Moment Tesla driver on cannabis ploughs into back of new mum’s car | UK News

This is the heart-stopping moment a speeding Tesla driver high on cannabis crashed into a car with a family of five inside on a busy motorway.

Josselin Herjean, 51, ploughed his £50,000 car into the back of a white BMW carrying Kirsty Skinner, who had just given birth, three of her children and her partner.

Dashcam footage shows Herjean, a Stock Exchange IT manager, swerving at high speed from the middle lane into the outside lane before hitting the rear of the BMW.

The BMW is pushed into the concrete central reservation, forced into the air, before carrying on along the carriageway, out of control and in a cloud of smoke.

Incredibly no one was hurt in the smash and the couple’s newborn baby was still at hospital.

But the family said in an impact statement they were left ‘traumatised’.

Southampton Crown Court heard that Ms Skinner had had a C-section and when they were hit she clutched her stomach and screamed ‘my babies’.

Eleanor Randall, a nurse who witnessed the crash told the court Herjean had shown ‘no compassion’ towards the family and when she went to check on him, he was ‘throwing clothes’ out of his vehicle.

The court heard that Herjean was in the midst of a psychotic episode due to the stress of working in a ‘high pressure’ environment.

At a hearing where the clip was shown, a judge said it was a ‘minor miracle’ that no one got injured in the collision.

The crash happened in October last year, as Herjean and the family – which included children aged five, three and one – were driving along the M17 in Southampton, Hants.

Prosecuting, Adrian Fleming told the court: ‘[Ms Randall] saw a red coloured Tesla overtake a vehicle at a very high speed – she estimated over 100 miles per hour.’

According to Ms Randall, the BMW, ‘doing about 70 miles per hour’ began to engage in a ‘perfectly normal overtaking manoeuvre’ towards the fourth lane of the motorway’.

Mr Fleming continued: ‘What happened next was that the Tesla, still going at a grossly excessive speed, pulled out without warning, and erratically, into lane four.’

It then hit the BMW in the rear.

‘The car jolted forward then it hit the central reservation and the back of the car jolted up into the air.’

Ms Randall said that when she told Herjean he had been doing ‘over 100 miles her hour’ – ‘he just shrugged’.

He did not go over to check on the family, the court heard.

In a victim impact statement read to court, Ms Skinner’s partner, Jamie Swinfield said his newborn daughter ‘could easily have been orphaned’ and the impact of the crash felt like he had been ‘sucker punched in the head’.

He added: ‘This incident has traumatised me and my family. I felt like I had nearly lost my family. I look at my three kids when putting them to bed and get upset.’

Police tested Herjean at the scene and the results were negative to alcohol but positive to cannabis.

At the police station he failed to give a sample of blood.

Herjean, of Hamble, Hants, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and failing to provide a specimen for analysis

He was sentenced to a 16 weeks in prison, suspended for one year, and disqualified from driving for 18 months.

He was also ordered to carry out 130 hours of unpaid work, carry out 15 days of rehabilitation activity requirements, and pay £425 in court costs.

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