Jail for the stoned driver who killed at 70mph

A stoned driver who mowed down and killed a Cambridge University graduate while speeding at 70mph has been jailed for nearly four years.

Malachi Wheatle, 25, smashed into Kevin Chang as he ran across the Kennington Park Road in the early hours of 7 April last year.

He was captured on CCTV cameras doing more than double the 30mph limit moments before hitting the 24-year-old.

Prosecutor Benjamin Temple told the Old Bailey the driver of an oncoming night bus ‘saw Kevin Chang travel high into the air seemingly to the same height as the double-decker’.

The court heard passengers onboard gasped at the impact, with one describing the ‘inhuman’ nature of his landing on the road.

Mr Chang was left crumpled in a pool of blood having suffered a ‘severe un-survivable head injury’ along with serious fractures to his back, ribs and left leg.

He was pronounced dead at the scene despite the arrival of the emergency services who gave him a blood transfusion and performed open heart surgery where he fell.

Wheatle stopped a short distance up the road from the collision site and approached the stricken engineering graduate and social activist’s body, calling out for help.

The court heard he initially lied to officers that he was doing ‘no more than 30mph’ and passed a voluntary breathalyser.

He was arrested at the scene after a saliva test came back positive for cannabis.

‘Just as the speed was more than double, the drug use was more than double the limit,’ Mr Temple said.

Wheatle admitted causing death by careless driving at an earlier hearing and was today (fri) jailed for three years and eight months.

Judge Paul Dodgson told him: ‘You were driving your car at speeds in excess of 70mph in a 30mph zone.

‘Even if you had been perfectly clear-minded that would have been a very careless thing to have done.

‘However, you were not clear-minded because you had that night consumed cannabis.

‘At some point Kevin Chang decided to cross the road. It is fair to say that you did your best to avoid him, but because of the speed you were travelling at you hit him.

‘The expert evidence makes clear that if you had been travelling at or near the speed limit that would not have happened.

‘The consequences for both of you are life-changing.’

The prosecutor earlier explained: ‘This case concerns two young men born 48 hours apart.

‘In April of last year Mr Wheatle was living at an address in Kennington very close to the ultimate position of the fatal collision.

‘On Saturday 7 April 2018, it was about 4.30am when the fatal collision occurred.

‘The defendant, Mr Wheatle was driving an Audi motor vehicle, a Q3 sports utility vehicle, and Mr Chan was a pedestrian crossing Kennington Park Road on foot.’

He continued: ‘In the process of crossing the road Mr Chan was struck by the motor vehicle driven by the defendant.

‘Mr Chan received injuries which proved fatal at the scene and Mr Wheatle stopped his vehicle just beyond the collision location near a bus stop and he remained at the scene until the arrival of the emergency services.’

Officers were able to determine Wheatle’s speed by trawling through footage from three separate CCTV systems along the road.

An expert later concluded he had been driving at between 64mph and 77mph in the lead-up to the collision, averaging 70mph.

Mr Temple told the court that an expert concluded the crash never would have occurred had Wheatle been abiding by the speed limit.

Similarly, he would not have collided with Mr Chang had he not swerved the Audi.

He added: ‘The consumption of illegal drugs by the defendant may have caused false confidence, reduced co-ordination and slowed reactions, effecting his perception of speed, distance and risk and reducing his overall driving ability, according to the officer.’

A statement released by Churchill College Cambridge after Mr Chang’s death said: ‘Kevin was a lively, funny and loyal character who made many close friends.

‘Those who taught and guided him were struck by his interest and in particular his politeness and kindliness as a student.’

Mr Chang, an active member of the Labour Party and pro-Corbyn campaign group Momentum, graduated from Cambridge with a Masters in engineering in 2016.

His sister, Amber, read a moving statement from the witness box describing the ‘unfathomable’ impact of receiving the call to hear her ‘loving, intelligent and honest’ brother had been killed weeks before the final exams of her own degree course.

The court heard Wheatle had ‘turned his life around’ after racking up convictions as a teenager for various drug offences as well as possessing a knife.

Wheatle, of Fairford House, Kennington Lane, south London, admitted causing Mr Chang’s death by careless driving at an earlier hearing and was jailed for three years and eight months.

He was also banned from driving for two-and-a-half months, extended by one year and 10 months so as to take effect when he is released half-way through his sentence.

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