New driver, 19, walks free from court as she is cleared of killing three friends in crash

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New driver, 19, walks free from court as she is cleared of killing three friends in crash

Kasey Boulton (pictured), 19, had five passengers in her Vauxhall Astra – including one in the rear footwell – when she collided with a tree

A teenage driver walked free from court yesterday after she was cleared of killing three of her friends in a crash.

Apprentice hairdresser Kasey Boulton, 19, had five passengers in her Vauxhall Astra – including one in the rear footwell – when she collided with a tree.

Miss Boulton, who had passed her test just a month before on her fourth attempt, told police she was driving between 50 and 55mph on the 60mph limit road but could not recall the immediate moments before the crash.

‘I just remember the feeling of the car being at the wrong angle,’ she said. ‘I screamed.’

Ricky Sharp, 17, who was sitting in the rear footwell, and Joby John Scrimshaw, 14, died at the scene on March 25 last year, while Aiden Sawyer, 17, died two days later in hospital.

Miss Boulton and the other two passengers were seriously injured.

Miss Boulton told police she knew it was wrong to have more than four passengers in the car but said she did not want to leave Ricky behind.

She admitted she was a fairly inexperienced driver, but she told officers she had taken lots of lessons and drove her car ‘most days’.

Tests for alcohol and drugs were negative.

PC Mark Brown told the court he believed the overloading was a ‘critical factor’ and was likely to have caused an imbalance in the car’s handling and stability.

Ian Way, prosecuting, said: ‘She took the conscious decision to drive an overloaded car in which one of her passengers could not be afforded the use of a seatbelt.’

But Michael Cranmer Brown, defending, said there could be other possible scenarios to explain why Miss Boulton may have ‘over-compensated’ and her car swerved off the road in Welton, near Lincoln. One of the car’s brake pads was also found to have seized.

The teenager, from Welton, was acquitted at Lincoln Crown Court of three counts of causing death by dangerous driving. 

Source: Daily Mail

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