Backseat passenger pulled handbrake without warning while friend drove | UK News

A backseat passenger couldn’t offer a reason why he pulled a car’s handbrake at 60mph – causing it to crash into an oncoming vehicle.

Jack Sharpe’s ‘inexplicable stupidity’ that day left two people seriously hurt and third also injured.

The 28-year-old, a member of the armed forces, has offered no reason as to why he decided to pull the handbrake and, according to police, has shown no remorse.

He was jailed for 23 months at Portsmouth Crown Court on January 12.

Sharpe was in a silver Vauxhall on the A259 nearChichester in West Sussex on November 25, 2022, when he pulled the handbreak without the driver noticing.

This caused the driver – who was within the speed limit – to lose control of the car, which swerved into the opposite lane and collided head-on with another a silver Hyundai.

The elderly front seat passenger of the Hyundai was left with life-threatening injures, while the driver, also elderly, suffered less serious injuries.

The front seat passenger of the Vauxhall, a male colleague of Sharpe, suffered serious and potentially life changing injuries.

Speaking after the case, investigating officer PC Tom Van Der Wee of the Sussex Roads Policing Unit, said: ‘Sharpe caused a devastating collision as a result of his inexplicable stupidity.

‘He has shown no remorse or concern for those injured – a completely innocent elderly couple travelling in one vehicle and his two colleagues travelling in the vehicle he was in – one of which has had his career in the armed forces severely impacted due to the injury sustained.

‘This case demonstrates our determination to get justice for the victims in this difficult case.’

Sharpe, of Otway Road, Chichester, admitted two counts of causing grievous bodily harm, two counts of causing criminal damage to a motor vehicle, and one count of common assault.

Meanwhile, a firefighter recalled how he attended a head-on collision only to discover on arrival his 21-year-old daughter was in one of the cars and had been killed in the crash.

Adrian Smith recognised a tattoo on Ella’s leg as she was pulled from the car.

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