Teenager paralysed after driver ignored warnings

A TEENAGE boy once described as a “fitness fanatic” has been left unable to walk after his friend crashed the car they were travelling in.

- PHILIP DEWEY

The driver ignored several requests to slow down from his passengers, with his teenage victim at one point shouting: “We're going to crash”.

Kane Yates, 21, was driving at speed in a red Ford Fiesta in Bridgend in the early hours of August 7, 2022, when the vehicle was involved in a collision and ended up on its roof.

His passengers, Jay Doyley and Owain Bowser, pleaded with the driver to slow down, but he ignored their requests.

A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard the defendant did not have a licence at the time of the collision, and was yet to pass his driving test.

During the journey between Pencoed and Wick Road, Yates’ passengers commented on his driving, but he refused to slow down. Prior to the collision, he almost hit another vehicle at a roundabout and there was a “near-miss” with a pedestrian.

The vehicle travelled at speed on rural roads in Wick and was swerving, but when told by his passengers to drive properly, he replied: “Nah, I’m all right”.