coma on several occasions, and has undergone numerous operations. More than five months on, he remains at Linden Lodge rehabilitation centre in Nottingham, where he is expected to stay for some considerable time.
In a deeply moving impact statement, Mr Eagle, in his mid-20s, described how he missed the birth of his daughter while in intensive care. He said: 'My legs are still useless and it is a horrible way to feel. I know it sounds selfish but I still wish I had died that day, I cry every day, I just wish the pain would stop. I feel anger that I am trapped like this while the person who did this to me is out enjoying life.'
Calladine, a father of a 12-year-old son, formerly of Braintree Close, Breadsall Hilltop and now residing at Market Street, Ashbourne, had previously pleaded guilty to causing serious injury through dangerous driving and drink-driving. Kevin Waddingham, mitigating, said: 'It is clear he regrets enormously what happened in those few seconds and the consequences for Mr Eagle. He has lost relationships with Mr Eagle and his family which were important to him prior to this incident. It is something he will have to live with forever.'
Sentencing him to three-and-a-half years, Judge Jonathan Straw said: 'On December 19 last year you irreversibly changed the course of Dion Eagle's life forever, affecting your own life and the lives of countless others who care about each of you because of the many inexplicable decisions you made that day. The footage makes for graphic and difficult viewing and while all the horror unfolded and while Dion was lying trapped under the van your immediate reaction was to deny what you had done. Dion was left there fighting for his life and it is a miracle we are not here concerned with a homicide. He is still in hospital now, six months on, and the pain and suffering he has experienced during that time is for the most of us unimaginable.'
In addition to the custodial sentence, the judge banned the defendant from driving for 35 months and imposed a five-year restraining order.
