Wigan borough motorist who injured a mum and daughter in a hit and run smash is jailed

Aiden Dodd, a Leigh man, who was only a provisional licence holder and was uninsured, struck the victim’s Renault Clio while attempting to overtake a car on a blind bend.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that fortunately Hayley Hughes, a horse riding instructor, managed to swerve as Dodd’s black VW Golf headed towards her.

Her car was written off and she and her eight-year-old daughter suffered seat belt injuries but luckily were not more seriously hurt and her sleeping two-year-old son was unscathed in the back seat.

Dodd’s car skidded and ploughed into a telegraph pole on the verge and he fled the scene, Holcroft Lane, Culcheth, across adjoining fields.

The court heard that he later tried to hand himself in to police but was sent away as there was no warrant for his arrest. When he was later arrested he frankly admitted his involvement.

Jailing him for 14 months Judge Neil Flewitt, KC, said: “You clearly posed some risk to members of the public from the way in which you drove on this occasion.

“It was a highly dangerous manoeuvre with total disregard for the rules of the road, overtaking when you should not have done and putting at risk oncoming traffic.

“It is simply too serious for a suspended sentence order.”

He banned 23-year-old Dodd, of Hope Carr Road, Leigh, from driving for two years and seven months.

The defendant had pleaded guilty to driving dangerously, failing to stop after an accident and driving without insurance and in accordance with terms of his provisional driving licence.

Derek Jones, prosecuting, said that the incident happened about 4pm on Saturday April 1 this year along a country lane which has a 50mph speed limit.

The female driver had just reached a blind bend with an unbroken centre line when Dodd, who was coming in the opposite direction, overtook a car and was attempting to overtake a Kia Sportage when he struck her car a glancing blow.

Rear camera footage from the Kia was played to the court.

Mr Jones said that Ms Hughes suffered seat belt injuries to her chest and neck and bruising. Her daughter had an abrasion to her neck from her seat belt and was kept in hospital overnight.

They had both been badly affected mentally and Ms Hughes has moved her horses as she no longer wants to drive down that road and has also lost her confidence driving.

She was left out of pocket as she only had third party insurance and also had to pay £250 to get her belongings from her wrecked car. She is self-employed and lost a month’s income.

Her daughter is now a very nervous passenger and cannot go past the crash scene, said Mr Jones.

Ben Berkson, defending, said that Dodd had fled on foot “in a moment of madness in a blind panic when he realised what he had done. He cannot watch the footage such is his shame.”

He has committed 17 previous offences but this was his first for dangerous driving. He suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome after he and a friend were stabbed, he said.

Mr Berkson said Dodd had had a difficult childhood and has lost contact with almost all his immediate family. He is due to become a father for the first time in February and is looking forward to that.