Pregnant Woman Injured After Driver Gambling On Phone Causes Crash

• Driver gambling on phone crashes into stopped family SUV
• Pregnant passenger suffers fractured pelvis, emergency premature birth
• Man sentenced to 28 months, banned from driving

A British man who crashed into a family car while his eyes were glued to a gambling app on his cell phone has been sentenced to 28 months in prison.

The collision left a pregnant woman with a fractured pelvis and forced doctors to deliver her baby prematurely, police said.

On April 6 last year, Jack Bentley, 30, slammed his vehicle into the back of a stationary Nissan X-Trail, failing to notice it had stopped in traffic, according to police.

Phone data later showed he had been accessing online gambling sites while at the wheel during his 120-mile drive from Blackpool to Derby.

The impact forced the Nissan into another vehicle and left multiple people injured. The driver suffered whiplash, two children were hurt, and the family’s dog was so badly injured it required emergency surgery.

Emergency Caesarean

Doctors carried out an emergency caesarean section on the pregnant woman, and the baby was admitted to intensive care. The newborn’s lungs later collapsed, requiring urgent treatment during the first weeks of life.

In a victim impact statement released by police, the mother described the trauma of being separated from her partner in the immediate aftermath of the birth and watching medical staff rush to treat her child when complications arose.

No mother or father should have to go through this … I was having to visit my baby on a hospital bed to watch her in her incubator,” she wrote.

“I remember being there watching when all the nurses and doctors rushed around because her lung had collapsed, and I had to lie there, scared for her. Hours later, the other lung also collapsed. She wasn’t strong enough for the world yet.”

‘Emotional Trauma’

Bentley admitted two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. In addition to his prison sentence, he was banned from driving for three years and two months.

PC Richard Morris, who led the investigation, said the collision had been entirely avoidable and warned of the risks posed by drivers using mobile phones. He said the case demonstrated how a lapse in attention could alter lives in seconds.

“From watching the dashcam footage, it was clear that had he been paying attention he would have seen the queue of traffic in front of him and been able to stop in time,” Morriss said.

“I know that the physical, mental and emotional trauma from this incident continues to impact on this family, who were simply going about their day when this wholly avoidable collision occurred,” he added.