Drug-driver fled as best friend was dying in car wreckage

A DRUG-DRIVER crashed at high speed then ran off as his best friend’s life slipped away in the car wreckage.

- CONOR GOGARTY

Newport Crown Court heard “cowardly” Joshua Pearce had been caught drug-driving just 16 days before he got behind the wheel while under the influence of cannabis on April 23, 2023.

Following a tyre blowout in Cwmbran, the 29-year-old lost control of his Volkswagen Passat, which careered into a set of railings on Cocker Avenue.

The only passenger, 26-year-old Samuel Bevan, was fatally injured.

Pearce described Mr Bevan as his best friend and had made him godfather to one of his children.

But Judge Eugene Egan said: “While your friend lay in the car, heavily injured and in desperate need of your help, his life ebbing away second by second, in that moment you abandoned him and scuttled off into the night, making good your escape.

“That was a cowardly and dishonourable thing to do to your friend.”

Prosecutor Ieuan Bennett said tests showed Pearce was at more than double the cannabis limit for driving when he crashed in the residential area.

Collision investigators found it was not possible to know the exact speed he had been driving at but that it was clearly well above the 30mph limit.

Mr Bennett added the speed of the vehicle could have caused the tyre blowout. He played footage to the court showing the car appearing to move at high speed shortly before the crash.

“After the impact at 10.50pm, a number of neighbours were alerted,” he went on.

“One of them, a Mr Purcell, ventured into the street and saw the silver Passat in a badly damaged condition.