A young driver who was given a car as an 18th birthday present has been given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to causing the death of her childhood friend by careless driving. Tayla King was “clowning around” at the wheel before she crashed, killing Chantelle Thomas, 18. Chantelle had ambitions to be a primary school teacher, the court was told, but she suffered multiple injuries and died at the scene in Godre’r Graig, Swansea in January 2022.
Swansea Crown Court heard King had been driving at speeds of up to 90mph. Her Citroen C1 careered down an embankment and hit a tree 33 days after she passed her test. King, now aged 20, escaped from the car and flagged down a passing motorist, a British Transport Police officer who was driving home at the end of his shift. The court heard she told the officer: “I’ve crashed and I think I’ve killed my friend. I was speeding and clowning around… going too fast and showing off.”
John Allchurch, representing King, said she and Chantelle had been best friends since the age of 11. He described King as “a young, inexperienced driver, driving at speeds she should not have been driving at.” She wrote a letter to the court saying she was aware of the pain and suffering she had caused Chantelle’s family through her “catastrophic mistake”. She also said she wished she could swap places with her friend, and said she would have to live with the guilt of what happened for the rest of her life.
Judge Huw Rees said every human life was precious but a young life was an “incalculable blessing” to their parents. He said it was appropriate to suspend King’s sentence because of a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and strong personal mitigation. She was sentenced to 14 months detention in a young offenders’ institution, suspended for 12 months. King was also banned from driving for two years and ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work. Denise, Chantelle’s mum, said she struggled every time she walked by her daughter’s bedroom. “Every time I enter my living room I recall the police officer who broke the news of her daughter’s death which happened in the early hours after a night out,” she said
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