One mother in England was woken by sounds of a car crash and rushed outside to find her teenage daughter lying lifeless after a new driver who was “showing off” lost control of his ride.
Bethany Fisher of Northumberland was out with friends celebrating her 19th birthday on the night she was killed by Jordan O’Donnell, 20, who was giving her a ride home, the Daily Mail reports.
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O’Donnell had passed his driver’s test a few weeks earlier and offered to give Fisher and her friend Meg McBurnie a ride in his Ford Mondeo. He began driving recklessly through residential areas of town, reaching speeds of 60 mph, and the girls told him to stop while sitting in the back seat.
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“Meg McBurnie said it was ‘completely reckless,’ the car was jerking from left to right and he was very fast and she even hit her head,” a case prosecutor claimed during O’Donnell’s trial. “She said ‘I was telling him to stop it and Beth told him to slow down.’ “
Despite their pleas, the continued speeding through a bend when he lost control of the car and smashed into parked cars, a fence and a wall.
Fisher’s mother, Isabel Easson, heard the crash and went outside to offer help after the accident, but when she got closer, she came up on her daughter lying dead and McBurnie screaming on the ground next to her.
McBurnie walked away from the accident with five fractures to her pelvis and she still needs the use of a wheelchair and crutches. She is expected to suffer back pain for the rest of her life.
With friends he had known for four years lying on the ground, O’Donnell fled the tragic scene for his home and “calmly” called police, lying that his car had been stolen and asking for help. He later admitted to driving dangerously, which caused Fisher’s death and was arrested.
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When he was in custody and was told Bethany had died, O’Donnell allegedly replied, “You’re joking, aren’t you?”
O’Donnell has been charged with causing death and serious injury by reckless driving, driving while uninsured, failing to stop after an accident and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He has been sentenced to six years in jail and will be banned from driving for four years following his release.
“No sentence I’m permitted in law to pass could ever begin to ease the pain they will always suffer as a result of your actions,” the judge presiding over O’Donnell’s case told him. “You will forever have to live with the knowledge that as a result of your dangerous driving that night, you killed Bethany Fisher.”
Photo credit: Facebook / Beth Fisher
