BMW driver 'lucky to be alive' after crash - but investigation found he had been drinking, and was speeding without a seat belt on
Police say the fact that the driver of this car survived this crash is “nothing short of a miracle”.
But the driver only had himself to blame as he had been drinking, was speeding and was not wearing a seat belt when his BMW hit another car head-on.
The driver's own injuries included a fractured jaw, fractured sternum, collapsed lung, dislocated hip, fractured tibia, and a displaced femoral artery — and he needed urgent care at a major trauma centre.
What’s worse is that oncoming car, a Toyota, saw all its three occupants - a mum and two children - seriously injured. The two children suffered serious injuries, including a fractured pelvis that required hospital treatment. The driver sustained a fractured sternum.
BMW driver Christopher Burden, pleaded guilty to three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was sentenced in February this year at Salisbury Crown Court to two years in prison. He will be banned from driving for two years once released from custody.
Forensic vehicle examiner PC Phil Hackford of the Forensic Collision Investigation Unit said: “He lost control on a corner having attempted an overtake on another car and ended up hitting the oncoming vehicle head on. This individual is very lucky. From my investigation in this vehicle I found that the driver wasn’t wearing a seat belt.”
PC Hackford also said that the speedometer had frozen on what was likely the speed on impact - 79mph. He added: “His survival was quite a miracle.”
The crash happened on November 17,2023 on the A30 at Donhead St Mary, Wiltshire. During Burden’s court case it was reported that just 10 minutes before the BMW collision, 46-year-old Burden crashed his motorcycle into a parked car near his former address in Shaftesbury, Dorset.
He was helped by bystanders - who thought he was drunk - but he went home and drove off in his BMW. By the time police were called by worried onlookers he had already crashed.
The mum, who was driving the Toyota said her daughter, 10 at the time, suffered psychological trauma and nightmares after the incident.