Posted: 3:41 PM, July 1, 2022
Updated: 17:11, July 1, 2022
A driver has run over and killed a 96-year-old bystander in a road crash in Great Yarmouth.
Michael Irons was trying to ram his car into another vehicle when he hit Ivy Warnes, who was crossing the road.
He appeared at Norwich Crown Court on Friday, where he was jailed for ten-and-a-half years for manslaughter.
The earl heard how Irons, 26, was driving at 55mph on Alexandra Road, which has a 30mph limit, near the junction with Crown Road, when he hit the victim as her daughter helped her cross the road.
Michael Irons has been jailed after admitting manslaughter following a fatal crash in Great Yarmouth – Picture: Archant
Mark Brown, prosecuting, said the daughter, who became aware of the approaching car, tried to get out of the way, but it hit Ms Warnes when she was two-thirds of the way down the road.
At the time, Irons was attempting to deliberately crash into another car that had been involved in a traffic accident with the passengers only moments earlier.
The row began when Irons, who was driving a VW Golf with his partner and child on board, drove through a small gap to overtake the Audi, going up a kerb in the process.
This led to an argument between him and a couple in the Audi.
Irons, who was later found to be over the drink-drive limit, reversed into another vehicle and drove off, deliberately scraping the Golf into the side of the parked Audi.
He then dropped off his passengers and drove on the one-way system back to Crown Road, where he deliberately drove into the parked Audi, hitting Mrs Warnes and then the Audi.
Mr Brown said Irons then got out of his car and drove past the victim lying in the road before trying to flee the scene.
He was held by members of the public while staff from a nearby doctor’s surgery came to help Mrs Warnes before paramedics arrived.
Mr Brown said she was in “excruciating pain” and was taken to hospital where it was decided her legs would need to be amputated below the knees.
But it was thought she would not survive such an operation and she died in hospital the next day after being taken off life support.
Irons, formerly of Lilac Close, Bradwell, but of no fixed address, appeared in court on Friday (July 1) to be sentenced after admitting manslaughter over the incident, which happened at around 3.45pm on March 8 this year.
He also admitted causing damage to property, being reckless as to whether life was endangered and driving a motor vehicle while above the prescribed alcohol limit.
A statement from the victim’s daughter Jill Warnes, who came from Portugal where she lives to see her mother, said she and her brother had “the most wonderful mum and dad”.
After their father’s death 12 years ago, her mother “missed” her husband every day but loved her home.
They hoped that when the time came, she would go home peacefully in her favorite armchair in front of the TV.
But instead, she said, her mother suffered “the worst thing you can imagine” and what had started as a “beautiful day” turned into “the worst day of our lives”.
She said she and her brother were “heartbroken” and had lost a “wonderful mother”, adding that “there will never be a day I don’t live this nightmare – it’s a life sentence”.
Judge Alice Robinson handed Irons, who appeared to smile in the dock as he was jailed, an extended sentence of 10-and-a-half years in custody and four years on licence.
Judge Alice Robinson – Credit: Provided by Courts and Tribunals
She said Irons had “used his car as a weapon” after making a deliberate decision to ram his car into the Audi and “that’s how you literally mowed down Ivy Warnes”.
Will Carter, mitigating, said that after the crash Irons did not realize at that stage, possibly because he was drunk, that he had hit the pedestrian, who was very seriously injured.
He said Irons “will have to live with the fact that even though he didn’t go out with the intent to take a life that day, he did take a life and he’s going to have to live with that for the rest of his life.”
Irons was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.
Speaking after the case, DI Dave McCormack said: “Iron’s actions that day left a family without a much-loved mother and grandmother and our thoughts remain with them.”
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