A cleaner trying to ‘make a good impression’ on her first day at work crashed her car after drinking two cans of Stella, and then slapped the doctor trying to help.
Jane Evans, 36, drove her car off the road in the crash last year, seriously injuring her colleague who was a passenger in her car at the time.
The mum-of-two was allegedly driving at 80mph in a 30mph zone in the moments leading up to the crash, Cardiff Crown Court heard on Thursday (June 20), but ignored pleas from her colleague to slow down.
Evans lost control of her black Mini Cooper while driving workmates Jessica Mullins and Nicole Kemp to Gabalfa in Cardiff, after they’d finished a job on November 30 last year.
Her two work colleagues told the court Evans appeared to have no concern for other road users, WalesOnline reports, with both women screaming at her to slow down but to no avail.
After telling them to ‘shut up’, the mum-of-two ultimately lost control of her car, which rotated two to three times before hitting a fence and tree.
The crash left Ms Mullins with two broken bones in her neck and a cut to her head which required approximately 40 stitches.
Evans’ sentencing hearing heard how the 36-year-old had recently been employed by Caerphilly-based GR Cleaning Services, and was told to take her two colleagues to a job that day.
After the crash, which an eyewitness said resulted in the car spinning 360 degrees before flying into the air, emergency services were called to the scene.
A GP who was volunteering with an emergency response charity, Dr Monsell, attempted to treat Evans at the scene and asked to examine her neck. However, prosecutor Jason Howells said the woman immediately began swearing and said: ‘I’m not having a f*cking collar’.
Evans then pushed him, which caused the doctor to grab hold of her wrist, after which she slapped him in the face and said: ‘Who the f*ck are you holding with your left hand? F*ck off’.
Evans’ defence barrister, David Pinnell, said his client just wanted to ‘make a good impression’ on the first day of her job, but took to drinking because of her low self-esteem.
He said:
It was totally out of character and that can be the only explanation for the way she drunk, drove, and behaved in that way.
In a victim personal statement, Ms Mullins said she was no longer able to work as a result of her injuries and was petrified to get into a car. Ms Kemp suffered fractured ribs and bruising to her body as a result of the crash.
Judge Nicola Jones described the incident as a ‘very serious offence’. Evans was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was banned from driving for two years and nine months.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).