Driver ploughed car into barn

THREE OF HIS FRIENDS SERIOUSLY HURT - BUT HE RAN OFF

- By ESTHER HALLIGAN [e-mail] @TeessideLive

A SPEEDING driver with five passengers in his car lost control on a bend and ploughed into a barn.

Three of Dylan Crocker's friends were seriously injured in the crash, which happened shortly after midnight on Sunday, April 21, last year in Wolviston Village.

The six friends had been drinking at The King’s Arms in Billingham before leaving the pub in the blue Ford Fiesta Zetec.

One passenger got into the boot. None of the passengers were wearing seatbelts. Mobile phone footage shows the pals - who were all in their teens or early 20s - laughing and in high spirits in the car, seconds before Crocker lost control on a sharp right hand bend.

He was found to have been driving between 39mph and 64mph on Coal Lane in the seconds before the crash. He was doing 39mph in the 30 zone on impact with the barn wall.

On Friday, Teesside Crown Court heard how the “cowardly” driver ran off, as his passengers were heard moaning in pain, and people nearby ran out to help. After a conversation with “an intoxicated man” who arrived in a taxi and was heard telling Crocker to leave before the police arrived, he fled.

The court watched police body cam footage showing villagers telling police that Crocker “was hiding behind the bushes.”